Urban sketching workshops are group travels focused in sketching. It’s a way to receive lessosn on urban sketching while you know the place with a group of sketchers.
What is urban sketching?
But first, let’s take a look on what is urban sketching.
1.- Urban sketching is a way of doing quick drawings on place. You draw what you see and reflect it on your sketchbook.
2.- these sketches are made live. The idea is to catch the moment.
3.- It’s essentially to capture how you see the world around you.
4.- Sharing your experiences with others is an important part of it.
How it works
- You can sketch wherever you are: a square, a park, a cafeteria, a shopping mall…
- You can use any kind of media, but pen, ink and watercolors are the most popular.
- The goal is to finish the drawing in one session.
Community
Urban sketching has become a global movement with a supportive community of artists who share their work and learn from each other.
History
The term «urban sketching» appeared in 2007 when Seattle-based journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario started a Flickr group for artists doing thw same as he did, sketching at the streets. Nowadays Urban sketchers (USk) is a worldwide nonprofit organization.
Who are these urban sketching workshops made for?
Urban sketching workshops that I do are made for ALL LEVELS.
For absolute beginners
If you like art, drawing, coluring. And do some humble sketches at home. But never dared to go out and sketch on the street. In these wee-long courses you can learn how to start from the basics: measures, perspective, roughs, basic watercolor…
For experienced artists
If you already have some experience in drawing, even sketching at home. You can learn new tricks and technics. See the teacher working live. Observe his way to do it. Get out of your comfort zone… and have some fun with a group of sketchers while travelling around!!
Where can I find urban sketching workshops?
You can find a great variety of urban sketching workshops at my website.
At the top LEFT side you will find a button to choose your language so you can read these pages in any language.
Here you will find all the workshops I plan for this year, 2025. And even one for 2026, Egypt in January.
So what’s the next step?
Once you have decided which workshop is right for you, you can write me an email to joaquingonzalezdorao@gmail.com
I will inform you about all the details of the trip.
What’s included in the urban sketching workshops
It depends on the workshop. Sometimes all is included (except the plane). Sometimes the price includes the workshop classes (8 hours per day usually), but you pay yourself the hotels, meals, transport…
All my Morocco workshops are ALL INCLUDED.
In the rest, the price is for the classes. I organice the activities, the daytrips, the accomodation, even the meals every day. But I don’t include it all in the final price. This way you can choose the hotel that you consider best for your budget. You can decide to eat just a salad. Or not to have dinner one day because you are full.
I book hotel place for everyone. But each one pays his part during the trip. Same with the meals. This way the trip is much CHEAPER than most workshop agencies.
What in NOT included
So, as I said, in most of the trips you have to do yourself:
- – Travel insuance (if needed)
- – Visa for certain countries
- – Plane to destination and back
For the rest of the schedule I organize and everyone pays its part. Like a bunch of friends travelling together!
Start by watching some FREE videos about urban sketching workshops
If you want to start learning something before you go on the urban sketching workshop, you can take a look at one of my 200 videos in Youtube. Here you have practical step by step video on topics as:
Here goes a sample: