Review: Sketching the City in Pen, Ink & Watercolor (Craftsy course)

Sketching the City in Pen, Ink & Watercolor another wonderful watercolour sketching video course on Craftsy by Shari Blaukopf. This is her second course and her first course was on sketching landscapes.

This new course from Shari is just as insightful as the first one.


I had the opportunity to meet Shari during the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Singapore in July 2015 and this course is quite similar to the one she was teaching during the symposium. Her class was packed. And now with this course, you can learn from her in the comfort of your own home. It's well worth the money.

The whole course runs for 172 minutes and is split into 7 lessons, namely:

  1. Thumbnails & Composition - 19 min
  2. Drawing Facades - 28 min
  3. Urban Texture - 29 min
  4. Doors & Windows - 23 min
  5. Details That Give Cities Life - 25 min
  6. Light & Shadow - 22 min
  7. Panoramic Cityscapes - 26 min


The course starts off with her talking about thumbnails and composition. It's about how she thinks when it comes to choosing a scene to sketch. Like what makes a good composition and why some composition don't work. It's about experimentation and you'll see that with the quick thumbnail, you can try different compositions quickly without wasting effort and paint.


The next few lessons talks about specific elements of the cityscape, such as drawing facades, textures, doors, windows, light and shadow and picking out details that give cities life. She has lots of tips regarding each element and shows those exact techniques in practice.


The last lesson with a demonstration on sketching a panoramic cityscape builds on all the techniques that were taught.


Shari is an excellent teacher. Her instructions are clear and concise. I really enjoyed going through her course and also seeing her artworks. She's very generous in sharing her techniques in this course and also on her blog.

I really highly recommend this course to all sketchers, and you must also check out her first course on landscape sketching.

Enroll in her course or check out more reviews on Craftsy. The course was launched on 7 December 2015 and at the time of this review, it already has more than 500 students. Wow!

Check out other video courses from Craftsy that I've featured at https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/craftsy

Disclosure: This course was provided to me by Craftsy for review purposes. You can support Parka Blogs by using the affiliate links as I get a little commission from each sale. :-)

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