I was sitting in front of the swimming pool of our B&B in Italy and looking around me trying to find something to draw. I love to make sketches on vacation. They remind me of the warmth and a relaxing mood of summer vacation. 

"Should I draw this turquoise house by the pool?" I thought. "I don't know, isn't it boring? Turquoise house, turquoise pool, and almost turquoise sky"... "Maybe a bit. But let's try to make it impressive by adding some orange here and there and some textures with colored pencils". 

 

No sooner said than done. And I loved it! 

 

I posted it on Instagram, and a few of my students asked me to make a class of it. Then, of course, I needed to think of what I wanted to teach exactly in this class, except drawing a house, some trees, and a pool, but that wasn't a problem. There are so many things to learn with urban sketching. And of the most important, I think, is how to make your sketch look impressive so that your friends, family, or followers on Instagram look at it and say, "Wow! This is so cool!"

In this class, I demonstrate my favorite urban sketching technique for impressive and expressive sketches. I love to use contrasting gouache and colored pencils colors in my sketches to make them bright and vivid! 

I will start by taking you through the tools and materials I'm going to use and my suggestions for you. Then, we will make a thumbnail, do some color mixing, put a color palette together, and play a bit with gouache and colored pencils. And finally, we will create a finished artwork - beautiful and impressive - a Turquoise House by the Pool. I will take you through the step-by-step process of making a loose and lively drawing and give you many tips and tricks. By the end of this class, you will have more knowledge and confidence in creating an impressive gouache and colored pencils sketch.

 

See you in this class! And please, don't forget to leave a review if you followed this class and share it on Instagram (tag me @juliahenze). I'll be happy to share your artwork in my stories!