Urban sketching with Infinite Painter

Hello and welcome to this course on urban sketching with Infinite Painter app.

Class overview and what you will learn

This 88-min course will teach you the basics of sketching outdoors on location with your tablet. 

This course is actually an intermediate course that requires you to know the basics of drawing from observation, and knowledge of using Infinite Painter. It would be good if you know some perspective too. If you’re a beginner, I recommend you to at least check out my beginner course on Infinite Painter first.

In this course, you’ll learn my digital urban sketching workflow. You’ll learn to be more familiar with Infinite Painter, and learn the drawing techniques that are specific to sketching on location.

Who this course is for

This course is for those who want to explore sketching at a more intimate level because with urban sketching, it’s not just about sketching but about the experience. This course is also for people who are stuck in a rut, or have an artist block, or just want to do something different.

Why you should take this course

I started urban sketching in 2009 and I wished I could have discovered urban sketching earlier. There are many intangible benefits to urban sketching. You can build  your confidence, explore your neighbourhood and see your surroundings with “new eyes”. Sketching outdoors is also a way to improve your drawing skills quickly. 

Materials and resources

You will need the unlocked version of Infinite Painter which is a one time purchase. The tablet you use should ideally support an active stylus that has palm rejection, tilt and pressure sensitivity. 

While I recommend you sketch outdoors, you can start by practicing indoors using the reference photos I’ve provided. Once you’re more familiar with Infinite Painter and the digital sketching workflow, you can then challenge yourself by sketching outdoors.

Projects

There are three projects in this course.

The first project involves sketching some windows just to get a hang of the digital sketching workflow. 

All the reference photos provided are available for download.

The second project involves sketching a fruit stall. I will sketch on location, but you can use the reference photo provided for practice. Note that the view from the photos will not match my sketch due to camera lens distortion and slightly different viewpoint.

If this is your first time sketching outdoors, I recommend you sketch at a comfortable place such as a cafe, or at a place you're familiar with. 

For the third project, I'll show you how I sketched the street scene above. Once again, you can use the reference photos projected for practice, but I do recommend you sketch outdoors if you can.

I welcome you to email me sketches you've drawn on location, and do send a photo of the scene that you drew too so that I can have a reference to give you suggestions on areas to improve.

The lessons are as follows:

1. Intro (3 min)
2. Workspace setup (4 min)
3. Brushes to use (7 min)
4. Workflow (16 min)
5. Urban sketching tools (2 min)
6. Walking around (7 min)
7. Sketching a fruit stall (22 min)
8. Sketching at a road junction (17 min)
9. Adding shadows (10 min)
10. Video reference (18 min)
11. Goodbye