A big hello from the International Urbansketchers Symposium 2025 in Poznan, Poland !
Sketching solo is fine and all, but sketching with a crew? That’s where the magic happens. Suddenly you’re not just the weirdo drawing pigeons – you’re part of a whole flock of weirdos drawing pigeons, and somehow that makes it totally acceptable.
There’s something beautiful about watching a random park bench become sketch central, with artists hunched over their pads like they’re plotting world domination. Spoiler alert: they’re just trying to figure out how to draw a decent tree.
And if you’re still in that ‘my art looks like a toddler’s fever dream’ phase (welcome to the club, we have cookies), being around other artists is weirdly therapeutic. You’ll quickly realize everyone’s secretly convinced their perspective is wonky and their proportions are having an existential crisis.
Wondering how to find your “style”, while taking workshops, online classes and going sketching outside?
I often feel frustrated while sketching outside when I feel my sketch looks like “copying reality like a camera” while I try to make somethingplayful and loose, something that feels “mine.” I felt frustrated for years, trying different workshops, masterclasses with watercolorists, and online classes.
The truth is: you already have “your style”. Your style is in your favorite colors you choose (you might want to try out the colors of the teacher, but please do change them if you don’t like them, or simply add your favorite colors in the sketch on top of them), in the lines you make, in what you choose to focus on and what you choose and like to sketch…
It slips in quietly while you’re sketching : it will come faster, the more you sketch and try things out. Sketch regularly.
Your style is in your eye, you hand, your taste of color and lines.
The best thing you can do is keep sketching, keep experimenting and playing, try copying different artists and drawing things your way, and your style will form itself with the nuggets of wisdom you get from your lessons and experiments.
Look, we all start out being good little art students, right? Copy the thing, make it look like the thing – boom, gold star! But here’s the deal: your phone already nails that game every single time.
Urban sketching? That’s where you get to be a little rebellious. Wobble that building. Make the shadows dramatic and use your favorite colors even if that means the bricks will be blue. Turn that boring streetlight into something that belongs in a Tim Burton movie.
You’re not messing up – you’re finally letting your pen have some personality!
“Want to find your “style”? Try these little experiments:
Embrace your favorite happy colors. That weird splash of color? It might just steal the show.
Speed-sketch thumbnails like nobody’s watching. Scribble fast, think later. Make a thumbnail of what you want to sketch. These are just warm-ups, not museum pieces.
Go overboard with one thing. Pick your favorite detail – the window, the door, that tree… – and make it the star of the show.
Forget about being a human photocopier. What made you stop and stare in the first place? That’s your money shot right there.
In the video below I show you which tools I use!
Come and join us urbansketching !
