Create a Visual Narrative: An Urban Sketching Spotlight

Liz Steel, "The Servant’s Quarters Tearoom, Morpeth, Australia," ink, watercolor and colored pencil, A4 portrait Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

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By Liz Steel

Urban sketching enables me to create a visual narrative of my life inside my sketchbook whether I’m at home or traveling. When I’m on a trip, it’s my main priority, and I sketch from dawn to dusk. In everyday life, however, it’s harder to find the time. I’ve had to incorporate sketching into my daily routines and try to sneak in a sketch at any opportunity. In the evenings I add text and design elements to my pages to complete the story of my day.

Urban Sketching for Beginners - Liz Steel, "Balmain House and Map, Sydney, Australia," ink and watercolor, 8 x 10-inch Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook — Liz Steel, “Balmain House and Map, Sydney, Australia,” ink and watercolor, 8 x 10-inch Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook

I’ll sketch anything, anywhere, anytime, but locally my favorite spot to sketch is Lane Cove National Park, which has over 30 picnic areas surrounded by beautiful Australian trees. It’s a calm place to sketch, and the forest is constantly changing throughout the seasons. But I also love sketching busy cities, complex buildings (the more complicated, the better), and tearooms. I don’t mind sketching the same scenes over and over again. The goal is just to get out urban sketching whenever I can without worrying about the results.

I do most of my work in ink and wash, but lately I’ve been doing more mixed media, adding colored pencils or markers to my sketches. I like mixing up the order — painting before drawing or putting colored pencils under watercolor in order to create interesting textures and lively color. I particularly like using tools that create expressive marks, so my favorites are a dagger brush and a fountain pen with a fude nib.

The artist’s urban sketching kit — The artist’s sketching kit

I try to record something from every outing (even if it’s just a simple line drawing of the view when I park my car), so I carry my tools and sketchbook with me everywhere I go. But I also plan dedicated outings where I might sketch for a few hours or the whole day. In either case, I use the same tools.

Urban sketching - Liz Steel, "Art Gallery, Café and Succulents, Sydney, Australia," 2021, ink and watercolor, 8 x 10-inch Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook — Liz Steel, “Art Gallery, Café and Succulents, Sydney, Australia,” 2021, ink and watercolor, 8 x 10-inch Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook

Working on site, I have lots of different strategies for capturing the subject quickly, but the main one is to start with my focus (the thing that interests me most in the scene) and work outwards, allowing the scene to evolve as I work. This often involves starting with the shadow shapes, which works well for dealing with changing light. If the view gets blocked, I’m not afraid to abandon the sketch and leave it incomplete, as this tells a great story of what happened.

Urban Sketcher Liz Steel — Liz Steel, sketching in Veneto, Italy

Connect with the artist: www.lizsteel.com

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Blog post prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today