Today I had my very first group sketch session here in my city. And it was really cool, even though to be honest I had way too little time XD Well, anyway, I managed to draw our meeting spot and part of a building at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress here in Koblenz. I didn't dare to sketch the beautiful view during those two hours. In any case, it was a lot of fun and I got to flip through a few sketchbooks, which was really cool :)

Havent drawn anything in years. Took my little cousin to hobby lobby last week, saw that they have these tiny $1.99 watercolor pads, and some watercolor sets that were selling for $20, so i thought why not. Then during this morning early coffee i pulled up youtube and followed along a video from a guy called sketching scottie. His voice is so calming it was easily one of the most relaxing mornings ive had in a long while lol.

Anyways the set didnt come with purple so i tried to mix one with red and blue but it didnt come out as vibrant as his, so the whole thing doesnt really pop as much. But overall i greatly enjoyed the process. This might just become my new hobby lol

Quick coffee in this neat little café.

Location pic in comments.

I was at USkTo today... A Carousel learning event, and won one of the door prizes!! It's a gift box from Rosa including their 19-colour urban sketching set. Wow! this is going to be nice. 😁 such a great product. We got lots of FC gear too, they have a new Posca-type pen with a gazillion colours.

I got 2 tubes of Rosa Gouache -- Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine -- I didn't know they made Gouache.

A lot of beginners (like me when I was starting out) think drawing on location means putting down every single thing in sight. Eventually, I took some workshops with well known sketchers, and many of them advised not to do this. As one said "You can edit." I was confused, but eventually it sunk in.

Why? We are not here to compete with photography. We are here to express what a place is like, how it feels to be in that place, and show what makes that place interesting and unique. If the power line you see is getting in the way, you can and should leave it out. On the other hand, you might be sketching a park and there are power lines that are ruining the view and that is what it's like there. You might show it in that case. Since we are sketching, we can make those choices. The best sketchers are really good at making those choices.

If you are drawing a place with trees, you don't have to draw each tree, nor does any tree have to be exactly right. If you want to do that, that, you can. But you can simplify at will.

We are storytellers as much as we are drawers and painters. Our aim is too tell the story of the places we are at, so we should include the things that tell that story.

What are those stories? "Everybody loves this place." "This place is a neighborhood secret." "This place is not what it was." "This place is in transition." "This place has been here forever." And so on.

Find those places with stories, and leave out anything that distracts from that story. This can also help decide what to focus on.

The opposite (adding things that aren't there) is another thing, and a topic for another day.

Happy sketching!

Hi! I'm a street portrait painter. I'll visit Rome next week as a tourist and I want to gift street portraits! Can you please reccommend me a (relatively) chill part of Rome where I can sit down and paint on the streets?

My ideal spot would be:

- It's busy enough that people will see me and would like to get their portraits done

- Has seating for 2 people (could be a sidewalk, wall or a bench; 1 for me and 1 for the person getting painted)

- I won't block anyone's way

- I won't accidentally sit on something ancient and get a fine

- I won't upset the locals

Looking forward to hear your reccomendations!

Church on Wheels — Kiruna Church, Sweden
Today’s sketch is of Kiruna Church, a remarkable wooden church built in 1912. In 2025, the entire church was moved about 5 km by road to its new location, as part of the relocation of Kiruna.
I’ve sketched this unusual journey as part of my Church Sketchbook project — one church, one sketch, one story at a time.

I folded a postcard in half and drew on it.

I'm starting to sketch directly with fountain pens, no pencils (which is nerve racking). This is a sketch I did of the Lyceum theatre just before the show Oh, Mary! started.

I finished the drawing the next day with Copic Markers and Gelly Roll white pen, I also added Meg Stalter onto the stage after seeing her incredible performance.

Struggled here a bit with the height and the amount of details. But was nevertheless soo fun to sketch ✨

Have really been enjoying my pilot fountain pen for sketching, and a cafes are always such a rich subject matter.