Urban Sketching:
Water & Reflections
Water turns up in nearly every scene, from a pebbly beach to a canal or a harbour. These five exercises show how to build it layer by layer, how to connect a bridge or a mooring pole to its reflection, and how to keep the marks looser and lighter as the water moves away from you.
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What’s Inside
Where the water meets the shore
We’re on the steep, stony bank of Brighton beach with the tide coming in. Shorelines meet water in lots of ways, and this one can’t be grabbed straight away.
The pebbly shoreline
A deceptively simple reference that is quite challenging. With Tombow brush pens and a range of fine liners, a thick line marks where the water meets the pebbles, with contour lines floating up from it, thinner and closer together as they rise.
Water in a scene
Two finished sketches show the shoreline in context. On the Amalfi Coast, brush pen, paint and line work sit side by side, and the contour lines follow perspective, going almost horizontal near the horizon.
Connecting reflections
In Leiden, the key idea is connection. Whatever sits above the water needs to look like it’s sitting on something.
Three ways water behaves
Three sketches, three approaches: the Charles Bridge in Prague, with horizontal hatching and the arches continuing into the water; Venice, where the water is selective because the foreground is busy; and Deal in Kent, where water is in the background.
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Questions about this bundle
What is in Urban Sketching: Water & Reflections?
5 short video exercises: Where the water meets the shore; The pebbly shoreline; Water in a scene; Connecting reflections; Three ways water behaves. It costs £8 once and you keep lifetime access.
Do I need to have done a painting workshop first?
No. A bundle is a separate, self-contained set of exercises on one skill. If you later want to see skills like this used in a whole painting, my painting workshops do exactly that.
When can I enrol?
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Can I get a refund?
Yes, within 14 days of purchase, as long as you have not gone beyond the introduction or first lesson, because by then you have received the digital content. Email mike@artyfactor.com with the bundle name and the email you enrolled with. The full wording is in the Refund and returns policy.
How long do I have access?
It is one payment of £8 and you keep lifetime access.
Where this leads
Want to see the whole picture?
This bundle covers one skill. My painting workshops show how skills like this come together in a finished painting, one stage at a time.
Explore the painting workshops