Resources
Each module lists its own resources. This page collects the ones that run through the whole course.
Free, public-domain texts
- John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing (1857) A drawing course written as letters to someone learning alone. Many of this course’s exercises come from it.
- Harold Speed, The Practice and Science of Drawing (1913) Strong on line versus mass, and on visual memory.
- Project Gutenberg’s drawing shelf Includes Walter Crane’s Line and Form.
Free lessons
- John Muir Laws, Nature Journal Connection Forty short recorded workshops on plants, birds, animals and landscape.
- John Muir Laws, Opening the World Through Nature Journaling A free curriculum of short field activities.
- Wild Wonder, How to Teach Nature Journaling A free PDF with 31 field activities.
- Liz Steel, ArtToolKit workshop handouts Free handouts on angles, sight measuring and sketching buildings.
- Marc Taro Holmes, Tea, Milk, Honey cheat sheet The three-pass watercolour method on one page.
Books and paid courses
- Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
- Bert Dodson, Keys to Drawing
- Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw
- Marc Taro Holmes, The Urban Sketcher
- John Muir Laws, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling
- Liz Steel, SketchingNow courses Foundations, Watercolour, Buildings and Edges.
- Shari Blaukopf’s online courses Pen and ink, palettes and landscapes.
Sketching with others
- León: there is no Urban Sketchers chapter. “Dibujantes Urbanos de León” met monthly in 2015–16 but seems to have stopped. It’s worth a Facebook search before assuming so.
- Valladolid: Henar Bayón’s free “Quedadas de dibujo” with Valladolid Dibuja.
- Nearest official chapters: Asturias, Cantabria and Vigo. Use the Urban Sketchers chapter finder.
- UK: USk London’s list of UK groups, including London, Manchester, Yorkshire, Bristol, Oxford, Edinburgh and Devon.
Spanish-language courses and books are on the En español page.