What makes urban sketching different from drawing in the studio? According to artist Tony Underhill, it’s the combination of direct observation, quick decision-making and the freedom to interpret rather than replicate. In this interview, Tony explains how he approaches sketching on location, the materials he carries, and the techniques that help him capture atmosphere, movement and a stronger sense of place.

What is urban sketching? 

For readers who may be new to the idea, how would you define urban sketching and what first attracted you to it as an artist? 

To borrow and paraphrase from the Urban Sketchers website urban sketching is drawing on location (i.e. not from photos, memory or imagination), indoors or out, capturing what you see from direct observation, using any kind of media in your own individual style, and sharing the end results.  

The sketching itself can be done either as part of a ‘meet-up’ event organised by an affiliated Urban Sketching ‘chapter’ (of which there are over 500 in cities and towns spread across more than 70 countries worldwide, including about 30 in the UK) or as a solo activity.  

Perhaps the main thing that differentiates ‘urban sketching’ from the sketching artists have always done is ‘sharing the end results’, either with selected groups or the whole worldwide Urban Sketchers community via digital technology and social media, usually Facebook or Instagram.  So someone in Singapore or Stockholm might be looking at your sketches of the Lake District or your local coffee shop at the same time as you’re looking at other sketchers’ posts from San Francisco, Seoul or Sydney!

Lake District Cottage

Lake District Cottage ink sketch, 5.5x8.5in (14x22cm)

Urban sketching is often described as ‘drawing the world around you’. What first attracted you to it as an artist and what do you feel makes sketching on location different from working in the studio from photographs? 

What a good question because it’s the difference between the two that first attracted me.  So many things can change quickly on location, be it outdoors or inside; not least the weather or people suddenly moving, arriving or leaving.  And that, together with there always being something else just around the corner to sketch next, means urban sketching lends itself to travelling light and capturing the moment quickly and intuitively.  Which unless you’re disciplined enough to set yourself a strict time limit and stick to it, is very different to working indoors from photos where it’s all too easy to fall prey to the temptation to have all the art materials you own close to hand, to overanalyse and overwork everything, and to try and replicate the photo exactly as is rather than interpret or create.  So for someone like me with a low boredom threshold but who welcomes the challenges that come with working quickly on location, and particularly outdoors, urban sketching is perfect. 

How to start urban sketching: Advice for beginners

What are the key skills involved in successful urban sketching, and what should beginners focus on first?

Others might disagree, but I think the most important attribute is the ability to enjoy the moment and the process rather than making the end result the be all and end all.  So I strongly recommend beginners to focus on enjoyment first and foremost and to accept that technical improvement, if that’s what they aspire to, will come, but over time rather than overnight.

Pfeiffer Building, Cambridge

Pfeiffer Building, Cambridge, ink and watercolour, 12x9in (30x23cm) 

Your sketches capture atmosphere and movement so effectively. How do you decide what details to include and what to leave out when working quickly on location? 

Thank you; that’s lovely to hear.  For me, even for a quick on location urban sketch, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’.  So, rather than diving straight in with a pencil or pen, I start by looking at what’s in front of me and asking myself what most attracts me to it and which aspects best capture that.  Next I look for anything that actively detracts from the scene or which I could leave out and still capture the ‘feel’ I’m after.  Then I look a third time for anything I might be able to alter, exaggerate, move or ‘borrow’ from nearby to reinforce the story.  That might sound like a lot of thinking but it only takes a minute or two; and far better to do it at the outset than regret it later.  And more often than not, as with this quick ten minute holiday sketch of a cottage in the Lake District, it’s those changes that help capture the sense of place far better than if I’d simply set out to replicate the scene exactly ‘as is’.  

Building confidence: Tips for sketching in public spaces

Many artists feel nervous about sketching in public spaces. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to build confidence drawing outdoors?

You’d be surprised how few people interrupt you if they see you’re busy sketching: and when it does happen it’s normally because they’re genuinely interested in what you’re doing and to say they wish they were brave and talented enough to do the same.  Being nervous the first few times is understandable though; so why not take a friend to sit with you while you sketch, or even better to sketch as well.  And if you have to go on your own, choose a quiet location, sit out of the way with your back to a wall or similar, wear a hat or cap to shield your eyes from passers-by, and use some earphones to make it look as if you’re listening to music whether you are or not. 

Urban environments are constantly changing - people moving, traffic, shifting light and weather. How do these challenges influence the way you sketch and observe a scene? 

Each to their own, but I avoid over-busy, traffic-heavy locations in favour of somewhere a little quieter just around the corner.  Then I’ll go through my usual ‘what to include, leave out or add’ decision-making process and sometimes I’ll ‘reimagine’ where the sun’s coming from if it helps to create a shadow pattern that better showcases the whole composition or a particular building.  And if I feel the sketch needs it, I’ll include selected people when they’re there or as and when the next ones arrive.  Purist ‘exactly as is’ urban sketchers might not use so much ‘artistic licence’ but it’s my sketch and if it helps capture the sense of place, why not? 

Even the best-laid plans don’t always work out though. Like the time I made a 70 mile round trip to Cambridge to sketch the Pfeiffer Building at Newnham College, only to find the view blocked by a sea of transit vans and builder’s skips. But as a battle-hardened urban sketcher I found the best position I could and set to work pencilling in the parts I could see. Then I made my way down the street and through the vans to observe and quickly add the hidden parts before reverting to my original safe position to develop the linework in pen and add the watercolour washes. So where there’s a will there’s usually a way!

Essential urban sketching materials 

What materials and tools do you typically carry when urban sketching, and why do they suit the fast, spontaneous nature of the practice?

The on location aspect of urban sketching usually involves some form of transport or walking, so most sketchers prefer to travel light with some carrying as little as just a pen or a pencil and a pocket-sized sketchbook.  I’ll do the same on some occasions, but here’s what I take with me to draw and paint in my usual line and wash style, all of which fits easily into an over-the-shoulder messenger bag and can be set up and ready to go in a minute or two:-

• 9x12” (23x30cm) wirebound, hardback sketchbook with 270gsm mixed media paper
• Mechanical pencil with 0.9mm HB leads and a cheap plastic eraser
• Three fineliner pens with black waterproof ink (0.3mm, 0.5mm and ‘brush tip’)
• White gel pen or acrylic marker (for adding any finishing touch highlights)
• 5.25x2.5in (13x6cm) plastic palette with nine half-pan watercolours: namely a warm and cool blue, red and yellow; sap green (as a ready-made base green); quinacridone burnt orange (as an earth and mixing colour); and buff titanium (as a base colour for concrete, stone and beaches etc.)
• Three watercolour travel brushes: a No.6 for just about everything; a 3/8in (10mm) flat for anything that needs it; and a No. 4 round for the odd detail here and there
• Lightweight 0.2 litre screw-lid plastic food container as a waterpot

Beyond improving drawing skills, what do you think urban sketching teaches artists about observation, storytelling, and connecting with a place?
Ask someone to draw a house and you’ll likely get a square with a roof on, a door, a few windows and a chimney.  But sit them in front of an actual house and they’ll look to see if it’s wider than it is tall, if the door’s in the middle or to one side, and how many windows it has etc. 

The storytelling aspect is slightly more personal I think, in that one sketcher might prefer to tell the story of the house right down to drawing every single brick; whereas another might prefer to work quicker , just suggesting an odd brick or two here and there and leaving the viewer’s eye to fill in the rest.  Neither approach is right or wrong and both are telling the story in their own individual style.

And if you add locations and dates to your sketches as most urban sketchers do, your sketchbooks soon become a unique and personal record of where you’ve been, what you’ve seen and when you were there.  And because you’ve taken time to observe and draw rather than simply pressing a camera or smartphone button and quickly moving on, your connection with the place is far stronger.  

It’s eight years since I sketched in Soller in Majorca, but when I look at my sketch again now I can still remember sitting there in the sunshine on a lovely summer’s day, birds tweeting in the background along with the sound of the nearby stream, the occasional passer-by nodding hello, and the friendly streetside café we had lunch at soon after.