How Ian Found 5 Different Workshops Within 30 Seconds’ Walk
- Blog
- May 2, 2026
- 22 mins
When Ian Fennelly arrived in Riomaggiore to film the Sketch Italy course, he had a problem that would seem like a luxury to most people.
Riomaggiore is one of the five iconic villages of the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. The buildings are stacked on cliffs in every colour from terracotta to cream. The harbour is full of fishing boats and noise. The backstreets are narrow and chaotic and beautiful. And from the hill above the town, the whole thing cascades down to the Mediterranean like, in Ian’s own words, “an Amazon warehouse of houses.”
The problem was not finding something to sketch. The problem was that everything looked worth sketching – and everything also looked, at first glance, completely overwhelming.
Ian needed five workshops that would each teach something different. Five subjects with different compositional challenges, different colour palettes, and different relationships between the sketcher and the scene. He found all five within 30 seconds’ walk of each other.
Here is how he did it, and what it teaches about the skill of scene selection – the one skill most sketching courses never talk about.
Workshop 1: The Quayside Sweep
The first workshop sits down at the quayside, looking across to a cluster of buildings rising above the harbour. It is a scene full of strong diagonals. The rock formation sweeps up on one side. The buildings are piled above it. The Mediterranean sits below.
Ian chose this scene because of the tension between the natural rock and the man-made structures. The perspective is extreme – buildings at multiple angles, some facing you, some turning away. For most sketchers, this would be the kind of view you photograph and never attempt.
That is precisely why Ian starts here. The complexity justifies the method. When the subject is this demanding, you are grateful for the scaffolding – every stage split in two, a pre-sketch to map the composition before committing to the main paper.
The palette is Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna and Green Gold. Three colours. One complementary pair producing the warm greys of the stonework. And a third colour to bring out the greens of the water and the shutters.
Workshop 2: The Harbour
Walk a few steps along the waterfront and the view changes entirely. The second workshop looks up the waterway into the heart of the harbour. Architecture frames the composition on both sides. There is a focal point pulling you into the scene.
The teaching focus shifts to framing with architecture – using the buildings on either side to create a natural composition, rather than fighting against a wide-open scene. This is a different skill from Workshop 1. The subject is narrower, more contained, and the challenge is about what you include and what you leave at the edges.
A different three-colour palette. A different complementary pair. A different mood. Same method.
Workshop 3: The Slipway with Boats
Another few steps and the scene shifts again. The slipway is a working harbour scene – boats pulled up out of the water, kayak racks, ropes and equipment. This is the workshop with the most mid-ground complexity. Things overlap. Things compete for attention.
This is where Ian’s teaching about tonal value rather than local colour (what he calls matching how light or dark something is, rather than its specific hue) really comes alive. The fishing boats have bright colours – blues, reds, whites. But Ian does not chase those colours. He matches the tonal values and lets his limited palette do the rest.
"It's not the actual colour," he says during this workshop. "It's the value of it that really, really matters."
This is also where Ian demonstrates mixing colour on the page rather than on the palette – laying down one colour wet and dropping in its complementary while the first wash is still damp. The result is a kind of variety and energy that no pre-mixed colour can produce.
Workshop 4: The Intimate Back Alley
This is the one that surprises everyone.
Walk through the harbour area, past the tourists heading for the famous views, and you find yourself in a narrow back alley. Crumbling plaster. Plant pots crowding every step. Washing lines strung between buildings that almost touch.
Ian describes it as “shabby chic.” He says: “It’s not a big ticket item. It’s the sort of subject that perhaps you wouldn’t be inclined to draw.”
And then he draws it, and it becomes the piece that most people remember from the entire course.
This is the workshop that teaches something most sketching courses never address: you do not need a spectacular subject to make a beautiful sketch. You need to know how to look. Ian talks about forced seeing – “if you stop and you look and you force yourself to see what’s going on, you see so much more.” The observation itself reveals the subject.
The colour palette here uses Cerulean Blue, Indian Yellow and Winsor Violet – a combination that brings out the warmth of the stone and the surprising colour in the shadows of a narrow alley.
Workshop 4 teaches you that the scene you dismiss in five seconds might be the most rewarding thing you sketch all year.
Workshop 5: The Panorama
Walk up the hill above the village and the whole of Riomaggiore opens up below you. Buildings cascading down to the sea. It is the postcard view, and it is also one of the most intimidating things you could possibly try to sketch.
Ian’s approach here is different from the other workshops. He talks about “trying to create an impression of what this place is like in terms of all the buildings lying on top of each other, and not getting too worried about proportion and getting everything totally accurate, but it’s just really kind of a feel for the place.”
This is where the frame-first composition technique becomes essential. Instead of starting with one building in the centre and working outward (which, with a panorama, guarantees you will run out of page), Ian defines the edges of the composition first. “Thinking of the edges first and then working within that space, you’re less likely to make your picture too big.”
The palette shifts again. The teaching shifts again. But the method – the scaffolding, the two-part stages, the pre-sketch, the limited palette – holds steady.
What This Teaches About Scene Selection
The five workshops sit within 30 seconds’ walk of each other. Same village. Same light. Same time of day. And yet each one looks and feels completely different, each one teaches something distinct, and each one requires a different compositional response.
Ian did not travel far to find variety. He looked carefully. He walked slowly. He noticed what most people walk past.
There is a moment in one of the bonus films where Ian physically walks along a street, passes a scene that looks promising, and then keeps going. He finds a better version of the same view 40 metres further on – different angle, different framing, different story. “We’ve only moved up about 40 meters,” he says, “but suddenly that elevation is much more prominent.”
Scene selection is not about finding the most beautiful view. It is about understanding what makes a scene work as a sketch – the compositional structure, the relationship between foreground and background, the story the scene tells. Ian makes these decisions visible. He shows you what he is looking for, what he rejects, and why.
The lesson from Riomaggiore is simple. You do not need to travel to Italy to find five different subjects. You need to learn how to look at the place you are already standing.
And once you see the way Ian sees, every corner becomes a potential workshop.
Ready to learn more?
How Ian Found 5 Different Workshops Within 30 Seconds’ Walk
About the Artist
Ian Fennelly focuses on capturing urban spaces and environments by drawing the places where people have been without actually including them.
His process involves layering watercolors, brush pens, and liners to build depth, texture, and detail, allowing them to fully immerse in the scene while adapting to changes in their surroundings.
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