Different subjects. Same way of seeing
There are moments when something quietly holds your attention. A large shape moving slowly through grass. A bird perched above the noise below. An animal resting, alert without being tense. You do not need to be a wildlife artist to notice these moments. You simply register them, and something about them stays with you.
For many people, that curiosity never makes it as far as the page. Animals feel like a step too far. Not because they are impossible to draw, but because they do not exist on their own. They belong somewhere. They sit within a landscape, a rhythm, a set of relationships that feels harder to pin down than a building or a street corner.
The Sketch Safari Course was created to meet that exact point of hesitation.
It does not assume you have drawn animals before. It does not ask you to become an animal specialist. Instead, it shows how the same way of looking used in urban sketching can be applied to any subject, including animals in the wild.
This is where Sketch Safari differs, very deliberately, from the Urban Zoo Sketching Course.
Both courses work from the same foundations. Both use the same layered thinking, the same steady progression through materials, and the same emphasis on observation over decoration. But they solve different problems, and they teach different things.
Sketch Safari is not an extension of the Zoo course. It is a separate course, built around context, environment, and integration.
What the Urban Zoo course teaches
The Urban Zoo Sketching Course was about learning to sketch animals as individual subjects.
Animals were treated in much the same way buildings are treated in urban sketching. You focused on shape, proportion, texture, and character. Sometimes the sketch stayed entirely in pencil. Sometimes it moved into pen, brush pen, or watercolour. Each animal presented a different technical challenge, and the goal was to understand how to describe that animal clearly and confidently.
The background, however, was not part of the conversation.
Animals were isolated on the page so you could concentrate fully on features. Eyes, ears, horns, beaks, tails. Pattern, weight, and surface texture. This made the Zoo course an excellent place to learn how animals are constructed visually, and how different materials suit different subjects.
It was focused, contained, and deliberate.
Sketch Safari starts from a different question.
What Sketch Safari is really about
Sketch Safari asks not just what does this animal look like? but where does it belong?
In this course, animals are never separated from their surroundings. Grass, trees, ground, distance, and atmosphere are part of the structure from the very first stage. The environment is not decoration added at the end. It is built alongside the animal, layer by layer, in exactly the same way Ian approaches city scenes.
If you are familiar with his urban sketching courses, this will feel immediately recognisable.
The same thinking applies. Big shapes first. Relationships before detail. Foreground, midground, and background working together. Decisions about what to sharpen and what to soften. Restraint, balance, and control guiding every stage.
The difference is the subject, not the method.
An elephant is approached the same way a large building is. A zebra’s stripes are treated like architectural rhythm. A vulture perched above the ground is considered in terms of negative space and structure. A giraffe moving through grass is built through pattern and depth rather than surface detail.
This is why Sketch Safari works equally well for people who have never drawn animals and for those who already have.
You are not learning a new skill from scratch. You are applying a familiar way of seeing to a new subject.
Learning to sketch animals without isolating them
One of the biggest challenges people face when sketching animals is knowing where to stop. There is a temptation to describe everything. Every marking, every hair, every feather. The result is often a drawing that feels busy but somehow flat.
Sketch Safari addresses this directly.
Because the environment is always present, you are constantly making decisions about hierarchy. What matters most? What can be suggested? Where does tone do more work than line? How does the animal connect to the ground rather than floating on the page?
In the elephant workshop, for example, the focus is not on detail. It is on weight and grounding. Large, simple shapes are established first. The body is allowed to feel heavy before anything else is added. Grasses and distant trees are placed to give scale, not decoration. If the elephant feels solid and settled on the page, the sketch is working.
In the vulture workshop, the emphasis shifts to restraint. The bird is defined as much by what surrounds it as by the marks that describe it. Negative space, soft tonal shifts, and selective line do the heavy lifting. Claws and edges are sharpened. Feathers are suggested, not outlined. The stillness of the subject is reflected in the economy of marks.
These are not animal-specific tricks. They are compositional decisions, and they are exactly the same decisions made in urban sketching.
Applying the Layers of Looking to any subject
At the heart of Sketch Safari is the same layered approach used throughout Ian’s work.
Each workshop begins in pencil. This is deliberate. Animals have very specific proportions, and rushing into pen too soon removes the opportunity to properly understand shape and relationship. Pencil is used positively, not as something to erase endlessly, but as a way to refine angles, spacing, and balance.
From there, the sketch moves through pen, brush pen, colour, tone, and detail. Colour is always limited. Usually three colours, sometimes with complementary pairs mixed to create neutral tones. This keeps decisions simple and controlled, and it mirrors the way colour is handled in city scenes.
What changes from workshop to workshop is not the process, but the emphasis.
A zebra becomes a study in rhythm and space, using continuous line and tone to allow stripes to wrap around the body rather than sit flat. A giraffe becomes an exercise in pattern and depth, where markings respond to form and grasses are introduced throughout rather than added at the end. A lioness focuses on expression and controlled tone, allowing small decisions around the face to carry character.
In every case, the layers support one another. Nothing is isolated. Nothing is rushed.
How Sketch Safari differs from Urban Zoo
If you want to focus on animals as individual subjects, exploring their features, textures, and character without worrying about background or setting, the Urban Zoo course does that beautifully.
If you want to learn how to place animals within a scene, how to integrate subject and environment, and how to apply urban sketching principles to the natural world, Sketch Safari is designed for that purpose.
You do not need to take one before the other. Sketch Safari is not a progression from Zoo. It is a different way of working, built around context and composition rather than isolation.
Many people will enjoy both, because together they offer a fuller picture. But Sketch Safari stands on its own, especially for those who already enjoy city sketching and want to see how far the method can stretch.
Why context changes everything
When animals are drawn in context, something shifts.
The sketch becomes less about describing a subject and more about telling a story. Where the animal is. How it moves through space. How it relates to what surrounds it. A single shadow can explain an entire posture. A patch of grass can anchor a body more effectively than a heavy outline.
This is where restraint becomes powerful.
By choosing what to leave out, the drawing gains clarity. By allowing tone to replace line, the sketch breathes. By integrating background early, the subject no longer feels separate from the world it inhabits.
These are lessons that feed directly back into urban sketching. Many people find that after working through Sketch Safari, their city sketches become calmer, more balanced, and more confident.
Not because they learned to draw animals, but because they learned to see context more clearly.
Final thoughts
Sketch Safari is a course about observation, control, and integration. It uses animals as the subject, but the real lesson is broader than that.
It shows how Ian’s layered approach to looking works anywhere. In cities. In landscapes. With people. With animals. With anything that occupies space and has a relationship to its surroundings.
It is not an extension of the Urban Zoo course. It is not a replacement. It is a standalone course that offers a different way into the same way of seeing.
If you have never drawn animals before, it gives you a calm, structured way to begin. If you already sketch regularly, it offers a new set of problems to solve using familiar tools.
Either way, the focus remains the same. See clearly. Build slowly. Choose carefully. And let the sketch settle into place.
Ready to learn more?
If you are curious about sketching animals, or simply want to see how the same urban sketching principles can stretch into new territory, Sketch Safari offers a thoughtful place to explore. It is a standalone course built around observation, decision-making, and context, using animals as expressive, forgiving subjects. You do not need prior experience, specialist knowledge, or perfect results. Just a sketchbook, a willingness to look closely, and the time to let each sketch develop layer by layer.
