Course Details
Here’s what nobody tells you about sketching old pubs.
The front of a pub is flat. That sounds obvious – until you realise what it means for you with a pen in your hand.
Most buildings terrify beginners because you’re wrestling three dimensions onto a flat page. Vanishing points. Perspective lines. Rooftops at angles that make your head swim.
A pub facade eliminates all of that.
As Ian Fennelly puts it: “The front facade almost acts as your general structure, your blank page, and then within that page you can start populating it with loads and loads of detail.”
The timber beams, the window frames, the old doorway – they create a natural grid that holds your sketch together.
You are not fighting perspective. You are freed from it. And once you are freed from it, something remarkable happens: you stop worrying about getting it right, and you start enjoying getting it down.
That is what this course is built around. Four real British pubs. Four workshops. A framework so forgiving it works whether you have been sketching for years or have never picked up a pen.
Your Lessons
Front Elevation as Canvas
This timber-frame beauty has been standing since James I sat on the throne. Ian uses it to introduce the idea that changes everything: the front of a pub is your blank page.
In his words: “Using the framework, the front elevation, as almost like a page to write your visual story.”
He walks you through his Layers of Looking sequence – building the sketch in layers so nothing overwhelms you. Then the Distressed Window technique, where you learn to make old glass look like it’s been warping for centuries.
The building does the heavy lifting. You just learn to see it.
The Three-Reason Inclusion Test
This is the module that saves you from yourself.
Every beginner makes the same mistake: they try to draw everything. Every brick, every drainpipe, every trash can. The sketch ends up looking like an inventory, not a piece of art.
Ian’s Three-Reason Inclusion Test is a simple editing framework. Before anything goes into your sketch, it needs to earn its place. If it doesn’t pass the test, it stays out.
This single idea could save you years of overworked, cluttered sketches. It’s the difference between a police report and something you’d actually hang on your wall.
The Playground Method
This is where the course shifts gears.
The first two pubs gave you structure and editing. Now Ian lets you play. His description is perfect: “Step one and step two are almost like trying to create a playground for yourself and now I’m going to go into that playground and I’m going to play.”
And then: “So it’s been very much about observation and the eye, now it’s about the heart.”
That’s the moment. When it stops being an exercise and starts being something you actually feel. The pub isn’t a test – it’s your excuse for being creative.
Lettering, Heart, and the Final Layer
Pub signage. Hand-painted lettering. The names above the door that tell you this is a place with a story. Ian teaches you negative and positive drawing – two approaches to capturing the details that give a pub sketch its personality.
And then this: “So it’s been very much about observation and the eye, now it’s about the heart.”
The things you exaggerate are the things you love. The details you linger on are the details that matter to you. By this point, you are not copying a building. You are telling its story – and your own.
About Your Instructor
Ian has been called “the Bob Ross of urban sketching” – and the comparison fits. Calm voice. Step-by-step approach. A knack for making you believe you can actually do this.
He’s a globally recognised urban sketching artist, author of Layers of Looking, and has taught thousands of students across multiple countries. He’s led in-person retreats from Brighton to Chester, and built a body of online courses rated 4.7 out of 5 from 305 verified reviews.
His thing? He doesn’t teach you to copy. He teaches you to see – and then gives you a system to get what you see onto the page.
Easy-To-Follow Training
The Pub Tour
You know the smell. Old wood and furniture polish. The faint ghost of last night’s fire in the grate. Hops. The particular warmth of a room that has been heated by human bodies and conversation for longer than anyone can remember.
You know the sound, too – voices dropping to a murmur under low ceilings, the clink of a glass set down on a surface that has held ten thousand glasses before it.
These are the buildings you will learn to sketch. Not sterile modern boxes. The real, scarred, storied pubs that carry centuries of life in their walls. Four of them. Each one different. Each one worth remembering.
St. Patrick's Day Bonus
When you invest in this training, you’ll also get this special bonus – absolutely FREE:
Dublin Sketching Bonus Module – FREE with your course.
( Value)
Pubs in England. Pubs in Dublin. Seems fitting for St. Patrick’s Day. Order during this promotion and you’ll receive the Dublin Sketching Bonus Module – normally only available to UrbanSketch+ members. You can’t buy it separately.
Georgian doors in every colour. The cobblestones of Temple Bar worn smooth by centuries of feet. A whole city of pub facades waiting to be sketched. This unique bonus is yours free during the St. Patrick’s Day window.
Student Results
Verified Reviews
Take a look at what others have said about our urban sketching courses. All reviews have been verified by leading review sites:
Pick Up Your Pen. The Pubs Are Waiting.
Join thousands of students who started exactly where you are – curious, maybe a bit nervous, wondering if they could actually do this. They could. So can you.
Start Today
Instant Lifetime Acess-
4 complete workshops - each built around a real British pub with centuries of character
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Lifetime access - watch, pause, rewind, revisit. No deadlines. No pressure.
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30-day money-back guarantee - if it's not for you, you get your money back. Simple.
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Dublin bonus included - St. Patrick's Day exclusive, normally only in Urban Sketch Plus
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely. And you’re not alone in wondering.
Angela Pound started this course at 79 years old: “Who would have thought at the age of 79 I would learn to sketch from a great artist like Ian.”
Ken Wire put it even more plainly: “I have zero artistic talent, but Ian convinced me to try something and I was pleased with my results.”
Ian’s teaching style is calm, step-by-step, and built for people who have never sketched before. He doesn’t assume you know anything. He starts from scratch and walks with you. And the pub facades themselves are forgiving subjects – flat, framed, full of character. The building gives you the structure. You bring the pen.
Yes – and that’s the point. You get lifetime access from the moment you enrol. Watch a module on Monday morning, pick it up again on Thursday evening, revisit it six months later when the mood strikes.
There are no deadlines, no live sessions to miss, no pressure to keep up. The course moves at your speed. Pause, rewind, rewatch – as many times as you like.
Most students find the 15-30 minute lesson segments fit easily into their day.
That’s a fair question – especially if you’ve been burned before.
Debbie Dodge had exactly this experience: “I have taken several courses on line where I follow the instructor step by step. Unfortunately, by the end it seems I can only do what they tell me to do I haven’t learned anything. With Ian’s course… He shows you what he does and how he makes his decisions so you can learn… I’m just so inspired and feel I have improved 200%.”
The difference is that Ian teaches you how to think, not what to draw. His system gives you frameworks you can use on any building, anywhere – not just the one in the tutorial.
During the St. Patrick’s Day enrolment window, you receive Ian’s Dublin Sketching Bonus Module free with your purchase. This module is normally only available inside Urban Sketch Plus – Ian’s premium membership – and can’t be purchased separately.
It covers sketching Dublin’s iconic architecture – Georgian doors, pub fronts, Temple Bar – using the same system taught in the main course. It’s a natural extension: English pubs first, then Irish ones.
You’re covered by a full 30-day money-back guarantee. Watch the workshops, try the techniques, sketch a pub. If you’re not satisfied – for any reason – you get a full refund. No awkward conversations, no hoops to jump through.
But here’s what usually happens instead: you finish that first Wheatsheaf Inn module, look at what you’ve drawn, and feel something you weren’t expecting. A quiet kind of pride. The sense that you’ve unlocked something that was always there.
That’s what 305 verified reviewers rated 4.7 out of 5. Not just a course – a spark.
