Learn to sketch character, not perfection
What do giraffes, elephants and vultures have to do with urban sketching? Turns out everything.
Not anatomy.
Not realism.
Not perfect outlines.
Instead, it’s about learning to see weight, movement, mood, and story, and how to translate those qualities into confident, meaningful marks on the page.
This course grew from a simple idea. A set of safari photographs taken in Kenya. When these images were shared with Ian, what stood out was not the subject, but the behaviour. The pauses. The patterns. The quiet confidence or restless energy in each animal.
Those moments became lessons.
This is not a wildlife art course
You do not need to know anything about animals.
You do not need to draw fur, feathers, or faces accurately.
You do not need to work fast or draw from life.
This Sketch Safari Course is about learning how to make better sketching decisions, using animals as forgiving, expressive subjects.
Many students are surprised to discover that sketching animals improves their urban sketching. Buildings feel easier. People feel less intimidating. Marks feel more intentional.
Why?
Because animals remove the pressure to be perfect.
What you will learn
Across the course, you will learn how to:
- Start with big shapes instead of chasing perfection
- Use tone and hatching to suggest weight and form
- Create depth and grounding without adding detail everywhere
- Let pattern guide the eye through a sketch
- Decide what to leave out, and when to stop
These are core urban sketching skills. They just happen to be taught through elephants, vultures, zebras, giraffes, lions, and baboons.
Each lesson focuses on one image and one main idea, so you are never overloaded or rushed.
The animals and what they teach
Lesson 1: Elephant
Before your sketchbook fills with texture and detail, Ian teaches you to slow down – and see like a true artist.
This lesson teaches you how to capture the quiet power of the elephant by focusing on shape, proportion, and presence. You’ll discover how to create a sense of weight and calm, even with the softest marks.
Instead of rushing into the details, you’ll practice patience – placing every line with purpose, every shadow with restraint. The landscape becomes part of the story, revealing not just the animal’s size, but its place in the world.
By the end, you won’t just have drawn an elephant. You’ll have learned how to anchor your subject, compose it with confidence, and the tricks for letting form speak for itself.
Lesson 2: Vulture
This lesson is about control – not overworking, but observing.
The vulture teaches you to create presence with precision: soft shadows, muted tones, and contrast placed with care.
You’ll learn how to suggest form without outlining every feather – using negative space to shape the body, and saving your boldest lines for the claws and key edges.
The result is stillness, strength, and volume without noise.
It’s a powerful shift: knowing what to leave out – and trusting that one shadow, placed with intention, can speak for an entire wing.
By the end of this lesson, you’ll come away with the confidence to let your work breathe, and the eye to know when less is more.
Lesson 3: Zebra
In this lesson Ian shows you what it means to commit – to move with purpose, and let your lines carry life.
You’ll sketch the zebra not through stiff outlines, but with bold, continuous strokes that follow the curves of the body. As your pen moves, the animal takes shape – full of rhythm, movement, and confidence.
Using brush pens and fineliners, you’ll layer tone quickly and confidently. The background stays soft and spacious, creating depth without distraction – and showing you that sometimes the space you leave blank speaks just as loudly as the lines you draw.
By the end, you’ll stop second-guessing. You’ll start trusting your eye – and yourself.
Lesson 4: Giraffe
This lesson is about learning to respond – not repeat.
Rather than repeating shapes mechanically, Ian shows you how to build the giraffe’s pattern slowly, letting each shape follow the form beneath it.
Some edges stay soft, others are defined – just enough to guide the eye without overpowering the sketch.
Grasses are added throughout, helping to place her in the landscape and create soft, natural layers of depth. It’s not about treating every part equally – it’s about knowing where to lead the viewer, and when to hold back.
By the end, you’ll understand how to create depth, variation, and flow – and how to let your subject emerge, one thoughtful mark at a time.
Lesson 5: Lioness
In this lesson, Ian teaches softness, stillness, and precision.
You’ll use structured hatching to shape form gently – letting each mark follow the natural planes of the body. Every stroke matters. Nothing is rushed. The focus is on tone, not to fill space, but to suggest weight, posture, and peace.
Foreground grasses are placed sparingly to frame the lioness and hold her in the scene. And as for her face – it’s built with restraint. Just a few careful marks around the eyes and mouth are enough to carry the calm.
By the end, you’ll understand how to shape emotion through tone – and how to create stillness with absolute control.
Lesson 6: Baboon
This lesson is about letting go – of smoothness, tidiness, and perfection.
You’ll use short, varied strokes to build texture and rhythm in the baboon’s fur, embracing energy over polish. Every mark carries intention. Tone is used with control – to shape the form, not flatten it.
The tree isn’t just a backdrop – its twisting branches and scattered leaves help frame the moment and add depth to the scene. As you sketch, let the lines move. Let them shift and change. Don’t aim for perfect – aim for alive.
By the end, you’ll have more than a textured drawing.
You’ll have a sketch that moves, breathes, and refuses to sit still.
Together, they show you how character comes from decisions, not detail.
But That's Not All...
Bonus #1: Quick Sketching Workshops
Ian wanted to help you build even more confidence drawing animals so he’s created a special Bonus Bundle of extra workshops just for Sketch Safari.
These aren’t just extra videos – they’re creative challenges to help you loosen up and see animals in new ways. You’ll explore a techniques of quick sketching to build the bones of a subject keeping things bold and simple, and a continuous line drawing that captures the movement and character of your creature without ever lifting your pen.
FREE WORKSHOP 1: Gazelle
Working quickly in pencil, you will focus on capturing elegant shape, negative space, and light layered tone, learning when to stop before a sketch becomes overworked and loses its energy.
FREE WORKSHOP 2: Warthog
Starting with bold brush pen shapes and layered tone, you will then use hatching and directional line work to suggest hair, movement, and personality, learning how different materials work together to bring a sketch to life.
FREE WORKSHOP 3: Flamingo
Working in a strict five minute continuous line, you will learn how pressure, line weight, and restraint can suggest weight, reflection, and elegance, trusting your hand and eye without going back or correcting.
This Bonus Training Bundle is FREE (Worth ) when you sign up to Sketch Safari Today
Bonus #2: Behind the Sketchbook
As an additional bonus, Ian takes you behind the scenes of Sketch Safari and into the decisions that shaped the course.
You will watch Ian review his finished safari sketches alongside early pre sketches that were changed, abandoned, or never taught, explaining why some ideas worked and others did not. It is a rare chance to see how confident sketchers think, edit, and move on without overworking.
You will also join Ian and Rebecca in relaxed, candid conversations about their shared safari experience, the moments behind the photographs, and how those real encounters influenced the way each animal was sketched.
This is not another lesson. It is insight.
Insight into judgement, confidence, and the creative choices that turn marks into meaning.
This exclusive bonus footage is included free when you join Sketch Safari, and brings the entire course together in a way no single tutorial ever could.
Add PLUS to your account when you purchase this course to unlock 5 extra portraits!
Proof Ian's Teaching Works
Over 50,000 people have taken Ian's courses, with hundreds of 5-star reviews posted to trusted sites like Trustpilot:
Why This Course Matters for You
If you loved the Zoo Course, you’re going to feel right at home on the Sketch Safari.
In fact, the Zoo Course has become our most popular ‘transferable skills’ course because it’s all about learning to see quickly and sketch confidently, without all the pressure that sometimes creeps in when drawing buildings. Animals don’t sit still (and they certainly don’t care if you get their proportions slightly wrong), which means you can stop overthinking and just respond to what you see in the moment.
It’s fun, it’s fast, and it frees you up to make bolder decisions.
Start Today
INSTANT LIFETIME ACCESSOnly:
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The Complete Sketch Safari Course (6 Online Workshops)
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BONUS 1: 3 Workshop Training Bundle ( Value)
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BONUS 2: Private Sketchbook Tour ( Value)
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BONUS 3: Free Access to our Urban Sketchers Feedback Gallery ( Value)
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24/7 Lifetime Access (it never expires)
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30-Day Money Back Guarantee
Frequently Asked Questions
The Urban Zoo Course is focused on sketching animals quickly often using a single material which then builds up into adding paint. Each subject is treated as a standalone figure, helping you loosen up, work boldly, and capture character without getting caught up in detail.
Sketch Safari is broader and more reflective. It shows you Ian Fennelly’s full “Layers of Looking” urban sketching methodology, applied to animals within the African landscape. Instead of concentrating on one material or one fast approach, you explore how shape, tone, line, pattern, restraint, and composition work together to tell a story.
In Sketch Safari, the animal is not isolated from its surroundings. It is grounded in place, atmosphere, and context, in the same way Ian approaches buildings and streets in his urban work.
Many students enjoy the Zoo Course as a confidence building, energetic introduction to animal sketching, then find Sketch Safari deepens their understanding of how and why they make each mark, bringing more intention into all of their sketching, not just animals.