Course Details
From the feathered to the furry, from the plain to the patterned, and from the massive to the minuscule, the Urban Zoo Sketching Course covers it all through 16 engaging online workshops delivered by renowned urban sketcher and teacher, Ian Fennelly.
The Urban Zoo Sketching Course will excite and inspire you. It will stretch your skills and your imagination. And it will breathe new life and expression into your art, while showing you how to develop and take your urban sketching skills beyond buildings and cityscapes!
16 Comprehensive Sketching Workshops
69 lessons and exercises make up 16 professionally filmed online workshops. Each lesson has been carefully designed to develop your sketching, painting and observational skills while building your confidence as you work through the course.
Click each of the tabs below to find out what’s included in this comprehensive course:
Pencil Sketching Workshops
In this first series of engaging workshops, Ian takes you on a creative journey, teaching you step by step how to manipulate your pencil to capture the right level of detail and express the personalities of four unique animals.
Pencil is the perfect material to use with this selection of animals because it perfectly unfolds the texture, detail and volume of their characteristics.
Starting with a beautiful Rhino, and then a large African Elephant we’ll use specific hatching techniques to emphasise the thick, grey armour of their skin, while incorporating shading to create an ideal balance of size and shape. Then, we’ll move onto the more complex features of an Ostrich and a two-humped Camel, learning how to convey the texture of fur and feathers of these unique creatures.
Your end result will be four striking pencil sketches and the skills to draw wonderful pictures, like these:
Pen & Brush Pen Workshops
In this next series of workshops we’ll work together with Ian as he shows you how to sketch a Chimpanzee, a Giraffe, a Sea Lion and a Leopard. You’ll be using pens and brush pens to really emphasise the wonderful shapes, patterns and tonal values of these beautiful creatures.
Starting with fine liners, we’ll sketch the outline before going in with brush pens. Brush pens offer a range of tone and depth which can be applied to the animal’s coat in many ways.
In these workshops, we also start to look at alternative perspectives by drawing animals at more interesting angles. You’ll learn how to infuse character, personality and drama into your sketches and how to use your pens to capture that sense of weight.
Ian will show you how to hold your pen, while roughly sketching and building up in layers to capture the 3-dimensional qualities of these animals. Perfection is not important with this process, in fact it’s the rough drafts and lines that really add character to these sketches.
Pen Then Paint Workshops
In this next inspiring workshop series, you’ll join Ian as he guides you in transforming traditional urban sketching techniques into captivating animal portraits using pen first followed by paint.
You’ll begin with pen, mapping out bold outlines and defining the strong shapes that give
each creature its presence. Next, you’ll explore how to capture their unique features and
personalities before bringing them to life with expressive brush pen colours.
Working with a simple yet powerful palette – three colours plus black, white, and grey – you’ll learn how to:
- Capture the rich, vibrant tones of the Flamingo
- Use strategic colour placement to convey the Lion’s strength
- Channel expressive hues to reflect the Orangutan’s character
- Recreate the Tiger’s iconic stripes with watercolour
With each project, you’ll discover new ways to combine structure, colour, and personality – resulting in artworks that truly roar, leap, and soar off the page. By the end, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve created.
For our final series of workshops, we flip the process; no pencil, no outline – it’s straight in with paint!
You’ll start each workshop by shaping out the animals with watercolours first to create some vibrant and dramatic washes. Then, with the guidance of Ian, you’ll layer specific detail on top of your paint with fine liner. Finally, we’ll go in with your brush pens to add volume, while capturing the 3-dimensional qualities of each animal.
Throughout these workshops, we’ll be observing and then uncovering the standout characteristics of each animal, expressing what makes them so recognisable. We’ll be using strong colours throughout to create drama while letting the colours play, and even blend together across the iconic shapes, before adding the detail with our fine liners and brush pens.
This is the most energising of the series of workshops and we’re confident that you’ll be delighted with your final results:
About Your Instructor
Ian Fennelly has built an extraordinary reputation as one of the world’s finest urban sketchers and most sought-after teachers. His distinct style of on-location art, engaging teaching methods and all-round creativity has earned him a passionate global following.
For the first time, Ian is peeling back the curtain and teaching you the methods he uses to sketch and paint majestic portrait pictures of animals.
The Zoo Sketching Course Difference
The Location
Urban Zoo Sketching Course was part-filmed in the beautiful, conservation-focused Chester Zoo (UK) and part-filmed in Ian’s private studio.
Chester Zoo is home to over 27,000 endangered and exotic animals who live in exquisite zoological gardens. This gave Ian all the subjects and inspiration he needed to teach you urban sketching as you’ve never seen it before!
Free Bonus
When you invest in this training course, you’ll also get this bonus included absolutely FREE.
Urban Sketchers Feedback Gallery
( Value)
Buy this course and you’ll also gain access to our thriving online feedback gallery.
This is a safe and private place where urban sketchers of all abilities can share their work without judgement – while getting positive, constructive feedback from supportive, like-minded sketchers who are all rooting for you!
There’s no better place to learn, overcome challenges and build your confidence and skills than the Urban Sketch Feedback Gallery.
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The Complete Urban Zoo Sketch Course (16 Online Workshops)
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BONUS: Free Access to our Urban Sketchers Feedback Gallery ( Value)
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Frequently Asked Questions
In the Urban Zoo Sketching Course, Ian begins with the basics, assuming participants have no background knowledge, skills, or experience.
Starting from a blank canvas, he starts the first workshops in pencil only and gradual adds new materials and techniques as you progress through the training.
Following Ian’s instructions and techniques, you’ll quickly notice your swift progress and impressive results. By the end of the course, you will have gained the skills and confidence to sketch any animal effectively.
Yes. This is over-the-shoulder learning with Ian Fennelly.
Ian is an experienced and engaging teacher and has broken each workshop down into easy-to-follow stages. Within each of those stages, he takes you through each step in the process while explaining everything he is doing, slowly and methodically.
You have the flexibility to slow down, pause, or speed up each tutorial to match your learning pace. Some students also prefer to watch the videos first and then watch them again and sketch along. The choice is yours!
Plus, with lifetime access, you can revisit the course as many times as you like.
The course is made up of 16 workshops, but each workshop is shorter and broken down into fewer stages than our usual urban sketching workshops.
You also benefit from lifetime access, allowing you to proceed at your own relaxed pace and on your schedule.
Yes, you’ll receive lifetime access to the course along with all accompanying downloads and resources. It never expires, allowing you to learn at your own pace, on your schedule, and any device.