Valletta, Malta

You might be a complete beginner who has never held a fineliner. Great! That’s exactly where most people start with Ian, and it’s a perfect starting point because you’ve got no bad habits to unlearn – and a week of personal guidance ahead of you.

You might be someone who’s taken Ian’s online courses and now wants to step up a level and experience what it’s like to learn directly from him, in person, in a city that practically begs to be drawn.

Or you might be someone who came on a previous retreat and already knows what impact this week has. (Some of our guests are on their fifth!)

What you don’t need to be is “talented.” You don’t need to be experienced. You don’t need to have it all figured out before you arrive.

You just need to want to spend a week doing something entirely for yourself, surrounded by people who understand exactly why that matters.

Every day follows a rhythm that our past retreat guests describe as “intense but never overwhelming.”

After a good breakfast, mornings start with Ian demonstrating at the day’s location – breaking down what looks impossibly complex into the logical steps that have made him one of the most respected urban sketching teachers in the world. 

Then you sketch. Ian moves between the group, working with each person individually. This is the part you simply cannot get from a screen. The moment where he stands at your shoulder and says, “See that roofline? Forget the windows. Just catch the angle” – and suddenly something clicks.

Afternoons are typically spent back at the private studio adding later steps, refining your work, and making new breakthroughs. 

Throughout the week you’ll be supported by the Urban Sketch team. Rebecca, Kayla, Neil & Annette are there for one reason: to make sure you don’t have to think about anything except your sketching. Logistics, questions, supplies, dinner recommendations – it’s all handled. One past guest described it as being like “travelling with Mum and Dad again, only more fun.”

Valletta is Europe’s smallest capital city – and one of its most visually intense. A fortified peninsula built by the Knights of St John in the 1500s, where every street runs in a straight line to the sea.

It’s a city that was designed to impress, and it still does – Baroque facades, honey-coloured limestone, ornate wooden balconies, and the Mediterranean visible at the end of almost every sightline.

In a single day, you could sketch:

• The Grand Harbour – one of the most dramatic natural harbours in the world, with the Three Cities rising from the water on the opposite shore.
• St John’s Co-Cathedral – plain limestone outside, extraordinary Baroque detail inside.
• Republic Street – the main artery of the city, perfect perspective lines disappearing downhill toward the sea.
• The narrow side streets – where morning shadows cut hard lines across limestone and the balconies overhead frame the sky
• Upper Barrakka Gardens – the terrace with the view that makes people stop talking
• The waterfront at Vittoriosa – fishing boats, fortifications, and a skyline you won’t forget.

Everything is walkable. The entire city is less than a kilometre long. You’re never more than a few minutes from the next sketch.

And in November, you get the best of it – golden light, warm enough to sketch outdoors all day, and none of the summer crowds.

Valletta is the kind of city where the subject finds you. You just have to look up.

No – and that’s deliberate. Part of what makes Ian exceptional is his ability to read the conditions on the day and put the group in the right place at the right time.

If the light is better on the harbour in the morning, that’s where you go. If a street is too crowded to set up, he knows three alternatives within a five-minute walk.

If the weather changes, he adapts – a covered courtyard or the studio instead of an exposed terrace. If the group needs a simpler subject after a tough day, he adjusts.

This isn’t a fixed tour itinerary – it’s a week of teaching by someone who’s sketched in more cities than most people will visit in a lifetime.

What’s guaranteed is that every location will be chosen for a reason, you’ll be challenged, and your skills will be visibly better by Friday than they were on Monday.

If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to contact our support team on [email protected].

A real human will get back to you within 24 hours.