about this course

One of the nicest ways to relax on holiday is with your ink and watercolour, and your sketchbook.

In this course we will learn how to capture some common themes you're likely to find on your summer holiday.

1. Exotic foliage
2. Meals al fresco...and the odd cocktail
3. Turquoise water and bobbing boats
4. Beach sketching

Each week Róisín will share techniques to make these topics easier. 

Cacti and other succulents are beautiful - and the good news is they're very easy, so we'll start with that.

Next will come food: nothing like sitting around after lunch with the sun streaming through glassware, or a quick sketch of a fresh, crunchy salad.

Then onto something a lttle more challenging: turquoise water and reflections thrown by bobbing boats.

Finally, for the lazy afternoons on the beach, we will discuss ways to capture the near-life-drawing class that is a beach full of sunbathers.

My aim is for you to be able to capture your memories in your tiny sketchbook, where they will bring your happy memories back to life in the instant you open the pages.

In this four-week course you will learn:

• how to use your kit to get the most out of it

• how to become confident drawing in public

• how to work with colour so it never clashes

• how to create a pleasing and realistic composition for the time available

• how to use watercolour for a rich and vibrant result

• how to make a confident ink line, and to not fear mistakes

• the fundamentals of drawing and painting

Students will be encouraged to continue their sketching habit between classes, but that is optional. Issues arising from these mid-week sessions will be addressed. In class, students will draw a combination of real still life compositions and Róisín's work, and in this way practical hurdles will be addressed as they arise. The emphasis is on technique, and gaining confidence through improved competence. 

By the end of the course the aim is for the student to be able to sketch in public, alone or in a group, armed with a plethora of tricks and techniques for speedy and beautiful results. 

Materials needed

• an A6 sketchbook of good-quality paper for use in and out of class

• a box of rich artists-quality watercolours

• a fountain pen filled with waterproof ink in a vibrant colour

• water brush or two

• 2 magnetic clips

Meet Róisín

Róisín Curé grew up in Enniskerry, near Powerscourt Waterfall. After a few years in London and Paris, she settled in Galway, where she obtained a Master's degree and raised her family in the countryside near the coast at Kilcolgan. Róisín has taught urban sketching all over Ireland and Europe and has worked for various national tourism agencies in countries across the continent, including through Spanish and French. She founded the Galway chapter of Urban Sketchers which is now a thriving group who meet to sketch every week. She is Ireland's only instructor with the global Urban Sketchers, teaching in the USk Symposia in Porto (2018) and Amsterdam (2019), and for USk Switzerland in Bern (2021). She has taught sketching in France at Clermont Dessine (2022) and in Spain for Compostela Ilustrada (2019 and 2022). She is the author of three bestselling books on urban sketching. An Urban Sketcher's Galway was published by Currach Press in 2019 (2nd edition published in 2024 by Red Stripe Press as Galway In Sketches And Stories); The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing Expressive Peoplewas published in the US by Quarto (2020) and has now been translated into Spanish; and Dublin In Sketches And Stories was published by Merrion Press in 2021, with a 2nd edition in 2024. Since 2020, Róisín has taught a worldwide community of sketchers live online, which continues as a weekly Sketch Club. She is the inventor of the SketchPocket bag for urban sketchers, the design of which she came up with in order to truly make art anywhere. It's currently in production and will be available soon. Róisín is a member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland and taught various workshops nationwide.

https://www.instagram.com/roisincure/