about this course

As well as being a very beautiful medium, ink & watercolour is extremely convenient. With a few special materials, brought everywhere with you in a tiny bag, the world is your easel. You enter a truly meditative and mindful space when you sketch, and you are guaranteed never again to have a boring moment. All it takes is for a subject to catch your eye: beautiful, quirky or something you want to remember, and you can trap it in your sketchbook forever. 

In this six-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

  
  

  
  

  Recommended brands and sizes 

  Sketchbooks

  A6 portrait format sketchbook: Hahnemühle 200g or 250g are the ones I recommend.

  Links to buy:

  A6 Portrait 200g watercolour book:

  https://store.evansartsupplies.ie/product/22525/Hahnemuhle-Watercolour-Book-200gsm-A6-Portrait/

  You have the option for a 100% cotton sketchbook, which I adore: I can supply these, or the A6 200g sketchbooks as above.

  Paints

  Schmincke or Roman Szmal are my favourite watercolour paint brands. Whatever brand you get, make sure it's a metal box, so it can attach to the magnetic clips you'll use to hold your sketchbook pages down. That means you can paint standing up!

  
  

  Links to buy:

  https://universalartsupplies.com/products/schmincke-horadam-aquarelle-10-half-pans-ocean-grey/nib 

  https://corkartsupplies.com/Schmincke-Horadam-Aquarell-12pk-A01678

  https://roisincure.com/product/roman-szmal-artists-watercolour-travel-set/ (n/a to the public but I can supply them to the class)

  Here are two very reasonably-priced sets, good but not artists-quality:

  https://universalartsupplies.com/products/rosa-watercolour-paint-set-12-monopigment-whole-pans/

  https://store.evansartsupplies.ie/product/28161/Rosa-12-Full-Pan-Urban-Sketching-Watercolour-Set/
  
  

  Pens

  A fude 55º fountain pen is perfect, by Jin Hao or Sailor.

  Link to buy:

  https://cultpens.com/products/sailor-fude-de-mannen-calligraphy-fountain-pen-green

  Don't forget the converter (the reservoir inside the pen) so you can add your own choice of ink:

  https://cultpens.com/products/sailor-standard-converter

  You can find other places to buy this pen too. I have a few, for different colours (I like brown, green and dark blue-grey ink). 

  Inks

  A waterproof ink is great and very convenient, but be sure to choose the right brand that won't clog your pen - see brands I recommend.

  https://cultpens.com/products/de-atramentis-document-ink (Brown is very useful)

  https://cultpens.com/products/rohrer-klingner-sketchink-50ml?variant=43185236279539 (Frieda is beautiful)
  
  

  Travel water brushes (very inexpensive)

  You can get them in most art stores but I can supply great brushes. I use the Sakura brand: many water brushes don't function very well.

  Travel brushes (expensive)

  For the best travel brushes, go to Rosemary & Co.

  Everyone loves the R13:

  https://www.rosemaryandco.com/pocket-sable-blend-designer-pointed

  Magnetic clips

  I can supply these, or search for "magnetic fridge clips" online. 

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/