I paint two urban sketches in water media, capturing the effect of bright light and hazy atmosphere. The plein-air techniques that I demonstrate use watercolor, gouache, and pastel over a casein underpainting to achieve the feeling of a bright sky. Also I answer a few of your questions and discuss whether it ‘breaks the rules’ to combine gouache, watercolor and other mixed media, and how to use photography for inspiration for urban sketching.

Want to make your urban sketches more accurate? James Gurney shares a few tips for plein-air painting as he renders an upstate New York streetscape in gouache. During the preliminary pencil drawing stage he establishes a unit of measurement and uses it to place other elements. By spending time on the center of interest and building outward, he gets an “anchor of reality” as he explores other parts of the scene.