PYSB Sevilla 2025 – the City as Stage

3 Days URBAN Sketching Sketching workshop with Inma Serrano, Luis Ruiz and isabel Carmona

In 2025 we start our workshops in a city rich in cultural history since early times and sometimes called the pearl of Andalucia, Sevilla, with its many squares and spaces that create a rich stage for the city’s rich cultural life.

The course fee includes the morning and afternoon workshops and the team will propose additional drawing activities (totally optional) that we can enjoy together in the evening,
We will meet at La Carboneria, a great place for cultural exchanges and a place to see some flamenco in the evening too.

The course language is English but all the tutors speak Spanish.
For prices and to book you place HERE

Workshops / Talleres

In Sevilla, we will teach workshops both in the mornings and the afternoons  Participants will receive two sessions with each tutor and explore the City as Stage themes that Inma, Luis and and Isabel present below.

In the evenings we’ll suggest activities to do together (optional) to continue drawing in the evenings together. We are also aiming to organise a life drawing session one evening (tbc).

Workshop sessions / Talleres

(Inma Serrano)

Inma will lead two sessions that encompass the joy she gets from urban sketching and make her happy. She tells us that sketching in the streets is essential in her life because it allows her to zoom, in an ingenious, almost childish, way into the people and things around her.

Inma will lead two sessions on the following themes.

Inma impartirá dos sesiones basadas en los siguientes temas:

Session 1 / Sesion 1: The Script /El Guión

It all starts with a good script.
Drawing is choosing. It’s about how we want our sketches to be read.
We can explain the same place in many ways. Our drawings always end up with the
readers, who will translate the scene we show them.
All the graphic elements that we use in our composition will help us in telling the story.
In this workshop we are going to practice some ways of combining the graphic elements
when focusing on the scene to convey different ideas and sensations in our drawings.

Session 2 / Sesión 2:The Street Performance/El espectáculo callejero

Seville is life and drama. The places in this city are always full of stories and details that
challenge us and call us to draw them.
There is always something happening in the street.
Places are changing all the time due to the people who inhabit the city.
In this workshop we will focus on people and movement translating all that life of the
city to our sketchbooks. Also, we will study and sketch the special personality and the
character of the people that live here every day.

LUIS RUIZ

Luis tells us that he studied at the School of Architecture in Sevilla which pushed him to sketch on the streets and squares of the city , freeing outside that obsessive behaviour he had kept indoors at home during his childhood.

Luis’s two sessions will explore / Los talleres de Luis exploraran:

Tramas

In Spanish, the same word is used for plot and hatching. This word is trama and you know which of the two meanings apply depending on the context, whether it refers to a theater play or a drawing. 

In this workshop, we will take advantage of this happy coincidence using it in both ways: markmaking can be a powelful tool for setting a stage in front of which the city animation can develop in all its splendour. A dark spot of dense ink provides a credible background for the actors to play their role in the bright foreground. And anyone that has visited Seville knows how stark the contrast between light and shade can be!

The spotlight / El foco de Atencion

Let us admit it: Seville is an intense city. Overwhelming, even excessive, we would say: Sevillians are arguably the loudest among the already loud Spaniards. By the way, have you seen its Baroque art? Churches’ walls leave no empty space without decoration. And the colours! The bright red surfaces compete with the deep yellow details on the facades of the palaces. And so on…

Capturing all this energy on the sketchbook can be quite a challenge; perhaps a restrained use of colour could be of great help to drag the attention of the viewer to the desired spot, focusing the interest on that little story that is ―maybe― taking place in the corner of the square.

ISABEL CARMONA

Isabel enjoys painting the scenes she witnesses and playing with colour, markmaking and there is not a better place than Sevilla to capture that vibrancy on colour in paint. Enjoy exploring the city stages using watercolours by means of:

LIGHT…. / LUZ

And then there was Light!
Any scene is defined by its combination of light and shade. In this session we’ll start by using only one colour to help us define and differentiate between light or shade.

Sevilla’s light is strong and contrasted and in this session we’ll make the most of that contrast 

… COLOUR / COLOr

Colour is in the eye of the beholder. 

Learn to see colours from the premise of Light, and keep using the contrast effects we learned earlier to give a wider tonal and colour variety. We’ll search for clean mixes and confident brushtrokes, allowing colours to touch and play against each other.

LAYERS / CAPAS

While we observe and understand the scenes we witness we are always noticing layers: of meaning, defining different scenic  depths , distinct layered colours, people pass by, a strike of light/shade.

Workshop Materials/Supplies you need to bring:

  • Black line tool: Graphite Pencil (Pitt oil Base pencil Medium by Faber Castell)
  • Fountain pen filled with waterproof ink
  • Coloured Pencils (we recommended Polychromos by Faber Castell or similar) – various colours you like – don’t need to be many.
  • Watercolours – artist quality is best – White Nights (St Petersburgh), W&N, Talens etc
  • Waterbrush for water or normal brushes and water container plus water
  • Black Pentel waterbrush with pigment ink
  • White gouache tube
  • Other tools you want to test (wax crayons, gouache etc)
  • Bamboo pen
  • Travel seat/stool  – to be able to seat wherever you need to.
  • Other tools you normally use

We’ll provide you with a sketchbook but if you want to bring anything else do bring that along (200gms minimum).

Materiales que necesitáis traer para los talleres:

  • Para línea negra: Lápiz de grafito Pitt Oil Base Medio de Faber Castell.
  • Pluma estilográfica con tinta resistente al agua
  • Lápices de colores (recomendamos Polychromos de Faber Castell, o similar) – colores variados que os gusten – no necesitan ser muchos
  • Acuarelas – calidad de artista es mejor – marcas White Nights, (St Petersburgh), Windsor & Newton, Talens, etc.
  • Pincel de agua o Pinceles de acuarela normales + contenedor de agua y agua.
  • Pincel Black Pentel con cartucho de tinta
  • Tubo de gouache blanco
  • Otras cosas que quieras probar (ceras, gouache, etc)
  • Pluma de caña de Bamboo
  • Un asiento pequeño y portable – para poder sentaros donde queráis.
  • Otras herramientas de dibujo que uséis normalmente

Os daremos con un cuaderno pero si queréis traer algo distinto, traedlo (gramaje mínimo 200gms)

Timetable / Horario

We meet for the first time on Thursday 27 February (welcome day)  and the workshop sessions will run in the morning and afternoon from 28 February to 2 March 2025 from 10am to 1pm and 3:30 to 6:30 pm
We will go for a sketchcrawl together (in Sevilla) on Sunday 2 March at 8pm (optional).

Nos encontraremos por primera vez el Jueves 27 de Febrero (día de bienvenida) y los talleres tendrán lugar las mañana y tarde del 28 Febrero al 2 de Marzo de 2025, de 10 AM a 1 PM y de 3:30 a 6:30 PM
El domingo 2 Marzo asistiremos a una sketchcrawl juntos en Sevilla (opcional).

Schedule/ Horario

Thursday 27 February/ Jueves 27 Febrero
6pm -7pmWelcome at our base at La Carboneria ( C/ Céspedes, n° 21 – Acc.
41004 – Sevilla)
Introductions and Welcome
We will have a drink there or nearby.
Bienvenida en La Carboneria ( C/ Céspedes, n° 21 – Acc.
41004 – Sevilla).  Presentaciones y bienvenida.
Tomaremos algo alli o cerca.
Friday 28 Feb to Sun 2 March/ Viernes 28 Feb to Domingo 2 March
9:30am to 10amGet together each day on locations near workshops
Nos encontraremos cada dia cerca del lugar de los talleres
10 to 1pmMorning workshops / Talleres mañana
1 – 3pmLunch (various groups) / Comida (varios grupos)
3:30 pm to 6:30pm Afternoon workshops / Talleres tarde
7pm (times may vary)
(horario puede variar)
Evening activities (optional) (Life Drawing, Flamenco at La Carboneria, Sketchcrawl) – Details may change.
Actividades tarde/noche (voluntarias) (Dibujo Natural, Flamenco en La Carboneria, Sketchcrawl) – Detalles pueden cambiar
8pm
Sunday 2 March/
Domingo 2 Marzo
Meeting with Urban Sketchers Sevilla
Reunión con Urban Sketchers Sevilla (calle Betis)

Locations and additional visits

As part of the workshop we will visit many local places. Both Inma and Luis know Sevilla well and can give top tips on local places of interest.

Durante la semana visitaremos muchos sitios locales. Inma y Luis conocen Sevilla bien y nos pueden ayudar a conocer los lugares locales de interés.

Map

Find an Online MAP where will be adding further info HERE

Participants

Workshop – 24 attendees maximum, 15 minimum. Any level of drawing experience is welcome

Máximo 24 Participantes, mínimo 15. Cualquier tipo de experiencia.

Accommodation/Food

Participants will need to look for their own accommodation . Food is not included on any of our fees.

There are many hotels in Sevilla. Best options are looking in booking.com and/or airbandb.com

Registration fee

Workshop Tuition Fee – 3 days tuition- £450 ( £360 concessions – 20% discount for students or unwaged with proof of concession status)

Tarifa general completa – 3 días de talleres – £450 (£360 tarifa reducida – 20% descuento para estudiantes o parados con documentación acreditativa oficial)

The course fee includes the workshops plus the team will propose some additional activities (totally optional) that we can enjoy together in the evening. Food and drinks are not included

La matricula del curso incluye los talleres y el equipo propondra actividades adicionales (totalmente optativas) por la noche.  Comida y bebida no estan incluidas.

To Book your place

NOTE: The fee paid includes a £25 non refundable ticketing fee (e.g. in case of any cancellation or if the course has to be abandoned due to unforeseen health or other government restrictions).

Cancellation policy: All fees [minus a ticketing fee of £25 which is included on above price] are refundable if cancelled more than 6 weeks prior to commencement of course.. If cancelled between 6 and 2 weeks before the start of the course, a cancellation fee of £50 will be retained on top of the ticketing fee. No refund will be possible two weeks before the course.
In the event of too few registrants, all monies [minus half the ticketing fee] will be refunded.

The PYSB team reserves the right of last minute changes to the teaching panel due to illness or another unexpected circumstance. We will maintain in any case the quality of the course.

PARA HACER TU RESERVA

NOTA: el precio de la matrícula incluye £25 tasa de ticket que no es reembolsable (e.g. en caso de cancelación de la plaza o si el curso tuviera que cancelarse debido a normativas de salud o similar).

About the instructors – a cerca de los tutores

This workshop joins the skills of 

Este taller aúna las destrezas de: