This workshop invites participants to discover Venice through a sketchbook filled with drawings and color, alternating between observation, sketching, drawing from life, and pictorial experimentation.

The sketchbook becomes a true space for artistic exploration and memory, allowing you to quickly capture a building, an atmosphere, a silhouette, a reflection, or a detail of the city. The goal is not to reproduce Venice with photographic precision, but to learn how to observe, select, simplify, and interpret.

The work draws inspiration from travel sketchbook practices and urban sketching: spontaneous drawing, perspective, architecture, figures, annotations, ink, and watercolor. These practices allow participants to work directly in the city and develop a particularly keen awareness of Venetian light, colors, and atmospheres.

• Develop a regular sketchbook practice.
• Learn to quickly observe a scene and capture its essence.
• Work on architectural drawing and urban perspectives.
• Understand proportions and scale relationships.
• Capture the light and atmospheres unique to Venice.
• Experiment with color directly from life.
• Combine drawing, ink, watercolor, and mixed media.
• Learn to simplify complex architecture.
• Create a balanced sketchbook page.
• Develop a personal graphic style.
• Use the sketchbook as a tool for observation, research, and creation.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Quickly create a sketch based on an urban landscape.
• Organize a sketchbook page around a clear composition.
• Use a few essential lines to suggest architecture.
• Convey volume and depth through perspective.
• Observe and capture the dominant colors of a place.
• Use watercolor spontaneously and expressively.
• Combine line and color without systematically seeking detail.
• Create a series of cohesive pages that form a true sketchbook of Venice.
• Develop a personal approach to travel sketching.

Day 1 — Observing Venice: Drawing as a Form of Expression

The first day is devoted to observational drawing and discovering the sketchbook as a research tool.

The Travel Sketchbook

• Different types and formats of sketchbooks.
• Choosing paper and tools.
• Organizing a page.
• Quick sketches and more detailed drawings.
• Annotation, writing, and visual memory.
• Concepts of series and graphic storytelling.

Drawing Architecture

• Vertical and horizontal lines.
• Perspective and vanishing points.
• Building proportions.
• Facades, windows, doors, and balconies.
• Bridges, squares, canals, and city skylines.
• Simplification of architectural details.

On-site sketching exercises

Participants create several quick sketches, varying their viewpoints and compositions.

The goal is to learn how to draw what you actually see, while selecting the elements necessary to make a place immediately recognizable.

Day 2 — Venice in Color: Light, Water, and Atmosphere

The second day gradually introduces color and painterly techniques into the sketchbook.

Understanding Venetian Color

• Colors of facades and materials.
• Relationships between warm and cool colors.
• Colored shadows.
• Light on stones and plaster.
• Reflections and Transparencies.
• The color of water and variations in the sky.

Drawing and watercolor

• Light preparatory sketch.
• Ink and line.
• First broad swaths of color.
• Transparency of the watercolor.
• Layering of washes.
• Reserves of white.
• Gradual intensification of contrasts.

Watercolor allows you to work quickly and lightly here, especially when capturing reflections, light, and the atmospheric variations of the city.

Exercises

• A facade in a few colors.
• A canal and its reflections.
• A bustling square.
• A quick study of light.
• A page combining drawing, color, and notes.

Day 3 — Building Your Sketchbook: Telling the Story of Venice Through Drawing

The final day is devoted to ensuring the sketchbook’s coherence and developing a personal style.

Composing a page

• Hierarchy of elements.
• Alternating between large and small sketches.
• Details and overviews.
• The relationship between image and text.
• Margins, white space, and breathing room.
• Use of color to guide the eye.

Drawing Life in Venice

• Silhouettes and characters.
• Gondolas and boats.
• Markets, cafés, and everyday scenes.
• Details of doors, signs, and objects.
• Bustling quays and squares.

Toward a Personal Style

Each participant creates several final pages, seeking to develop their own graphic identity: lines of varying precision, a personal color palette, the relationship between drawing and color, the role of text, and the choice of subjects.

The workshop concludes with a presentation of the sketchbooks and a group discussion of the different approaches.

The training program alternates between:

• Demonstrations;
• Short, progressive exercises;
• Drawing from life;
• Perspective exercises;
• Color studies;
• Watercolor and mixed media;
• Individual guidance;
• Personal projects;
• Discussions about the sketchbooks created.

Outdoor practice plays an important role, transforming the Venetian landscape into a true open-air studio.

Assessment takes place throughout the training program through:

• Participation in exercises;
• Progress in observational drawing;
• Mastery of the basic principles of perspective;
• Use of color;
• The ability to compose a page;
• The coherence and personality of the final sketchbook.

The goal is not to strive for a perfect representation, but to assess the ability to observe, interpret, and convey a sense of a place through drawing and color.