Workshop with Ruud Otten September (11) 12-13, 2026

"Confident Urban Sketching with Watercolor and Ink"

Learn practical techniques to work faster, hesitate less and further develop your own unique sketching style!

This workshop offers a unique opportunity limited for just 20 participants, secure your spot now!

Workshop Description

Workshop Description In his workshop Ruud guides you with easy-to-apply tips and techniques to help you take your urban sketches to the next level.

You’ll learn how to look more consciously at composition and how to use color, contrast, and focus to strengthen your sketches, while gaining more confidence with watercolor and ink.

The workshop takes place in a friendly group of like-minded sketchers, with plenty of time to sketch yourself and receive personal tips tailored to your own way of working.

You’ll receive a mini palette with Ruud’s handmade watercolor paints to keep, and discover how a more fluent sketching style can make the process more enjoyable. After the workshop, you’ll return home recharged, with fresh inspiration, beautiful sketches, lasting memories, and a renewed creative boost.

Your Ticket Includes

• One mini palette with Ruud´s handmade watercolor paints
• 12 hours of instruction: Saturday and Sunday, 10:00–17:00 (with a one-hour lunch break; lunch not included)
• Meet & Greet: Friday, September 11, from 18.00 (pay your own expenses, location TBD)
• Dinner: Saturday September 12, (pay your own expenses, location TBD)

About the Instructor

Ruud Otten - The Nederlands

Ruud is a Dutch urban sketcher, also known as Ruudsketcher. In the last decade he has been teaching urban sketching focussed on his loose and fast sketching style.

Ruud’s sketching style is loose, expressive, and confident, with a strong focus on capturing atmosphere.. He combines clear, expressive ink lines with transparent watercolor, using contrast, and focus to guide the viewer’s eye and bring everyday urban scenes to life in an intuitive, spontaneous way.

In 2013, Ruud founded the national Urban Sketchers Netherlands group and later became the local organizer of the 10th International Urban Sketchers Symposium in 2019 in Amsterdam and attended by over 1200 urban sketchers from 47 countries.

In 2020, he started The Sketch Co. by Ruud, a platform that brings together his work as an urban sketching tutor and handmade paints maker making his own vegan-friendly handmade watercolor paints.

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