Urban Sketching in London 2023

Zooming in on the artist in a coffee shop.

An artist is sitting inside a coffee shop in London.

Do you think he’s in there drawing?

Let’s zoom in for a closer look.

I think he’s on his phone.

Sometimes, you see artists in the wild like this, capturing their surroundings in a sketchbook to practice their skills and share them with the world.

He must be trying to get that perfect Instagram photo.

He told us he’s just visiting London and loves the architecture here.

Then, he actually let us get closer and see the urban sketches he was making with a pen of the view out the window.

He tells us it looks fantastic if you color inside the windows with black.

And you don’t have to draw every single brick.

In the U.K., there are so many brick buildings you’d drive yourself mad!

Just add little dash lines to make it easier.

Hey! A double-decker bus.

He tells us that even getting one building, starting from the top and going down, can help you understand its structure and design.

Having watercolor paint on hand is an excellent way to bring your sketches to life. Even if you don’t have time right then, you can take a photo of your view and paint them later.

Pretty basic, right? Not too many colors.

We asked the artist to show us more of his urban sketches, and he gave us a little peek in his sketchbook. He’ll either draw and paint them live or take photos and illustrate them later.

This view is from that same cafe.

Here’s a different location showcasing those distinctive chimneys you see in the U.K.

A row of houses in the neighborhood where Charles Dickens once lived.

We said goodbye to the artist, who said he’s also a cartoonist and from America.

He told us to check out his Instagram and where to find his comic strip about his funny experiences living in Japan. You never know who you’ll see when you’re out and about in London.

I wonder where he’ll go next.

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Thanks to my sister Khalilah Birdsong, a phenomenal artist and abstract painter, for thinking of taking photos of me from outside the cafe and inspiring this sibling collaboration post.