BA Hons in Graphic Design (Illustration) – Kingston Polytechnic

I would like to share my knowledge and approaches to sketching with you in each of the workshops. I hope through experimenting you can pick and choose the parts you like in order to develop your own personal style.

• Big Shapes, Line detail - one way to approach Urban Sketching

• Greens in the landscape

• Café life

• Rough and Smooth - Creating experimental textures with watercolour using a few simple tools and materials (I will supply these)

• Near and Far - Five ways to show depth and distance without using formal perspective

• Drawing at night - Light lines on dark backgrounds

• The colour of water – Experimenting with how we can draw rivers, rain and reflections

A small set of good quality watercolours – Winsor & Newton, Daniel Smith, Schmincke are all ones I have used and recommend.

A4/A5 Sketchbook suitable for watercolours – I like the Stillman & Birn Beta range but Hahnemuhle and Moleskine are good quality too.

Two travel paint brushes – one thicker (around 10), one thinner (around 6) - I tend to use Escoda synthetic ones.

Two waterbrushes – the plastic ones you fill with water - one thick, one thin if possible.

Water pot

Small portable stool

Two fineliners of different widths – black or brown

A pencil

A small selection of good quality coloured pencils, maybe 6 – 8, particularly dark tones.

A small selection of Caran D’ache Neocolor II soluble pastels, maybe 6 – 8 in bright, interesting colours

A small tube of white gouache

White correction pen – I use the Pentel Micro Correct pen

White gel pen – I use the Uniball Signo white gel pen

Black Pentel Brush Pen

Pencil sharpener

A couple of ‘bulldog’ clips and elastic band (to hold the pencils together)

“Courses with Lis were great. She is a very good teacher, kind and very encouraging. Discovering painting with Lis' eyes opened up new perspectives for us. We were so delighted ! Thank you Lis!”

E.C. France

“I’ve had a great time during Lis’ workshops. Her explanations are easy to understand, the step by step process with very short timed exercises helps to understand her way to treat the main mass then the details and to rapidly get nice results in the final masterpiece. Thank you again Lis for these workshops.

K.C. Lyon

“Lis is an inspirational teacher who showed us a variety of techniques to free up our sketches by focussing on the big shapes with paint first. Then simply adding a few details with black and white pens brings the sketch to life. A very enjoyable morning.”

Liverpool Workshop 2024

“I really enjoyed the workshop. I was attracted by the drawing of the Albert Dock and it was helpful to hear Lis’s way of starting to record a complicated view by painting in the big shapes. I also enjoyed the challenge of the negative space drawing. The pattern experiment on a prepared background provided me with ideas for completing the quick paintings afterwards which I am now am quite pleased with!”

Liverpool Workshop 2024

London Metropolitan University - Visiting Lecturer 2019 – 2025

Clermont-Ferrand, France - Workshop at Le Rendez-vous International du Carnet de Voyage (2024)

Oxford, England - Workshop to Urban Sketchers Oxford (2024)

Liverpool, England - Workshop Urban Sketchers Liverpool (2024)

Erlangen, Germany - Workshop at 21st Erlangen International Comic Salon (2024)

Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Two workshops on location at Sixth Compostela Ilustrada (2023)

Barcelona, Spain - Two workshops on location for Urban Sketchers Barcelona (2023)

London, England - ‘Sketchwalk London’ workshop as part of London Festival of Architecture (2023)

Intragna, Switzerland -Two workshops on location as part of USk Week (2023)

London, England - Two workshops on location for Urban Sketchers London (2022)

Intragna, Switzerland -Two workshops on location for USk Week (2021)

Zuoz, Switzerland - Two workshops on location for the 2nd Swiss Urban Sketching Symposium (2020)