• Demos
February 7, 2024

City Sketching with Gavin Snider

Paint along as we learn about the urban landscape and sketching brownstone in Brooklyn, New York.

By The Art Toolkit Team

This is a live recording from our City Sketching demo with artist Gavin Snider from February 7th, 2024. In this demo, Gavin focused on sketching the quintessential architecture of Brooklyn, specifically the brownstone. He demonstrated how he builds up a watercolor painting from the blank page, “carving out” the painting with increasing levels of detail. Learn about composition using negative space, applying light and shadow, and approaching architectural and landscape elements in a painting.

Pull out your sketchbook, palette, and favorite brush, and download, Gavin’s reference photo to get started!

A watercolor painting of a city row house with corner deli.
Finished Demo Sketch
A photo of a desk with a painting, paint brushes, palette, and water jar on it.
Gavin’s Desk

About Gavin

Gavin sketches with his portable setup. Photo by Corbin Bradley.

Gavin Snider lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where he paints to slow down the world and draws to better understand the places and people around him. With a background in architecture, much of Gavin’s work focuses on buildings and cityscapes. A few times a week, he picks a location—whether a famous landmark or an unfamiliar neighborhood—packs up a notebook, and goes to paint. In a way, his paintings are a form of urbanism, the study of city life.

All images courtesy of Gavin.
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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