Travel
sketching
Learn to draw your travels and everyday life in a sketchbook — quickly, freely, and with confidence, even if you haven’t drawn for years.
All levels
What is this course about?
This course is a hands-on introduction to travel and urban sketching — drawing cities, streets, cafés, and everyday scenes directly from life.
Instead of copying photos or struggling with “perfect” drawings, you’ll learn how to quickly capture the essence of a place: simplify complex scenes, build strong compositions, and use confident linework to create expressive sketches.
There’s no long theory here. Each lesson is built around clear demonstrations, guided exercises, and practical tasks you can repeat anywhere — at home, on a trip, or in a café.
Who is this course for?
This course is perfect if you:
• are a complete beginner and want to finally start drawing from life, without fear or pressure;
• already draw, but feel stuck with messy lines, weak compositions, or constantly unfinished sketches;
• love traveling and want to keep a sketchbook instead of just taking photos;
• want a clear, repeatable system for drawing architecture, streets, cars, and everyday scenes;
• prefer learning through real artist techniques, not dry academic theory.
This course may not be the best fit if you’re looking for strict academic drawing or highly technical realism.
It’s designed for expressive, fast, and confident sketching — not perfection.
What you’ll be able to do
By the end of the course, you’ll have a complete, repeatable travel sketching workflow — from a blank page to finished, expressive scenes.
You will be able to:
✓ fill your sketchbook with dynamic city and travel sketches;
✓ confidently draw buildings, streets, cars, and small details from life;
✓ understand perspective intuitively, without fear or complex calculations;
✓ start any sketch with confidence and bring it to a finished, cohesive look;
✓ draw faster and more freely, without getting stuck in perfectionism;
✓ build a sustainable sketching routine you can use at home, while traveling, or in a café.
For students who choose the feedback option, the course also helps identify personal weak points and improve faster through guided corrections.
Student work
These sketches were created by students who started exactly where you are now. You’ll work on similar tasks and see your progress from page to page.
Course structure
Module 1 (Lessons 1–3) Foundations: tools, line & everyday objects
Sketchbook & tools overview
Choose a simple travel kit that’s light, practical and ready to go anywhere.
Building a confident line
Learn grip, pressure and stroke exercises to make your lines clean and expressive.
Everyday objects & warm-ups
Practice on objects, food and small scenes to lose fear of the blank page.
Module 2 (Lessons 4–10) — People & City Fragments
People in motion
Capture walking figures and gestures with fast, loose sketches.
Architecture details
Draw old houses, windows and facades without getting lost in perspective.
City fragments
Sketch cars, street corners and distant objects that create atmosphere.
Module 3 (Lessons 11–23) — Travel Scenes & Final Project
Urban travel scenes
Combine people, buildings and transport into full sketchbook spreads.
Cities like Venice & Berlin
Explore different city moods through step-by-step location sketches.
Final travel project
Plan and complete your own finished travel sketch using all course techniques.
Meet your teacher
Alexey Zhalibo
Artist & illustrator
Alexey is an artist and illustrator with more than 15 years of experience. He works in engraving and fast sketching techniques and has taught sketching since 2015.
Highlights:
- Studied at the Academy of Arts and the European Humanities University
- Winner of international contests in animation and illustration (Paris 2012, Minsk Game Jam 2016, TopCreator 2017)
- Solo exhibitions in Minsk, Riga and Berlin
- Works held in private collections across Europe and the US
In this course Alexey shares his personal sketching methods: how to see the structure of a scene, where to start a drawing and how to keep your lines lively without overworking the page.
More work on Instagram @tot_chuvak_
What our students say
🗨️ FAQ
Choose your format
Choose how you want to learn — independently at your own pace, or with personal guidance and feedback.
Both options give you full access to the course materials.
The difference is how much support and direction you want along the way.
Travel sketching | Self-paced
✔️ Full access to all video lessons
✔️ Downloadable task list and references
✔️ 3 months of access to the course
✔️ Learn at your own pace, anytime and anywhere
Best if you enjoy learning independently and feel confident practicing on your own.
Travel sketching | Feedback track
✨ Everything included in Self-paced
✨ Personal feedback on assignments
✨ Clear suggestions on what to improve and focus on next
✨ Recommendations on your final project
✨ Priority answers to your questions
Best if you want guidance, accountability, and faster progress — especially if you’re afraid of doing things «wrong.»