Imagine standing at a stunning vista or taking in the grandeur of a historic building. Maybe you absent-mindedly snap a quick photo with your phone, but a couple of weeks later, it’s buried in your camera roll and largely off your mind. It wouldn’t be the same if you had made a quick sketch of what you saw. When we take the time—even if it’s just a few minutes—and draw, it requires us to slow down and really look, noticing the finer details about a place.
Be prepared to sketch your late summer travels (and beyond) with the help of the online course Freehand Perspective Drawing for Beginners: Architecture and Landscapes, taught by illustrator Sam Gillett. Now available through My Modern Met Academy, you’ll discover the joy of freehand sketching with a pencil.
When drawing, you’re forced to notice things like structure and lighting, which are details we often glaze over when taking a photo with our phones. But when you’re recording a place in your sketchbook, the way a shadow falls can completely transform how a subject appears. It communicates the weather and the time of day. In this way, travel drawing becomes a personal record of what caught your eye and what you deemed important enough to commit to paper.
Through Gillet’s nearly two-hour class, he introduces how to create a dynamic and layered landscape drawing using the principles of visual perspective. You’ll get a crash course in perspective 101 with no rulers needed—just horizon lines and vanishing points. Then, the illustrator will focus on foreground, midground, and background layering, along with how to implement shadows.
A travel sketch doesn’t need to be exacting and perfect; it’s more about capturing a feeling or memory. By using the skills you’ll learn in Freehand Perspective Drawing for Beginners, you’ll have a good foundation for anything you want to draw. So, if you want to feel confident sketching landscapes without your ruler in tow, enroll in Gillet’s class on My Modern Met Academy.
Travel sketching, or any sort of on-location urban sketching, brings us into the present moment and forces us to really look at our surroundings and notice the finer details of a place.
Illustrator Sam Gillett is a master at sketching on location, utilizing just a few drawing tools to bring a scene to life and record it in his sketchbook.
Want to learn to draw like Gillett?
Be prepared to sketch your late summer travels (and beyond) with the help of his online course Freehand Perspective Drawing for Beginners: Architecture and Landscapes.
Here’s a look into his course. He begins by demonstrating how to draw guiding lines and plan your composition.
With the initial layout complete, you’ll move on to a crash course on perspective—no rulers needed.
He focuses on foreground, midground, and background layering, along with how to implement shadows.
By using the skills you’ll learn in Freehand Perspective Drawing for Beginners, you’ll have a good foundation for anything you want to draw.
Watch the class trailer below:
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