DEEP DIVE COURSE
Sketching outside. The world is your studio.
This course gives you all the skills and confidence you need to get sketching outside. From doodles in your garden to overcoming the challenge of exciting perspective.
£99
🎬 7 hours 30 mins of pre-recorded video content · 🗺️ 27 videos – all filmed on location · 🎯 6 challenges to push your skills · 📄 Downloadable handouts to carry with you outside · 👨🎨 Feedback direct from Toby
What people are saying
“I never thought I’d have the confidence to sketch outdoors. This course changed that completely. Toby makes it feel totally doable.”
— Sarah M.
“Everything filmed on location. That alone sets it apart. You really feel like you’re there with him, learning in real time.”
— James K.
Allow me to introduce you to the course
Sketching Outside is entirely filmed on location. Every single lesson. No studio, no controlled lighting, no tidy desk. Just me, my sketchbook, and the world outside. You get all my reference scenes to work from, but the real encouragement is to head out yourself and find your own. This course is as hard as you make it. Push yourself, or take it gently. Either way, you will grow.
Course Structure
🎬 7 hours 30 mins of video content · 🗺️ 27 videos – all filmed on location · 🎯 6 video challenges to push your skills · 📄 Downloadable handouts to carry with you outside · 👨🎨 Feedback direct from Toby
▶️ Introduction and Overview (2:09)
▶️ Who is this course for and FAQs (1:30)
▶️ Why Sketch Outside (4:23)
✏️ What are your goals?
▶️ A Portable Studio (10:15)
▶️ Doodle Outside (7:55)
▶️ Next Steps – A Still Life (22:21)
📄 Skills – Viewfinding (12:09 + Downloadable handout)
📄 Skills – Measuring (10:23 + Downloadable handout)
📄 Skills – Perspective (10:17 + Downloadable handout)
📄 Study – Thumbnails Three Ways (11:50 + Downloadable handout)
🎯 Challenge – The Five Steps (35:50)
🎯 Challenge – First Steps into Urbanity! (33:39)
🎯 Challenge – More First Steps (23:30)
💬 Reflection – How did you find that workshop?
▶️ Creativity – Watersoluble Pencils (7:38)
▶️ Continuous Lines and Waterbrushes (10:23)
▶️ Creativity – Inside-Outside Sketching ‘The Layered Landscape’
▶️ Inside the first edition (12:50)
▶️ Inside the second edition (13:46)
🎯 Challenge – A ‘Layered’ Composition (42:39)
💬 Reflection – How did you find that workshop?
▶️ Making Edits and Owning Your Scene (9:47)
📄 Skills – Dealing with the Public (4:19)
▶️ Creativity – Page of People (13:38)
▶️ Micro Sketching – In Five Shapes and Five Minutes (20:14)
▶️ Thumbnails in Threes Again! (15:18)
🎯 Busy Urban Scene (35:32)
▶️ Perspective, Toby Stresses Again! (27:20)
🎯 St Pancras and Kings Cross from a Distance
💬 Have we met our sketching objectives?
What’s Inside the Course
- ✓ Workshop One: The Basics. Getting comfortable outside, finding your scene, basic measuring skills and perspective, and making your first marks on location.
- ✓ Workshop Two: Creative Ideas. Composition, atmosphere, colour, and pushing your work beyond a straight copy.
- ✓ Workshop Three: Tackling Complexity. Buildings, crowds, perspective, and capturing the chaos without being overwhelmed.
- ✓ All scenes filmed on location. Plus my full set of reference sketches to work from at home.
- ✓ Short focused lessons plus longer creative sessions. Go at your own pace.
- ✓ Lifetime access. Revisit any time you like.
Sketching outside? Who is this course for?
“I wanted to make a course that actually got people outside. Not just inspired to go outside, but actually out there, sketchbook in hand.”
Sketching Outside is built around that idea. Three workshops, each one filmed in the real world, each one giving you something concrete to take away. The scenes are there if you want them. But so is the whole world beyond your front door.
What You’ll Need
You don’t need a lot to sketch outside. The simpler your kit, the easier it is to actually go. Here’s what I’d suggest:
Something portable is key. I’d suggest an A5 sketchbook you can hold in one hand. Hardback if possible, so you don’t need a surface to lean on. 200gsm paper or above works well with watercolour.
A couple of fine liners from 0.1 to 0.5mm is plenty for outdoor work. A fountain pen is great if you have one. Keep it simple so you’re not fumbling with kit when you should be looking at the scene.
A small travel palette is ideal. Half pans or a compact tube set. You only need a handful of colours outside. Less is more when you’re working on location.
Two or three brushes at most. A medium round for most work, a smaller detail brush, and a large wash brush or flat if you have one. A water brush is handy for travel.
You’ll need something firm to rest your sketchbook on outdoors. The cheapest option is a piece of foam board from a DIY store and it works perfectly well. But there are all sorts of versions out there, from simple boards with clips to fancier setups with storage and straps. Get as creative or as minimal as you like. If you have questions about what to use, email Toby at toby@sketchloose.co.uk and he’ll point you in the right direction.
Throughout the course we also make use of mixed media, mostly watercolour pencils. These are entirely optional but they open up a lot of creative possibilities and I’d recommend picking some up if you can. At no point are they compulsory, and wherever I use them I’ll always show you how to achieve the same result with just ink and watercolours.
Who Is This For?
🌿
Sketchers Ready to Fly the Nest
You’ve been sketching at your desk and you’re ready to take it outside. This course gives you the confidence and the tools to make that jump.
🎒
Adventurous Beginners
You might not have sketched much, but you’re itching to get outside and give it a go. The course works at whatever pace you set.
✏️
Experienced Sketchers Wanting More
You already sketch regularly and want to push further. The creative ideas and complexity workshops will challenge you in the best way.
Hi, I’m Toby
I’m a sketcher, watercolourist, and the founder of Sketch Loose. I’ve been teaching people to draw and paint online for years, and one thing kept coming up: everyone wanted to sketch outside, but nobody quite knew how to start.
I looked around for a course that taught people to actually go out and sketch the world around them, filmed on location, tackling the real challenges of working outside. I couldn’t find one. So I made it.
Sketching Outside is entirely filmed outdoors. Every lesson. That’s the whole point.
⭐ 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee
If you buy the course and it’s not right for you, email me within 14 days and I’ll refund you in full. No questions asked.
Work You’ll Be Proud Of
DEEP DIVE COURSE
Sketching outside. The world is your studio.
£99.00Got questions? Check the FAQs “>”
Or contact me directly at toby@sketchloose.co.uk