Workshops and Sketchwalks with Liz Steel

Mannheim/Heidelberg Region, Germany

6 – 9 August 2025

I’m excited to announce that I’m hosting two one-day sketching workshops and 2 free public sketchwalks in the beautiful Mannheim region, Germany in August

– Wednesday 6 August – afternoon free public sketchwalk in Speyer

– Thursday 7 August – one-day Workshop 1 in Ladenburg (SOLD OUT – Waitlist open)

– Friday 8 August – one-day Workshop 2 in Heidelberg (SOLD OUT – Waitlist open)

– Saturday 9 August – free public sketchwalk in Mannheim

Please email us at info@sketchingnow.com if you have any problems joining the workshop waitlist.

Workshops – Ladenburg and Heidelberg

Choose from one of two full-day on-location sketching workshops.

Workshop 1: Ladenburg Thursday 7 August (SOLD OUT – Join the Waitlist in case of cancellations)

or

Workshop 2: Heidelberg Friday 8 August (SOLD OUT – Join the Waitlist in case of cancellations)

Please email us at info@sketchingnow.com if you have any problems joining the workshop waitlist.

Cost: $285 AUD (approx €160) plus 10% tax. Note: this cost includes the ticket fee

Maximum participants:  15

Language:  English

Time: Workshops will go from 10am – 4:30pm with a break for lunch (lunch at your own cost).

Due to the expected demand, you can only choose one of the two workshops. (If you sign up for both, one workshop will be refunded.) If you are visiting from out of town, I hope you will stay for the sketchwalks. We are planning a welcome dinner on Wednesday, 6 August, for participants of both workshops.

The theme will be sketching with shapes, which is my favourite way to sketch and is perfect for the historic old towns of this region of Germany. More details of the workshop programme below.

Register for workshop here!

Workshop 1: Ladenburg Thu 7 August SOLD OUT

Workshop 2: Heidelberg Fri 8 August SOLD OUT

Please email us at info@sketchingnow.com if you have any problems joining the workshop waitlist. 

$285 AUD (approx €160) plus 10% tax
Eventbrite displays the price in Australian Dollars but will
convert to your currency at checkout

Sketchwalks with USK Mannheim – Speyer and Mannheim

In conjunction with the two workshops, there will be two free public sketchwalks with USK Mannheim.

Please Note: These Sketchwalks are not workshops—there will be no demo or instruction. We’ll briefly meet at the start and then do our own sketching in a group context. At the end of the session, we’ll have a chance to see the work of others at a sketchbook ‘throwdown’.

These events are open to anyone to join but registration via Eventbrite to USK Mannheim will be required so we know how many people will be attending. Click on the links below to register:

Sketchwalk 1: Wednesday 6 August 2025 – afternoon sketchwalk in Speyer

Sketchwalk 2: Saturday 9 August 2025 – morning sketchwalk in Mannheim

More Information about the Workshops

Why sketch with shapes?

When starting urban sketching many people just pick up their pen and begin to draw everything in front of them. They keep drawing and drawing (possibly getting lost in the details) and then decide it’s time to add paint. Thinking about shapes is an important way to simplify complex scenes and it will help prevent creating overworked and over-detailed sketches.

Plus, it’s also a lot of fun!

Programme

We’ll spend the morning doing a number of shape exercises – simplifying a scene into similar coloured shapes, starting with negative shapes and looking for shadow shapes. We also explore how thinking about shapes helps us determine the important edges in our subject and do some swatches to explore ways of combining media.

In the afternoon session we will move to another location. I’ll do a full demo and then we’ll spend the rest of the time doing a single sketch that incorporates some of the concepts from the morning session.

Materials List

– Paper/sketchbook suitable for ink and wash – A5-A4 size.

– Permanent ink pen

– Dry (or quick drying) media for shape exercises: A small selection of coloured or watercolour pencils, markers (such as Tombows) in a range of light’ mid and dark values. Specific colours are not important – more details will be provided closer to the workshop date.

– Watercolour – bring your usual watercolour palette – no specific colours are required.

– Waterbrush or sable brush and water container.

– Any other materials you have in your bag!

– Small portable stool or something to sit on.

– Hat, sunscreen, extra layer, rain protection etc.

Sketching Experience

Some sketching experience is recommended. We will be outside sketching on location all day in historic towns, so these workshops will not be suitable for absolute beginners who have never sketched before.

Which workshop to do?

Both workshops will contain the same exercises and will include sketching in historic town centres. The following is just a suggestion to help your choice of workshop

Experienced sketchers – Heidelberg (Workshop 2) is a very popular tourist destination and will be busier and more challenging to sketch, and so Workshop 2 is recommended for sketchers who are comfortable sketching on location.

Beginner sketchers (with some experience sketching on location) – Ladenburg (Workshop 1) is a smaller town and will be quieter, so Workshop 1 will be more suited for you if you’ve only sketched on location a few times. (But as noted above, both workshops are not suited for absolute beginners who have never sketched before).

Refunds

If you cancel before 24 July 2025 (2 weeks beforehand) you will receive a refund less a $25AUD cancellation fee. After that date, if we are able to fill your spot we will refund 50% of the workshop fee.

Not included

The fee is for the workshop only and does not include transport to/from the workshop locations, accommodation, any meals or travel insurance. Participants are required to bring their own art supplies as listed above.

Accommodation and Travel Recommendations

Mannheim or Heidelberg would a good base for the workshop and sketchwalk location. There is good pubic transport from there to the other cities.

If you have any accommodation or travel questions, please use our contact form and Kerstin from USK Mannheim has kindly offered to assist!

About Liz

Liz Steel worked for 18 years as an architect in Sydney and is now a full-time artist, teacher and author focusing on quick sketching with ink, watercolour and mixed media.

She captures moments from her daily life and travelling adventures in her sketchbooks and publishes regular updates on her blog – lizsteel.com – and inside her Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon.

Liz teaches on-location urban sketching workshops throughout the world and has also taught drawing and perspective classes to architects and interior designers in Australia.

She has her own online school – SketchingNow – where she offers in-depth courses to participants from over 40 countries.

She is a regular instructor at the international Urban Sketchers Symposiums.

Liz is the author of “Five Minute Sketching: Architecture” and loves to incorporate her architectural training with core drawing concepts, creating a fun yet accurate approach to location sketching.

Any further questions?

Please get in touch with us using the contact form here