Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger is less a conventional step-by-step drawing book and more an invitation to become experimental with watercolor. It covers pigments, color, washes, materials and the mindset behind expressive sketching, but it doesn’t spend much time teaching you how to construct buildings or master perspective.
That’s what I ended up liking about it. I originally expected a straightforward urban sketching manual. Instead, I found a book that made me rethink how controlled watercolor needed to be and encouraged me to use color more instinctively.
My short review: Urban Watercolor Sketching is best for someone who already sketches a little and wants to loosen up with paint. If you’re looking for carefully sequenced lessons on drawing streets and buildings, I’d choose something more structured.
I’ve also included it in my guide to the best urban sketching books if you want to compare it with other options.
What Kind of Book Is Urban Watercolor Sketching?
Felix Scheinberger approaches watercolor more like an artist sharing years of experimentation than an instructor leading you through a fixed curriculum.
The book moves through topics such as pigments, brushes, washes, glazing, color relationships, working outdoors and the emotional effect of color. There is plenty of practical information, but the larger message is that watercolor doesn’t have to be precious or tightly controlled.
That distinction matters because the title can make the book sound like a complete course in drawing city scenes. It isn’t. The emphasis is much more heavily on watercolor than on architectural drawing.
| Best for | Sketchers who want to become more expressive with watercolor |
| Less suited to | Someone looking for a strict step-by-step urban drawing course |
| Main focus | Color, watercolor technique, materials and artistic experimentation |
| Strongest quality | Encouraging you to loosen up and trust the medium |
| Main limitation | Relatively little instruction on perspective and architectural drawing |
What You’ll Learn From Felix Scheinberger
A lot of what stayed with me from the book was not a particular finished painting but a different way of thinking about watercolor itself.
Scheinberger spends time explaining why pigments behave differently, how layers interact and how color affects the feeling of a sketch. That made the book more useful to me than another collection of demonstrations to copy.
- Wet-on-wet watercolor
- Glazing and layering
- Pigment behavior
- Using warm and cool color relationships
- Working outdoors with a small set of materials
- Using color for mood rather than simply matching reality
If you’re putting together a compact setup for drawing outside, my urban sketching watercolor palette guide covers that part of the process in more detail.
The Biggest Lesson for Me Was to Stop Controlling Everything
Before reading the book, I tended to treat watercolor like a fragile medium. I wanted the mixtures right, the shapes controlled and the final sketch to look intentional from the beginning.
Scheinberger’s approach pushed in almost the opposite direction. He treats accidents, unusual color mixtures and spontaneous marks as part of the process instead of mistakes that need to be corrected.
That gradually changed the way I used my sketchbook. I became more willing to put color down without knowing exactly where the painting was going and to see what happened when pigments mixed on the page.
Using Color for Feeling Instead of Accuracy
One of my favorite ideas from Urban Watercolor Sketching is that the colors in a sketch don’t always need to reproduce the colors directly in front of you.
Color can communicate heat, atmosphere, energy or mood. Once I started thinking that way, matching the exact local color of every wall, tree or shadow became less important.
I found that especially useful when drawing on location because conditions change quickly. Light moves, people leave and you rarely have unlimited time. Making a strong color decision can sometimes communicate the experience better than carefully reproducing every hue.
Urban Watercolor Sketching Is Not Really a Step-by-Step Drawing Course
This is the biggest thing I would want to know before buying the book.
If you want a sequence like “draw this building, establish these vanishing points, add these windows, then apply this wash,” you won’t find much of that here.
There isn’t a major emphasis on perspective, architectural construction or methodically building urban scenes. The book is really about watercolor used within a sketching practice.
For a more structured introduction to drawing on location, I’d start with The Beginner’s Guide to Urban Sketching. I also found The Urban Sketcher more systematic in the way it breaks down the drawing process.
Is Urban Watercolor Sketching Good for Beginners?
I think it can be, but it depends on what you expect from a beginner book.
The tone is approachable and the philosophy is liberating. A beginner who tends to be afraid of making mistakes may actually benefit a lot from Scheinberger’s attitude toward experimentation.
But if you’ve barely drawn or painted before and want someone to guide you through every stage, the loose structure could leave you wondering what to practice first.
In that case, I’d establish some basic habits with my easy urban sketching for beginners guide and use Scheinberger’s book alongside it for watercolor ideas and inspiration.
Who I Think Will Get the Most From It
I think Urban Watercolor Sketching makes the most sense for an artist who already has some kind of sketchbook practice but feels too careful with watercolor.
- Sketchers who want to introduce more color into their work
- Watercolor painters who feel overly controlled or perfectionistic
- Travel sketchers who want to carry fewer materials
- Artists interested in pigments and color relationships
- People who prefer experimentation to rigid exercises
If you prefer practicing from prompts and specific assignments, my urban sketching exercises may be more useful alongside the book.
What I Wouldn’t Buy This Book For
I wouldn’t buy it primarily to learn architectural perspective, technical city drawing or highly polished line-and-wash illustration.
Those aren’t really the book’s strengths. Its value is in getting you comfortable with watercolor as an expressive, unpredictable material and giving you ideas you can bring into your own sketching practice.
That also means you don’t need to work exactly like Scheinberger for the book to be useful. The ideas about simplifying materials, experimenting with color and accepting imperfect marks can influence how you sketch even if your own work looks completely different.
Is Urban Watercolor Sketching Worth Buying?
For me, yes. I still think of Urban Watercolor Sketching less as a textbook and more as a book I return to when my sketching starts feeling too cautious.
It helped me stop treating watercolor as something I needed to master before I could enjoy it. I began using paint more experimentally, letting colors mix, leaving some passages unresolved and allowing a sketch to remain loose.
If you’re hoping for detailed instruction on drawing city architecture, I’d choose another book first. But if you already sketch and want Felix Scheinberger’s perspective on color, materials and working more freely, I think this one earns its place on the shelf.
You can see Urban Watercolor Sketching here, or compare it with the other titles in my urban sketching books guide.