Alexandria, Egypt

Reham Ali

Reham Ali is an international urban sketcher, artist and designer. Her work was internationally featured in many articles and interviews as well as podcasts. She has been invited several times as a keynote speaker and workshop leader for events led by a world class panel of international artists.
She is an Urban Sketcher instructor who has given workshops in both the Porto and Amsterdam Symposium, as well as Dubai, Alexandria, Cairo and KSA. Most of her work focuses on sketching her hometown city, Alexandria, which is the main subject of her watercolor and sketching work.

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Workshop Language: English



Solving interlocking shapes of buildings with light and shadows

Capture a complex scene, especially in the case of classical architecture, without getting overwhelmed by details, ornamentation and complicated stylistic elements! There are many strategies for simplifying these types of scenes so that we can capture the moment, tell a story and reveal the sense of place without getting too involved in the details: one such strategy is to simplify the scene with shadows, not lines. Light and shadow are our main actors.


Key skills:
  • Painting shadows with complementary colors and understanding the power of local colour.
  • Learn to accept your mistakes; they are part of your style (you will make a lot more, so love them anyway !!)
  • Learn how to capture the essence of the scene connecting your eyes, mind and hand, to compose the sketch. To control your visual tool box playing with negative spaces, values, contrasts, relationships between lines and color.
Suggested material:
  • Waterproof ink pens (fountain pens or nip pen)
  • Pencil (any type)
  • Watercolor palette (the bigger the better)
  • Watercolor paints (I recommend watercolor tubes)
  • Small water spray
  • Sketchbook or loose paper, preferably watercolor paper or water-friendly paper at lest A4 size or bigger
  • Brushes (try to have at least one big brush size 8 or larger if possible)
  • Small plastic container of water
  • A stool to sit on while working (optional)
  • Viewfinder or you can make your own using two L shaped cutted paper