Workshops

Welcome to my workshops page. Listed below are upcoming workshops both in-person and online.

To request a workshop you don’t see:
e-mail Suhita: suhita@gmail.com
Registration is open until a workshop fills up.

To get on my mailing list for sketching tips and first dibs at workshops:
Sign up here.

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ONLINE WORKSHOP: People Alive! Sketches Full of Life

4 week online workshop:Nov 12, Nov 19, Dec 3 and Dec 10 ( 4 Saturdays, no session Thanksgiving Weekend)

This 4-week workshop will move you from a fear of drawing people to feeling confident and excited about sketching people-centric stories.
Join live or watch the session recorded each week. 4 sessions, + in-depth homework review

More details and registration here.

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ONLINE WORKSHOP: Depth and Drama

Explore mark-making in Mixed Media.

Saturday, October 29th, from 10am-12:15pm Pacific Time

More details and registration here.

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Sold Out! Join our waitlist to be notified if a spot opens up or to hear first about our 2024 workshop. Email SketchTourIndia@gmail.com

ON-LOCATION WORKSHOP: Come Sketch and Experience Mumbai, India with Suhita & Zainab

If you know me, you know I love to teach, I love to travel and I love to share my world in sketches. And this workshop is in a place I love like no other.

I announced the workshop to my mailing list first and now there are only 4 spots left. So read on and sign up if you would like to come along. (Can’t make it? Scroll through anyway for a glimpse of Mumbai through Zainab’s and my sketches)

Gateway of India • Mixed Media • Suhita Shirodkar

Announcing an Exciting New Workshop!

A Gateway to India
Sketching and Exploring Mumbai with Suhita and Zainab • January 2023 

If you have ever wanted to travel and sketch in India, this is your chance! Come sketch in Mumbai, India, in January 2023 on a richly curated trip with two seasoned instructors and Mumbai lovers, Suhita Shirodkar and Zainab Tambawalla. 

Our week-long, on-location workshop in Mumbai features an itinerary that combines historical and cultural tours led by experts with daily hands-on sketching sessions with your instructors. 

In addition, our on-location adventures will be preceded by three online zoom-based sessions before you even arrive in India! In these sessions, we build a foundation of sketching concepts that you will put into practice on location and we share practical information like packing and supply tips for your sketching trip and adventures.

Mazgaon Chawl • Watercolor • Zainab Tambawalla

Why Mumbai, you might wonder?
Mumbai is a great place to start your Indian adventure. A metropolis and a melting pot of cultures, Mumbai was once a walled city. And while the walls are gone, the cities within this city still exist. In this workshop, you will literally sketch the Mumbai of a thousand years ago, and move through the ages to capture the glory of the British Era, Mumbai’s Art Deco period, and monuments to the Industrial Revolution. You will witness and sketch ancient traditions and the people who are at the core of what the city is about. It will be an enriching experience and your sketchbook will reflect it.

With tours led by historians and a low instructor-to-student ratio, you can expect lots of one-on-one attention, and a host of techniques and ideas shared daily. You’ll see a Mumbai beyond a tourist’s view, yet always feel safe and taken care of. All transportation to destinations beyond a short walk will be in an airconditioned vehicle, cold bottled water, and a place to stash extra supplies while you sketch will always be on hand. At every location, you will have a host of vetted places to eat at. 

Street Food • Watercolor, Pen & Ink • Suhita Shirodkar

Here are the details at a glance:

7 Day Sketching Mumbai Workshop
(plus 3 Zoom Sessions to refresh your sketching practice!)

Jan 18th to Jan 24th, 2023 • $1200

What is Included:

• 7 day experience in Mumbai + 3 online Zoom-based sessions prior to landing in India.
  Your complete experience includes: 

• Sketching and Heritage tours of Mumbai
• Additionally, 3 online workshops prior to in-person workshops to learn and practice concepts to put into action on location
• 2 skilled instructors and a maximum of 12 participants in total for a low instructor-to-student ratio
• Travel by luxury air-conditioned vehicles to locations that are not within walking distance
• Welcome dinner

What is not included:

• Airfare (dates of workshop fall just outside the high tourist season for more reasonable airfare, but within the period when the weather is still pleasant and conducive for outdoor sketching) (Right now, flights to Mumbai from the USA are under $900 and flights from Europe and Asia are much cheaper!)
• Hotel (We are happy to recommend a range of hotels to fit all budgets within walking distance of our workshop.)
• Meals (Except for a Welcome Dinner which is included. We will, however, always have a range of recommended places you can eat at, all vetted by us.)

Know Your Instructors

Suhita Shirodkar was born and brought up in Mumbai and now lives in San Jose, California. She has been an instructor at 6 USk International Symposiums and is a USk blog correspondent who teaches workshops worldwide. Telling visual stories, working in a mix of media that allows for exciting sketches, and capturing the energy of places and people are what she loves best. 

You can see more of Suhita’s work here.

Zainab Tambawalla has lived in Mumbai for 22 years and heads Urban Sketchers Mumbai. She is an animation designer, a children’s books illustrator, and has been an educator for 11 years. Her Mumbai-focussed reportage was part of a USk grant-winning project for outstanding visual reportage. She is on a constant quest to document stories within her city while exploring techniques for creating an evocative and emotive sketch. 

You can see more of Zainab’s work here.

Left: Street Sellers • Watercolor, Pen & Ink • Suhita | Right: Steps of Banganga • Copic Markers • Zainab

Excited? Here’s what you do next:
Spaces are limited (12 max) and we start our online sessions a couple of months before our adventure, so sign up soon! 

Total Experience Price: $1200
Reserve your spot with a non-refundable deposit of $500 (remaining $700 due on November 15th, 2022)

Bringing along a non-sketcher on the trip?
Non-Sketcher Price: $500 (includes Welcome Dinner, access to all heritage tours, and transportation)
Reserve your non-sketcher spot with a deposit of $200 (remaining $300 due on November 15th, 2022)

To reserve your spot, contact SketchTourIndia@gmail.com for payment details.
(Payment by check and bank transfer accepted. Paypal payments carry an additional fee)

Left: Antiques at Chor Bazaar • Markers on Toned Paper • Zainab
Right: Cold Drink Seller • Pen & Ink , Watercolor • Suhita

Have questions for us? Below are some FAQs. Still have questions? Email SketchTourIndia@gmail.com with your questions and we will get back to you as soon as possible. 

FAQs and Other Helpful Information

• Why Mumbai?
Mumbai is the perfect gateway to your Indian experience, a city with many cities within it. Here, you will discover both a modern, bustling metropolis and an ancient city.  A melting pot of cultures and architectural styles existing side by side, yet each one different. We will offer you an insider’s view of it all, which when coupled with an understanding of historical and cultural context, will make for sketches rich with meaning and memories.

Suresh Bhavan • Zainab

• What will I learn?
This workshop is designed to meet you where you are in your sketching journey. With three zoom-based sessions before you even get to India, we will cover the basics of practical matters like packing an art kit and also the fundamentals of working on location, sketching from life, choosing a color palette , color mixing, and a working understanding of perspective and people sketching for on-location drawing.

This solid groundwork will set you up for a successful sketching trip in India: We will refresh the concepts of those online sessions at each location, and discuss applying them at that specific location. Your instructors will be sketching alongside you every day so you can watch the concepts put into action, request help and feedback and ask questions anytime. 

And if you are a seasoned sketcher who knows your basics already? Zainab and Suhita will demo different techniques for you to add to your sketching repertoire every day and you are never ever out of interesting sketching subjects in India, so you can always add an extra challenge to the day’s program.

Mango Season • Suhita

• Safety and Food Concerns
The beauty of doing this workshop with us is that you’ll see Mumbai beyond a tourist’s view, yet always feel safe and taken care of. All transportation to destinations beyond a short walk will be in an air-conditioned vehicle, with bottled water, and a place to stash extra supplies (or even take a break) always on hand. At every location, you will have a list of vetted places to eat at in a range of prices. With prior information about food restrictions and concerns, we can tailor a list of recommended foods and places to eat for you, or even arrange for packed meals for you. And your recommended hotel list, also in a range of prices, will always be clean, safe and within a stone’s throw of the workshop meetup location. 

• India beyond Mumbai
The themes, colors, and architectural styles you will sketch, and the sketching techniques you will learn will make a great set of tools to sketch anywhere on your further adventures.

So start your exploration of India with us in Mumbai, and if you decide to stay on for longer, we are happy to recommend itineraries for the rest of your stay. You’ll have spent a week with us getting to know and understand the many facets of India, all in one city, and your sketching skills will serve you well in capturing many more memories of all your adventures!

• Insurance:
As with all travel, we recommend you get travel insurance. Here are some recommendations from forbes.com

Excited? We are!

This is a small group workshop so space is limited!
Reserve your spot, through a deposit of $500 and come join the adventure.
Write now to SketchTourIndia@gmail.com

Sketches by Zainab & Suhita

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