If you’ve ever walked around a city and felt like you were in the middle of a painting, you may have wished you could capture that experience as something tangible. With My Modern Met Academy’s newest online art course, Architectural Watercolors, you’ll learn how to translate the essence and vibrancy of scenic architecture into a sophisticated and poetic watercolor illustration.
Architectural Watercolors is taught by Viviene Astakhova, an artist who’s been honing her craft for nearly 20 years. Originally from St. Petersburg, Astakhova has shown in a number of exhibitions since 2015. Her architectural illustrations often feel light and airy, with a harmonious mix between an effortless watercolor application and precise ink details. Now, she’s making her teaching debut with My Modern Met Academy and sharing her process for how to create such poetic works.
In this newest course, students will learn how to select and transfer images of urban architecture onto paper. Astakhova also brings her painterly expertise to demonstrate techniques for working with and blending out granulated watercolors. Granulated watercolors usually have more texture, meaning that they don’t yield as smooth and even of a color wash when painting.
Once a pencil sketch has been created, students will begin to breathe life into their city scene by adding washes of color in layers. Astakhova provides excellent guidance for mixing watercolors directly on the paper to achieve clean, elegant color gradients. She also teaches students techniques for creating depth and dimension with watercolor, including how to determine and place shadows.
After the illustration has been painted, Astakhova brings in ink pens to build up the structure and believability of the work. Students will learn how to use fine line pens to cement architectural details of their cityscape, including tricks on how to angle their pens and how different thicknesses of lines translate in terms of perspective. By the end of the course, you’ll have an elegant and colorful architectural illustration that feels airy and vibrant.
Architectural Watercolors is available for presale now until November 4, 2025. Pre-enroll in the course during this time period, and enjoy an exclusive 10% discount off the regular price of $34.95 using the code ARCHWATERCOLORS10. When you purchase a class on presale, the lessons will automatically become available to you when it fully launches. Take advantage of this amazing opportunity, and sign up for this online, on-demand class today!
Learn how to create stunning architectural watercolor illustrations in My Modern Met Academy’s newest course.
Architectural Watercolors is taught by Viviene Astakhova, an artist whose practice spans 20 years.
You will learn how to use granulated watercolors and ink pens to create vibrant and colorful renderings of a cityscape.
Pre-enroll before November 4, 2025 and save 10% off the course price of $34.95 using code ARCHWATERCOLORS10. Watch the preview below:
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