Isabel Santos

Sketching Buildings for the Fearful

Isabel Santos is the artist behind Modellatura Arts. She started sketching in 2014 and as a self-taught artist, developed her style by watching YouTube channels and devouring books from the library or second-hand book shops. 

Isabel discovered the Urban Sketchers Toronto group through the Meet-up App and got curious about urban sketching. Since the meet-up location was right across from her apartment building, she signed up in hopes of meeting new friends. She has been an Urban Sketcher since 2016.

As a business graduate, Isabel uses the left side of her brain for work and the right side of her brain to create art using pen and ink with watercolors. City scenes, landscapes and nature inspire her to draw, but her passion is urban sketching. For some artists, drawing architecture can be challenging, but she enjoys sketching historic buildings and complex urban scenes even though she is not an architect. 

Isabel is an Etchr Studio Instructor and has conducted numerous demos for Derwent both online and in person. In order to find angles easily while sketching, she teaches her students to use a viewfinder called the Non-Architect Clock, which was presented at an Etchr Studio demo found on YouTube entitled “How to Sketch Buildings the Non-Architect Way.” 

Aside from her involvement with the Toronto chapter in Canada, she is part of the Urban Sketchers Org  Membership Committee as the Regional Leader for North America. She mentors groups in the US and Canada who wish to become USk chapters.

Find Isabel online at 

Facebook:  Isabel Santos

Instagram: @modellatura_art