Top Ten City Sketches of 2025

A look back through a sunny year sketching in the capital

Hello and happy holidays, I am back with another selection of my favourite sketches from a sunny year drawing the city. I hope you enjoy my look back at 2025, and join me at instagram/EdinburghSketcher to see my doodles through 2026. You can play along with my location quiz, WhereArtI? every Monday online and in the Evening News, and there is also a link below to find out more about me via an Edinburgh podcast.

All the very best for 2026, keep looking the beauty in the everyday.

Mark ES

Edinburgh skyline

I think this may well be my favourite view of Edinburgh. The crags and the castle, green spaces and stunning skylines. It sums the city up for me and I often imagine being in this spot on a warm summers day.

Local business

This is Lannan Bakery in Stockbridge, an everyday sketch from the capital perhaps but one I included as it led me meeting the owner Darcie and collaborating on a gift card project. I love how art and being creative can bring people and businesses together.

Meadows acrobats

August in the Meadows and I and a few other sketchers sat to draw a Danish dance group ahead of their Fringe show and it was so much fun. Scribbling away trying to quickly capture fluid movement was a challenge.

Live Jazz

During the August festivals I tried to see and sketch more live acts this year and this late night jazz show was a particular highlight. I sat towards the back of the room listening and scrawling with pens pencils and brushstrokes as The Hot Jazz Vagabonds entertained.

Church on the canal

I love the warm summery colours in this canal scene, the sketch takes me right back to this day. I was looking across to Polwarth Church on a wander around the south side of the city while my son was in his music class.

Sunrise over Edinburgh

Sometimes when I open the curtains in the morning the skies over Edinburgh are just so epic. This particular day in October I stood at the window sketching this view before breakfast. Sometimes it’s worth being a bit late

Victoria Street colours

This was a close up sketch for my weekly location quiz ‘WhereArtI?’ which runs every Monday online and in the Evening News. I soaked the paper before adding paint and I like how the colours have merged into one another. Very atmospheric.

Canongate Kirk blossom

I like to experiment with new techniques in my art and for this one I was using a Pilot pen which is similar to a fountain pen but with a flat nib. I often draw this beautiful Royal Mile church as part of My Wedding Sketcher business. Follow me on instagram at @MyWeddingSketcher

Scott Monument in grey

A detailed drawing here for a commission of the wonderfully intricate monument to Sir Walter Scott on Princes Street, drawn in black ink with charcoal pencil to shade. Using the blacks and greys of the drawing to capture contrast I was easy to print a few tinted colour versions later using the computer.

Calton Hill podcast

Towards the end of the year I was asked to be interviewed for a local podcast while I sketched my way around Calton Hill. It was an honour to be asked and this is the montage sketch I made on the day. You can listen to my recording online at https://edinburghoutdoors.podbean.com