Join Us in Romania!

 

✏️ Sketching & Adventures in Romania

September 17 – October 1, 2025
🎨 With Christina Wald & Dr. Ioana Popescu

Discover Romania’s rich history, castles, and culture — sketchbook optional!

🛏️ 14 nights in hand-picked historic hotels
🚌 Comfortable group transport
🍳 Daily breakfast
🏰 Entry to 3 stunning castles included
✈️ Airport transfers included

Highlights:

• Bucharest – Explore Romania’s lively capital & Old Town

• Transfăgărășan Road – One of the world’s most scenic drives

• Sibiu – Saxon citadel with medieval charm

• Corvin Castle – Fairytale Gothic fortress

• Alba Iulia – Iconic citadel and symbol of Romanian unity

• Bethlen-Haller Castle – French-Renaissance gem with Baroque flair

• Sighișoara – UNESCO medieval town & birthplace of Dracula

• Bran Castle – Legendary “Dracula’s Castle”

• Brașov – Charming walled city in the Carpathians

• Peleș Castle – Lavish royal palace with secret doors and Klimt frescoes

🎨 For sketchers: Christina Wald will guide you through amazing locations to fill your travel sketchbooks.
🗺️ For non-sketchers: Dr. Ioana Popescu leads alternate excursions: museums, hikes, and cultural gems.

💲 Price:
$3,800 double occupancy
$4,100 single occupancy

🌐 SketchingTours.com

Reserve your spot now!

Not Included: 

Airfare

Some Meals

Travel Insurance

Sketcher Fest 2025

 

I am so excited to be a guest artist at Sketcher Fest this year! I will be doing a workshop and lecture. Hope to see some of my friends there!

Registration opens this spring! I will update this post with a link. You can sign up to be notified on the website.

COMING SOON! Online Workshops

 

I am going to do some online workshops next year. People keep asking!

I am still working out the logistics.

So far, the topics will be:

• January: Negative Space and Perspective
• February: ILLUSTRATION Animal Portraits
• March: Urban Sketching with Gouache
• June: ILLUSTRATION Animals in Action
• July: Composition in Urban Sketches
• August: Animals in Gouache
• October: Animal Gesture Sketches

Some may change and right now, I plan for my Patrons to attend any workshop free of charge and non-patrons (limited to 10 per workshop) will pay a fee.

Sign up to my mailing list to get notified when you can register.

Join my Patreon to access these for free!

Demo for Dick Blick using Caran d'Ache

 

I was really excited to do a demo for Dick Blick of Caran d'Ache materials. I gave them several holiday options to choose from and they picked the tree at Rockefeller Center sketch I presented. I visited there last year before Christmas and took a bunch of photos.

I really enjoyed using Caran d'Ache's materials. They are all so well made. Their water brushes are the best I have ever used. They are so easy to fill and add water while painting. Their palette is great too. It is my gouache go-to.

Seeing Merrily We Roll Along last year in NYC

The Professional Artist Episode 26: The Power of Sketching

 

I will be on Echo Cherniks Podcast The Professional Artist tomorrow at 4pm EST LIVE on Facebook and YouTube!

More info here: https://echochernik.com/blogs/echo/the-professional-artist-e026-the-power-of-sketching

Watch more episodes on her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@EchoChernik

Tuscany 2025!

 

Join Christina Wald in Tuscany!

May 2025, immerse yourself in a 11-day/10-night art adventure!

• Explore Val d'Orcia's rich history & beauty

• Savor local food, wine, and transport on us!

• $4500 single, $4200 double, or $3800 for non-sketching partners

Includes:

• 10 nights accommodations

• 10 breakfasts, most lunches & dinners

More info here: https://www.lisastatkus.com/christina-walds-a-sketching-obsession-in-tuscany-workshop-info/

Register here: https://www.lisastatkus.com/product/christina-walds-sketching-obsession-in-tuscany-2025/

Sketching Here & Everywhere at Sketcher Fest!

 

Exciting news! Sketching Here & Everywhere was in the Sketcher Press store at Sketcher Fest last weekend.

I hope to attend the next one!

Join me in Tuscany in May 2025!

 

I am teaching an amazing workshop in Tuscany in May!

We will sketch, paint, and absorb the Tuscan atmosphere. We stay in one place the whole time and take some excursions. Food and transport during the trip are provided.

This is a 11 day/10 night adventure in the Val d’Orcia Region of Tuscany, an area rich with history, beauty and incredible food.

Learn more here.

Pay your deposit here.

It is $4500 for single occupancy and $4200 per person double occupancy.

For non-sketching partners, it is $3800.

Included in your workshop are the following:

• 10 nights accommodations, double or single occupancy
• 10 breakfasts, most lunches and dinners (with the exceptions listed above during our various outings)
• Wine with meals
• Instructor’s fees and instruction
• Transportation from and to Peretola International Airport in Florence, Italy on
• designated days and times
• All ground transport to various places we visit
• Entrance fees where required
• A printed summary on the last day of all the places you have visited and seen.

Not included in your workshop:

• Airfare
• Travel insurance for the full value of your holiday (required)
• Extra wine or snacks you may wish to have in your room
• Staff gratuity (we present this to our house staff and drivers on the last evening – guidelines will be included in your registration packet)
• 
  
  
  
  

Romania 2024

 

We had an amazing visit this year to Romania! The itinerary was very different from our 2022 trip and we visited Constanța and the Black Sea.

I worked to journal every day but I did get a few days behind. I keep pushing myself to write more.

Once again, I will be putting together another travelogue. I am still deciding on the cover image and keep changing my mind.

I had my main Sillman & Birn book and a few feeder sketchbooks including a square zigzag I will post later.

So many great stories I look forward to expanding in the travelogue.

I also just updated the website for our September 2025 trip!

We have two 15-day trips available. 

Stay tuned!

Profile in the Northerner

 

The Northerner did a really nice write-up about me!

I cannot believe that I have been there since 2013!

https://www.thenortherner.com/uncategorized/2024/05/03/meet-sota-design-professor-christina-wald/

Illustration Show Opening at Reading Community Arts Center

 

Join me, Jim Effler, and CF Payne for our Illustration Show opening Friday, May 3rd at Reading Community Arts Center.

I get so many questions from people interested in illustration as a career. So on Sunday, 2-4, we will discuss careers in illustration.

Is a career possible? Yes. Is it complicated? Yes. Is the market constantly changing? Yes.

Pretty Marjory from Kew Gardens will be on display at the show.

Workshop in Tuscany in May 2025

 

They say if you rub the nose of Il Porcellino in Florence, Italy, you are destined to return one day!

The news is out! I will be running a Sketch Workshop in Tuscany in May 2025. Get all of the info here!

Join me! I can not wait to sketch with you!

Demo for March 2024 Issue of Drawing Attention

 

I did a demo for the Urban Sketchers quarterly magazine Drawing Attention!

It was an excuse to spend an afternoon sketching at Findlay Market. We met the woman installing the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum Center. 

Sneak peek of the article

Read it here! https://issuu.com/drawingattention/docs/current_da_march_2024_/32

Write-Up on WGUC blog

 

Even though the workshop is sold out, I will have books and mini-palettes there for sale and will be signing books at 3:30.

Nice write-up on the WGUC website. Mostly about the PLAZA workshop on Saturday and my show at Clermont College.

https://wguc.org/learn-from-cincinnatian-and-childrens-book-illustrator-christina-wald-the-skill-of-urban-sketching/

Also, my show open house is at Clermont College on the 27th. Hope to see you there!

Workshop at PLAZA Kenwood

 

I was going to do a post about my workshop at PLAZA but it sold out!

See you all on February 24th!

Solo Show at University of Cincinnati Clermont College

 

I have a solo show opening on Monday!

Here is an article about My Sketching Obsession show.

It mostly covers my sketches done at my Artist Residency at Chateau d'Orquevaux. I also have included some other travel sketchbooks as well.

Postcard From the Exhibit

Postcard Back

I had been invited to show my work before the residency so I created work I could frame. Usually, it is hard to do a show about sketching because all the work is in sketchbooks and they need to be printed for the most part so you do not have to cut them out of the book.

I worked in four sketchbooks during the residency in addition to painting almost 20 images on watercolor paper I purchased in France.

In addition to the reception in February, we are planning another evening to share the show and meet the artist.

TRAVELOGUE Update

 

I have ordered a bunch of author copies.

 Pre-order a signed copy here!

Chateau d'Orquevaux TRAVELOGUE

 

The travelogue is available to order! I am still waiting for my hard proof so I am not sure when it will ship for sure, but the production work is finished!

I am waiting for my first print copy to review but it is available to order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many others! 

Some spreads:  

Join us in Romania in June, 2024!

 

Our website is up and running and we have two itineraries in June, a 10-day and 15-day.

I can email the detailed itineraries. The 10-day is a deep dive into Transylvania and the 15-day goes beyond to the Black Sea and north. 

See more here: sketchingtours.com

TONIGHT! 📚Christina Wald Shares her Path to Publishing in BCM's Virtual NKY History Hour, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m.

 

I am doing an online talk for the Behringer-Crawford Museum. Sign up here!

I will also be signing The Train Rolls On to the North Pole on December 3rd! Details soon.

Mini-Guide to Limited Palettes

As part of my Kickstarter for SKETCHING HERE & EVERYWHERE, I added a guide to mixing colors as a stretch goal. Many people who are experimenting with the mini-palette asked what colors I liked.

IT IS FINALLY AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD!

If you want to get a mini-palette to try out, ORDER HERE!