Simone Ridyard is an architect and senior lecturer in Interior Design at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has an international profile as an architectural illustrator through her work with the globally recognised Urban Sketchers community.


Simone set up Urban Sketchers Manchester in 2012 and her own research centres on architectural reportage and in-situ drawing. Her workshops specialise in understanding perspective drawing. Simone wrote Archisketcher: Drawing Buildings, Cities and Landscapes (North Light Books 2015). She has contributed to many publications on Urban Sketching and has co-edited two Manchester Sketchbooks, published by Mancunian Books. Simone has collaborated with Winsor & Newton, Derwent and The Big Draw on publicised art campaigns and her work has been featured in the Observer News Review and on the Guardian website.