“Sketch-Booking Out In The World” and “Learning To Draw; An Introduction to Drawing.”

“Sketch-Booking Out In The World” will be 3 Tuesday mornings: 9/21, 9/27, and 10/4, 9:30 – 12:30.
“Learning To Draw” will be 3 Wednesday mornings: 9/22, 9/28, and 10/5, 9:30 – 12:30.

Sketch-Booking Out In The World

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Sketch-booking is the activity of filling sketchbooks with drawings of life, from life. Learning to draw is learning to see, and anything and everything going on around us and in front of us is our subject.
We have 2 goals for the class: finding the beautiful in wherever we are and discovering that the process of seeing and drawing is just as important and more fun than trying to create a “finished drawing”.
We’ll use materials that can fit easily into a pocketbook, satchel or a large jacket pocket: pencils, pens, erasures, and if you’re using brushes and inks, you’ll need a small container for water.
We’ll start each class with a few quick lessons, where I’ll demonstrate techniques to develop greater eye/hand/mind coordination and teach you how to practice capturing the likeness and the spirit of a place or a scene. We’ll visit public places to draw where we can watch and draw without attracting undue attention to ourselves like parks, coffee shops and diners, libraries, museums, tourist attractions, even cemeteries.

Rules of the road for sketching:

*Loosen up – Let your hand and pencil wander and meander for your first drawings of the day. *Understand that the process of drawing often matters more than a finished drawing – Do not be concerned with perfect or “right”: they don’t exist. Seeing is the important thing.
*Keep your materials list small- You want to be sure that you can carry and access them easily.
*Embrace randomness – We are seldom given perfect compositions or subject matter so draw the imperfect ones you are given. *Experiment with materials – Pencil, pen, ink or watercolor? Black, white or red? You decide.

Learning To Draw; An Introduction to Drawing

This class will introduce beginning students to the materials, techniques and different styles of drawing. Using demonstrations with still-life, followed by individual and group critiques, students will learn a framework for how to create a drawing: descriptive mark-making, blending and shading, value, shapes, form and composition. We will also get to know the tools of the trade: brushes, mediums, surfaces, and concepts.

Drawing can be learned. Learning to coordinate the eye, the mind and the hand to respond in unison to visual stimuli is simpler than it may sound. As long as mistakes are not going to stop someone from trying again, I can help them learn the skills needed to make challenging and gratifying drawings.