I am a photographer, sketcher, and watercolor painter. I offer training on learning how to use your camera more efficiently as well as on sketching and watercolor painting. In addition, I sell originals and prints of my watercolor paintings.
Sketching & Watercolor Painting On-Location Intro - Online
My next online offering of this class will be in late June 2021.
(Contact Me!)
The 5-color palette
This is a 6-hour, hands-on class spread over three days of connecting online using Zoom. The third online meeting will last an hour and be scheduled when convenient for all participants. During the final class meeting you will share your on-location sketch of a subject of your choice.
It is my goal to teach you sketching basics with an introduction to using a limited, 5-color watercolor paint palette to add color to your sketches. I hope to provide you with the essential tools and skills to be able to go outside and capture what you see before you in a recognizable painted sketch. I will mail you all the tools you need - except for a water container (which I assume you have already) - to sit on a sidewalk or folding chair, draw your house, a city building, or a landscape and finish your sketch with watercolor.
As part of your sketching basics training, you will practice shading techniques to turn a rectangle into a cylinder (a porch column), and a trapezoid into a planter as we build a house porch scene together. You will learn how to create nine additional colors from the three primary colors in the paint palette provided then use them over a permanent ink sketch you’ve created. In total you will create six finished paintings by the end of this six hour online experience spread over two half days. We will do four of those sketches all together while online. You will do your last sketch/painting on your own after our first two online meetings. The class is limited to four participants and is conducted entirely online using the free video conferencing app Zoom. We will have offline breaks during which you will complete your assignments.
Interested? You can register and pay by credit card online by clicking on the “Register” link at the top or bottom of this page that corresponds to the offering date in which you’re interested. If you have questions about anything, please contact me by filling out my Contact form.
Want More Information? Read On
On-Location sketching and painting, often referred to as “urban sketching,” involves capturing the world around you right where you are. It differs from drawing a building or scene from a reference photo by giving you a “feeling” of the environment in which that building is. And it differs from simply taking a photograph because since you’re taking the time to analyze the scene to draw it, you’ll remember the experience better.
Deserted church in Germany.
My approach to watercolor differs somewhat from that of others whom I refer to as “traditional watercolorists.” A traditional artist may make a light pencil sketch first, but many, in my experience, do not. They construct the whole scene using only watercolor paint. My approach is to lay out the scene on a page in my 7 1/2” x 5” (19x13cm) sketchbook, identifying the big shapes and adding some, but not all, detail using a pencil. I then take my ink pen and go over my pencil lines adding more detail until I feel my sketch is complete. However, sometimes, if I’m feeling bold, I may do this initial sketch starting right off using my pen. At this point, if there are pencil marks, I’ll use a kneaded eraser and remove them. Only then do I begin applying watercolor paint.
My personal goal for my own sketching and painting and, therefore, my goal for you, is to capture a scene outside, on-location, from pencil sketch to finished painting. It doesn’t have to be an urban scene; it might be the backyard of our house or a shed on a rural farm. This means I’m typically sketching buildings and buildings are made up of shapes, such as squares, rectangles, circles, trapezoids, and ellipses. I’m also often looking at a structure at an angle so that means I have to be aware of perspective. Though we will work with color mixing in this class and you will add paint to sketches you complete, we will, because of the above, spend time working with shapes, shading, and one- and two-point perspective. You will complete four painted sketches in the class and all of them will help you achieve the goal I have set for you.
Snapshot of a Zoom Gallery view.
This class is conducted totally online using free video conferencing software. Similar to my on-site “Sketching & Watercolor Painting Sampler” class, this online class helps you learn - or improve on - how to do pencil sketches that you then ink with a fine tip pen. The instructor-guided activities show you how to paint an inked sketch with watercolor. The class is held in two half-day sessions with a third 1-hour online follow-up meeting during which participants share their final sketches.
Your art materials starter kit.
Once you have registered for the class, I will mail you your art materials “kit,” which includes a 9-well mixing palette, 8-page, 7 1/2” x 5” (19x13cm) sketchbook made with quality 140lb/300 g/m² cold press (textured) watercolor paper, a mechanical pencil, a permanent ink pen, a kneaded eraser, two paint brushes, two binder clips, and five plastic half pans filled with five different Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor paints. All you need to add to your kit is a paper towel, a water container to rinse your brushes, and - if you want - a 17” x 13” (43x33cm) piece of cardboard to use as drawing board on your lap or working compactly on-location. The half pans have magnetic strips on the bottom so they can be placed in a small metal tin (e.g., an empty Sucrets or Altoid mints tin), on a small metal strip, or a metal jar top.
How It Works
I limit the class to four participants. To participate you must have either a computer (Windows or Mac) or a mobile device (smartphone or tablet, IOS or Android), a decent Internet connection, be able to dedicate two consecutive mornings or afternoon to work online and offline to complete assignments, and a third meeting at a time agreed upon by all participants. The first session - both online and offline work - lasts approximately three hours. The second session, the next day, lasts approximately two hours. The final class meeting is meant to last only one hour.
5-paint sample page
We will use the Zoom app to conduct our time together online. Zoom is free and available for all platforms. A few days before our first day of class we will meet online to test your connection (if necessary) and so you’re familiar with how we will work “in class” online.
When the class begins on Day 1 we will have sessions together online during which I’ll demonstrate something you will either create while I’m demonstrating or offline during a break. If it’s a morning session we will usually begin at 10 AM EDT and end at 1:00 PM EDT. On Day 2 we will discuss your final assignment, your first on-location sketch and painting which you are to complete on your own. We will all decide on a mutually agreeable date and time (preferably in one week) to come back together for a final 1-hour session during which everyone will share his/her painting and we will conclude the class.
What’s This Going to Cost Me?
The cost of the Sketching & Watercolor Painting On-Location Intro - Online class is US $50.00 and includes the art materials kit described above and cost of mailing, all instruction, and downloadable PDFs of all the handouts, plus access to the instructor via text or e-mail after the class.
Interested? You can register and pay by credit card online. If you have questions about anything, please fill out my Contact form.
My next online offering of this class will be in late June 2021.
(Contact Me!)