Crealde Urban Sketching Class

Posted on by Thor

This is a quick sketch done of my students working on the patio behind the Crealde Urban Sketching classroom. This was a demo to show how to do a thumbnail sketch to plan out the composition of a scene.

I do these sketches with no intention of pushing them to a finish to show the early stages of planning a scene. When I work on location on my own, I tent to just jump in and do a sketch that fills the page. The early stages of one of those large sketches would also look a bit like this, with detail pushed aside to block in the big shapes. This sketch really only has one major shape and that is the students on several benches. The general shape is a backwards letter L.

This thumbnail could be pushed further if I went back in and refined shapes using my fountain pen. Instead, I spent my time working with each student to show each how to analyze and sketch their own thumbnails, based on their chosen view.

Crealde Student

Posted on by Thor

In my Crealde Urban Sketching class, we take one class to do fast five or ten minute poses with each student taking a turn.

As a demo I sketch each student in turn and try and encourage the students to capture more that the person but the entire scene.

There is a frantic energy to working so fast and the goal to get the students to work just as fast and frenetic. Sketches become less detail oriented and more simplified. Detail is only added where it is needed.

I am always pushing students to look for the curve of the back so in this sketch there is one curve drawn behind the figure to show that curve. It was the first line to go on the page.

Orlando Urban Sketchers: Baldwin Perk

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Urban Sketchers held a morning sketch outing at Baldwin Perk Caffè, 4833 New Broad Street Baldwin Park Florida. I ordered a iced caramel latte and it was delicious. I was super pleased that Baldwin Perk Caffè has a state of the art HEPA air filter running. I sat next to the filter. I am always pleased find establishments that offer clean air for their patrons. I debated about removing my mask but it was just as easy to leave it on. Masking indoors is my new normal. I have had a cough for the past week and wanted to keep everyone else safe.

I am so pleased with how strong the Orlando Chapter or Urban Sketchers has grown. The coffee hose was full of sketchers. It was like a sketching flash mob.

Gay reminded me of the times I used to host drink and draw events. She was one of the few artists who showed up in the early days and she is still sketching, Well on this day she was on her laptop working remote, but she often sketches at these outings. Noga who did an amazing job of building the group has been able to hand over many of the responsibilities to a new generation of artists.

One of my former students was sketching. I glanced at her several times convinced I must have met her before, but I couldn’t put 2 an 2 together. I don’t math in the morning, especially without caffeine.  Anyway she was one of my former Crealdè School of Art students. She showed me her sketchbook, full of my thumbnail notes. I had done a sketch of her in class, when we were going over sketching people on location. Meeting he absolutely made me glow. I have always said that if I can convince one student that sketching on location is an inspiring way to live life, then I would have done my job as an instructor. She convinced me I had done my job right for once.

I would gladly return to Baldwin Perk. I might stop in when I am teaching a class at Crealde again on Sundays. Urban sketching is my religion.

Urban Sketching Classes Canceled

Posted on by Thor

In the Crealde School of Art Summer Urban Sketching classes we cover composition, perspective, drawing the figure, and watercolor. We start with a lesson plan where I discuss the day’s topic and do sketches on a chalk board. I tend to explain better with line rather than words.

Then students spend much of the class sketching. I sketch along with them and share each step of my process so they get a feel for how long each step takes.

I also do pencil thumbnail sketches for each student explaining what could be adjusted inn the sketch they are doing to help improve it.

At the end of class we all put down the favorite sketch and then they get to learn from each other, discussing what works best.

Unfortunately not enough students signed up, so the next series of classes were canceled.

Crealde Panorama

Posted on by Thor


Each Sunday I head out to Crealde to do demos and try and inspire my students to sketch anywhere they go. We spent all of the classes so far exploring the campus. I keep stressing that everything is sketch worthy. We have covered drawing human proportions and this last class I did a demo on how to draw faces. Most of the time however is spent sketching.

I had the student break up a single sketch page into 9 panels and the goal became to fill each panel with a small sketch. Since students were still getting used to the supplies they worked slowly the first class. Some students only finished one panel other finished several. This week we returned to the same assignment to complete the page. At the end of this class one very talented student had finished every panel. She said, “This is the first complete sketch I have ever done.” It was rewarding to know I helped pushed her towards the concept of finished sketches that have line, value and color.

Another student pointed out that she had never filled a sketchbook. The problem is that many artists feel the book as a whole needs to be a masterpiece, and if it isn’t they put it aside and start another sketchbook. I always show my students my sketchbook that was lost when I rode my bike across the country. It was returned 30 years later when it was found in someones garage. Early sketches in the book are from when I was a freshman in college, then the book transitions into sketches form today. The transition is a jarring as the transition for black and white to color TV.

Since I am packing up my studio, I found all these scraps of matte board which are very horizontal in format. I demonstrated how to block in a panoramic composition in pencil, then pen and finally watercolor washes. I walked the sketch around to show each step, so students know how much time an effort goes into each step. All the while I let them keep working on their own sketches. They learn the most for making their own mistakes. I always offer suggestions, but also encourage then to accept the sketch as it is and apply my suggestions on the next sketch they do.

A gardener was carrying off huge trash cans full of refuge. It looked like real back breaking work. He loved to chat. He has been doing this type of work since he was 14. His father got him started and the money he made was put towards his first car. I later learned that he makes more than I do teaching at Crealde. Unfortunately I doubt I am strong enough to carry the same loads like Atlas. I can only put down lines and washes.

Sprout Halloween Nap

Posted on by Thor

The last drawing I did during a virtual online course with a student pulled everything together. Donkey got off of this seat and Sprout took her place. Thankfully he was facing me as he dozed off. He is rather small on the page which allows the setting to tell more of the story.

In the corner is an umbrella for a rainy day. Next to the umbrella is a six foot long stick which I used to bring to Crealde Classes to be sure students were spaced apart. COVID is airborne and can linger in the air for much further than six feet but at least I tried to keep my students safe.

What makes this sketch work is the contrast between the bright outdoors and the dark interior. It allows for more impressionistic colors and moody greys. Hopefully the student walked away with an understanding that a good sketch is more about the story than just getting the thing on the page.

Crealde Thumbnails

Posted on by admin

My next Crealde Urban Sketching class was canceled since not enough students signed up.These thumbnails were done on the Crealde campus with an Urban Sketching students. He only had a pencil and paper to work with so I used just a pencil to block in the quick compositions. I enjoy doing these since there is no pressure to produce a refined and finished sketch. Looser is better.

Crealde Classroom Pandemic Sketch

Posted on by Thor

In my Crealde Urban Sketching course we tend to take one class to sketch fellow students as they work. I do quick 5 minute sketches to demonstrate how to position a figure on the page.  This particular sketch seems to be a sketch on top pf a sketch. I forget what I was demonstrating with the rough grid pattern. I was probably stressing how to avoid lining everything up on a grid and avoid horizontal and vertical lines.

Most classes are outside exploring the campus with our sketchbooks. I do this because it keeps my students safer during the pandemic. I was advised to offer an advanced urban sketching course but not enough students signed up so it was scrapped. No artist thinks of themselves as intermediate or advanced. Heck every one on my sketches is a series of mistakes.

The next series of Crealde Urban Sketching classes is starting up January 20, 2022. We meet on Sundays from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

Crealde Pandemic Student

Posted on by Thor

At Crealde School of Art once each series of classes I pose for students doing 5 minute gestures and then I have students pose in turn. With one student I will do a 5 minute demo to show how I approach getting the figure on the page with as much information as possible. Rather than just using a pencil, I use watercolor as well to get quick color shapes down on the page.

With more time I would work on top of this adding detail in ink and making the darks darker. My process is pretty simple, in each section of the sketch I want to have three values, the white of the page, then a medium value and a dark dark. In this sketch I only had time to throw a medium value over the darker areas of the figure.

Sometimes detail is left out due to time constraints but then you realize that the that detail isn’t always needed. The goal is to dance on the line between crazy rough and gloriously refined. So long as each sketch is not the worst I have ever done, I can keep moving forward.

My latest Urban Sketching Class for advanced students was canceled because not enough students wanted to sing up. Either students are social isolating or there isn’t much interest in sketching on location. I still wear a mask every time I sketch on location. The pandemic isn’t over and I have dodged the COVID bullet so far.

Crealde Classroom

Posted on by Thor

Most of my Crealde Urban Sketching classes have been held outside during the pandemic. Sometimes however the weather forces us indoors. For those classes I teach the students how to populate a sketch with multiple people in an indoor setting. The lesson starts at the blackboard where I explain how to relate one figure to another in a sketch.

I put away the desks for this class so we would have a wide open space to sketch. Many students have difficulty sketching people who are behind a desk. Like most of my sketches done on location I teach the students to think about drawing the room and then adding actors to that room.

As always, I do a sketch along with the students and show them my progress at the various sates of the sketch’s progression. I have a love affair with line and I try and convey that passion to the students. Watercolor washes are a fun afterthought to pull together all the elements that have been locked in place with line.

The next series of Sunday Crealde Urban Sketching classes starts after October 17, 2022.