Sketching to observe, understand, and remember

After teaching design with drawing in Architecture School for many years, I now find myself teaching urban sketching to many different groups including school children.

In order to unlock drawing of places by people who are neither design professionals or aspiring to be design professionals, I have created some workshop processes that help to build confidence and skills to observe, understand and remember. (what I constantly tell designers)

Here is a workshop I ran at Burleigh Beach for Gold Coast Open House and in Palmwoods for Sunshine Coast Open House in 2024. I encourage everyone to try this in the field.

1 Draw three frames on the page using an A7 or so viewfinder

2 Choose a scene and draw the shapes and tonal values with a coloured pencil.  Consider shapes and tones as much as lines.

Spend no more that 15 minutes per drawing

3 Draw over the second drawing with a felt pen. Correct any errors as needed.  See if there is too much pencil on the drawing. No more than 15 minutes.

Regroup after 45 minutes. Show and tell.  

4 Sketch the same drawing in pencil in the third frame. Edit the amount of lines and tones based on the observations from the first two sketches.

No more than 15 minutes

5 Draw over the third drawing with a felt pen. Add correct colours and darker tones in pencil. 

6 Throwdown and discussions. How did we go? What did we learn?

I have done this workshop a few times now and they have been received well. It is fun and the time goes very quickly. Contact me if you have any interest on sketching workshops.