Sketch and the City - online course

Lesson release dates: 4 - 15 Nov 2024
Continued access period: LIFETIME.

SYLLABUS: This interdisciplinary course has been formed from the barrage of novel exercises I have picked up or developed over the years in design schools and architecture studios. As well as responding to the buildings, streets, people, and green spaces that make up any city, we will look for the details that make a place distinctive: signage, scale, infrastructure, clues to location, and so on. Some lessons will prompt you to think more deeply about the emergence, growth and future of cities, or to respond abstractly to fictional cities. I will share tips and techniques to help you observe and draw elements of cities, covering the practical aspects of graphic communication, such as perspective, proportion, shadows, reflections, form, and so on. We will also explore some fascinating concepts and movements relating to urban places, such as psychogeography, semiotics, ecological urbanism, De Stijl, and Flâneurism, and whole theoretical approaches that attempt to redefine the notion of The City, such as The Walkable City, Sustainable City, and Equitable City. Finally, each lesson will reference a relevant hero: either a key player in understanding cities or an artist whose work will inspire you in your quest to sketch the city.

FORMAT: A new session (ten in total) will be uploaded to a course page on my website every weekday at around 9am UK time (GMT or BST, depending on month) during the dates you select. Each daily session will include a learning objective, topic overview, contextual description, and video tutorial. In addition, two short bonus films, with briefs for weekend activities, will be shared on the two Friday afternoons. Once content is activated, it will remain accessible to you for the lifetime of the course. When I eventually decide to retire the course, I will email and give you four months notice of its removal. You therefore get the pace and rhythm of a real-time course, with the benefit of recorded content being replayable repeatedly anytime regardless of time zone or schedule.

ACCESS: I will email a link and password for the course page on the Friday before your course commences. Please be sure to type your email address correctly, so your access email doesn't go astray. If you haven't received your access link and password 48 hours before the course commences, please check your junk folder and/or email me at [email protected].

PRICING: The concessionary price is offered on an honesty-box basis. If your income is low, for whatever reason, please select concession. No explanation necessary.

MATERIALS:
• Sketchbook (A5 or larger, with cartridge paper pages)
• Ruler, scissors, pencil sharpener, eraser, 2 small binder/bulldog clips, low-tack masking tape, double-sided adhesive tape, sharp knife, cutting mat, and paper glue
• Black fineliner pens (with a range of nib widths)
• Graphite pencils (HB to very soft)
• Watercolour paint (red, yellow, and blue, plus any other colours)
• White plate or palette for mixing colours
• Watercolour brushes (flat and round in a range of sizes)
• Fountain pen (with soluble ink in any dark colour)
• A selection of the following: pastel pencils, aquarelle sticks or pencils, and acrylic markers (any colours, but at least one light, one dark, and one mid tone in each)
• White fineliner pen
• White paint (gouache, bleed proof white, or a good quality watercolour)
• Printed/found collage papers
• Tracing paper
• A couple of loose A3 (or equivalent) sheets of each of the following: watercolour paper, cartridge paper, black paper, tonal paper (such as brown Kraft paper, or Mi-Teintes, Rico, or Tiziano paper in earthy colour)
• Scraps of lightweight card (like the sort from a tea bag or cracker box)
• Adhesive foam pads (Sticky Fixers from Sellotape is one brand, I’m sure others are available). These are for attaching paper shapes to a sheet of paper in such a way that a shadow is created, giving a 3D effect to an assemblage.

COPYRIGHT: all content is my own. Bookings are for personal, individual use only. Sharing and reproducing course content is prohibited. If you are a teacher looking for lessons, please contact me to discuss the various options available for bringing me (electronically or in person) into your classroom.