Announcing: Shari Blaukopf: Sketching the City

My frequent sketching partner, sometimes co-teacher and fellow USK:Montreal sketcher Shari Blaukopf has recently released her second workshop with Craftsy.com: Sketching the City in Pen, Ink and Watercolor.

Regular readers will know Shari’s work from our painting outings, and maybe you remember this free wet-in-wet watercolor demo she did for us back in 2013.

Shari’s also the author of  Sketching Landscapes in Pen Ink and Watercolor, so it’s no surprise that this new course is a good companion class. This time out they visit various locations around Craftsy’s home town Denver Colorado, capturing demos of her sketchbooking process. Starting with sketching thumbnails, followed by a simple but precise drawing that becomes a framework for the watercolor to follow.

The program has seven chapters, each featuring more than one demonstration related to architectural sketching or street views. Alongside the start-to-finish demonstrations, Shari fits in a lot of helpful tips such as how to draw brick work or field stone, handling reflections and depth in windows, or filling streets with lifelike detail – all the signage and wires and crowds of people.

My favorite section is an excellent demo on painting complex cast shadows. This is a nice bit of brushwork creating the effect of leaf dappling. It’s helpful to see how simple the approach really is – but how brush handling is a matter of practice-makes-perfect. A great exercise for beginners ready to go to the next level.

The final demo is a panoramic park view that illustrates how to place a focal point with color and contrast. Something I’m always trying to instill in students. A drawing might include a wide view of the world, but there should still be a strong central focus.

~m