"It amazed me that you stayed two hours or more after class to help people and answer questions when you were clearly ready for a break after two intensive days. Your artistic talent and your talent in teaching is a wonderful and unusual combination, and you are so generous with it. What a wonderful workshop."
APLD Member Judy Maier
Landscape Designer
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SKETCHING ON LOCATIONTM
Massively improve your freehand sketching in one unforgettable weekend!

What You'll Learn
The questions we'll cover in two fun-filled days…
  • What equipment do I really need?


  • I’m an Architect (or designer)…how do I apply sketching to my design process?


  • I have a hard time drawing angles and proportions right. Is there a failsafe method for doing this properly?


  • I'm overwhelmed by the colors in a typical scene! Where do I begin?


  • My drawings look so tedious and stilted - how do I produce sketches with verve and life?


  • My sketches and drawings lack feeling. How do I inject emotion into my sketches, to communicate the feel of a place?


  • How do I "capture light" in my sketch, to match the radiance of the real scene?


  • How did Leonardo da Vinci, and master watercolorists like John Singer Sargent, and J.M.W. Turner sketch? What specifically did they learn from sketching? How can I apply these lessons in my work?


  • What about Architects Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Christopher Alexander, and Landscape Architects Lawrence Halprin, and Laurie Olin? How did sketching improve their design work?


  • What elements of a place can a camera never capture? How can I capture that quality in my sketches?


  • How do I add mood and atmosphere?


  • What is a "value pattern" and why is it critical to the success of every sketch?


  • Is there a way to add life to shadows? Mine look so dark and drab…


  • How do I deal with "subject overwhelm?"


  • How do I indicate textures quickly and easily so I don't get bogged down drawing details?


  • How do I draw figures that look credible and attractive?


  • What four things will absolutely ruin a sketch?


  • What's the most difficult color to get "right?"


  • What are the five questions I must always ask myself before touching pencil, pen, or brush to paper?


Sketching isn't drawing pretty pictures. It's seeing and reacting to a subject, then communicating not just how it looks, but how it feels. In doing so, you are forced to delve deeply into a place, the shapes, the colors, the values, and how all of these combine to give a feeling - a feeling that you try to capture and communicate to others. No other activity will teach you more about design.

Although it's great fun, it's never easy. But the payoff is a deep, INTENSE experience every time you do it. It improves your focus. It improves your thinking. It improves your creativity. It is absolutely critical that EVERY designer do it, and do it often. We'll show you how to do it smarter, easier, and with greater feeling.