Woodlawn Cemetery Watercolor Sketching

Please visit the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America for info: http://www.classicist.org/programs/courses/detail/sketching-the-woodlawn-cemetary/

Winterthur Demonstration

To encourage drawing as an experiential practice enhancing perception and design proficiency, participants will have the option of joining a plein-air watercolor workshop led by artist, architect, and ICA&CA faculty member James Cooper.

Winterthur Museum and Country Estate
Wilmington, Delaware
Saturday, May 16; 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM (includes travel time)

Watercolor Sketching at Columbia University 2008

Cooper-Hewitt House Proud Exhibition and Watercolor Workshop

We met at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum at 10:00 am and viewed the House Proud exhibition: http://cooperhewitt.org/EXHIBITIONS/houseproud/

At noon everyone went outside where a watercolor sketching workshop was conducted till about 3:15 pm when the after effects from the hurricane hit and it poured.

New York City Watercolor Sketching

After the watercolor workshop some of us agreed to continue sketching in the city. These watercolors were done in Central Park, Bryant Park, New York Public Libray, Soho and St. John the Divine. The top three images were painted by L.E., and the bottom three by J.C.

Architectural Sketching

Our initial meeting took place on Friday April 11th between 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the Institute of Classical Architecture. We discussed the materials list (click on image to view) which had been emailed to participants:
During the next three hours I showed the workshop participants some examples of watercolors and drawings of architectural subjects which I had done in the past. We then discussed watercolor paper, brushes, pigments, pencil drawing, sighting and measurement, color theory, practical paint mixing and painting techniques such as laying washes, modifying basic washes to drive them towards warm and cool in order to establish spatial movement in a painting.


Everyone painted a color wheel which we pinned up and discussed briefly. Finally we agreed to meet at next morning at 10:00 a.m. to begin a day of painting.

Our first sketching site was along Fifth Avenue at the New York Public Library where we set up shortly after 10:00 a.m on Saturday April 11,2008. The weather seemed promising, maybe 74 degrees and no rain. It was perfect.
Everyone's watercolor drawings and paintngs turned out well. (click on photo to see). We got sandwiches and relocated to the other side of the library to eat lunch in Bryant Park.The group was finished by about 5:40. Short and sweet. Time flew. Many thanks to the Institute of Classical Architecture and to the participants Jim, Kathy, Laura and Christa for making the workshop possible.