This doesn’t happen every day! I’m honored to have been asked by Watercolor Artist/Artists magazines to teach a series of four online classes as part of their new series, “Artists Classroom @ Home.” I’ve selected the theme of ARCHES in different places for the course. Arches are not like horseshoes in shape, after all! I’ll explain the anatomy of arches and how they work in perspective and watercolor.
Best part of all, these classes are only $24.95 each until March 12. You can sign up for one, two or all.
Thursdays, March 13, 27, April 10, 24 from 1pm-3pm ET.
Here is the information for registration INFO Hope to see you there!
I’ve been crazy busy for weeks with day job work and planning workshops for this year, so it’s high time that I posted a sketch. This was a present for my neighbor –whose house is literally magazine-ready beautiful and all decked out for the holidays–as a way to say thank you.
I quickly fell into a slow and steady pace…it took almost 3 hours for the linework and maybe an hour and a half for the color. Anyone who has taken my workshops knows that I start all my sketches with a simple rectangle, or the “Big Shape.” Here it was the rectangle at the back of the dining room. Next, I locate my vanishing point and eye level, and in three steps, I’ve got everything in place for the entire drawing. I worked in layers going left to right to minimize smearing of my 2B pencil, cleaning up, darkening and correcting lines as I go. Detail comes last. The hardest part? The shape of that table!
It was a lovely, quiet moment during the holidays in which I forgot everything else and just focused on this sketch, calming and restoring my soul.
Thinking about an in-person or online workshop next year? Maybe a bit of travel? Contact me or follow the links for information and registration. And check the workshop tabs at Drawing Perspectives for updates. Thank you!
LIVE ONLINE on Zoom: Understanding Perspective + Lots More! | Three, 4-hour classes that finally demystify perspective and watercolor sketching. These classes are packed with information, you’ll learn tons. More classes will be added in the Spring.
January 5, 12, 19, 2025 at 9am PST | Only 2 spots left! Email me for info at stephaniebower.workshops@gmail.com
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LIVE ONLINE: Terracotta Explorer: Perspective in Spain, Towers are Like Wedding Cakes | This is part of an ongoing series of classes through Terracotta, whose cadre of artists are among the best in the world. A few can join specifically for my one class on sketching towers.
LIVE ONLINE: Terracotta Symposium: The Foundations of Architectural Art | This event is not to be missed! Join four instructors who specialize in sketching and painting architecture–the rockstar Thomas Schaller, Alex Hillkurtz, Pablo Questa, and me (Stephanie Bower! ) — and immerse yourself for a weekend in the world of architectural beauty as each artist leads an in-depth session with live demonstrations and an interactive Q&A. Lifetime access to recordings. My workshop will be on sketching this view of Turl Street in Oxford.
Use code BOWER50 to get a whopping $50 off the early bird price!
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LIVE IN-PERSON | Urban Sketching in Quebec City, Canada | You’ll think you are in old world Europe, but it’s Canada! Join me and Studio 56 for 6 nights, 5 days of instruction as you learn how to sketch streets, fountains, elegant towers, and more…lessons in the morning, cultural visits and sketching in the afternoons. Register now for early bird pricing.
LIVE IN-PERSON: Northern California Coast at Pacific Grove | Imagine 5 days of sketching this beautiful coast, old churches and missions, and more for a combination of in studio and outdoor urban sketching. Sponsored by MISA in their beautiful new workshop location.
I’m squeezing in a workshop before the end of the year!
UNDERSTANDING PERSPECTIVE | LIVE online Urban Sketching Course in Perspective & Watercolor, made easy with instructor Stephanie Bower USA
Do you fear or fake perspective sketching? Can’t figure out how to start a sketch of a building? And where is that darn vanishing point anyway? Do you know how to paint shade and shadow differently? They are not the same!
Understanding Perspective is a LIVE online course that makes perspective sketching easy! I’m Urban Sketcher, workshop instructor (I’ve taught at 7 USk international symposiums!), architectural illustrator, and author of three books Stephanie Bower, and I’m excited to offer this course to anyone wanting to finally understand how perspective works. Perspective is easy when you know what to look for!
This course is a 100% live, interactive 3-part online class taught via Zoom in which you’ll learn by drawing along with me in real time. In each class, we’ll take notes and sketch together as I present perspective concepts in a crafted PowerPoint presentation, then we will apply those concepts in a step-by-step sketching demo that we will draw and paint together.
What makes this course different from others? Two things: We diagram the perspective views, explaining why the views look the way they do, SHOWING how perspective works. Most instructors skip this part! And second: it’s really two workshops in one. You’ll learn perspective AND watercolor technique! You’ll see me work up close (even better than an in-person workshop), and I’ll answer your questions LIVE.
Understanding Perspective, December Session 1
Dates:Sundays, December 8, 15, and 22, 2024 | 9am-1pm PST (Seattle) | 12noon-4pm (NYC) | 5pm-9pm (London) | 6pm-10pm (Paris)
Class 1, Sunday, December 8: The essentials of one-point perspective. Intro to Watercolor.
Class 2, Sunday, December 15: Two-point Perspective, it’s all about how you view your subject!
Class 3, Sunday, December 22: Multiple vanishing points in streets, roofs, and stairs.
Each class will start with an interactive PowerPoint on the topic of that day (you’ll be encouraged to take notes, ask questions, etc.), followed by a demo that we draw and paint together step-by-step. Classes run about 3.5-4 hours (it goes quickly!) Classes will be recorded, and you’ll have access to the recordings through the end of January.
Optional Homework: Along with notes and scans of the demo, I’ll send out 2-3 images after each class for optional homework. If you draw and paint them, you can send them to me for a critique.
Workshop Fee:US$300.00. Classes will be limited in size to max. 20 so you can all get live feedback. Once your registration has been confirmed, information on how to pay, a materials list and more will be emailed to all participants.
How to Sign Up: Registration is open NOW! Send an email to st.bower@icloud.com. First come, first served!
After this workshop, you’ll never fear or fake perspective again! If you have any questions, or need more info, send an email my way. THANKS!
I’ve been watching several online painting demos lately. While it’s been great to see how other people work, I consistently see very little information about the set up. Artists tend to lightly draw 8 lines on the paper, then immediately jump into painting with little or no explanation or analysis of the image. For example, they may show a street scene in which the angle of the roof line is simply eyeballed, and there is no explanation as to why the line is angled the way it is, no understanding of the basic bones of the image. Honestly, I find it a little frustrating!
Well, this is a BIG reason as to why I teach drawing and painting. I LOVE explaining the parts that others don’t explain because they either feel it’s not necessary, or they don’t know how to explain it themselves. I know that there is a reason that roof line is angled the way it is–it’s going to a vanishing point at eye level! This stuff isn’t rocket science. It’s not hard, you just need to know what to look for.
Which brings me to the reason for this post. This August–yes, it’s coming up soon–I’m slated to teach a workshop at MISA Madeline Island School of the Arts on Madeline Island, Wisconsin that we are calling Perspective Sketching Master Class. Don’t be fooled by the title…YOU will become a master of perspective in five days! MISA has hosted many wonderful urban sketchers in the past, and I’m thrilled that now it’s my turn! We will even get to sketch inside this lovely little church on the island shown above!
You may ask, why go all the way to a little Island in Wisconsin to take a sketching workshop? It’s because this opportunity is unique and something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: we will work BOTH in the studio AND outdoors on location! It’s a hybrid workshop that will accelerate your learning. Some days, I’ll give PowerPoint presentations that explain the basics of perspective like in a seminar or college class, and then we work from photos in the studio because frankly, it’s easier to learn the concepts this way. You won’t have to guess about perspective anymore as you’ll learn WHY things look the way they do! I’ll show you how to break down the basics and analyze the image in perspective, transfer it to your paper, and then use the concepts to create a watercolor sketch (yes, plenty of watercolor technique too!) Other times, we will apply the principles you’ve learned OUTSIDE to sketch on location in a-la Urban Sketcher. It’s really two workshops in one, taught two ways–both in the studio and plein air in which you’ll be immersed in learning one and two-point perspective, arches, trees, and even wide-angle or 3-point perspective!
I’m really excited to have this opportunity to teach this special workshop, and I hope that you might consider joining me August 12-16. I promise that you will learn loads, and it will be really fun. A chance to have a sort of sketching retreat. I can’t wait, and I hope to see you there! Time is running out, so sign up soon. Info is HERE. Thanks for your interest!
It seems I often travel when it’s hot outside, so just when I think I’m about to drop from heat, I find a cool, dark church and slide into a pew to draw. I love the challenge of these perspective views, they really make my brain work hard! Plus I get a chance to cool down, maybe listen to some lovely music or a mass in progress. This week, I’ve been posting a collection of these drawings to IG and FB, most are images as I snapped a quick photo before they were painted on location. Usually it’s very dark in side, so it is both difficult to see what I’m drawing and painting, and even more problematic when I try to take a photo of the sketch!
The first of these was in Paris, a whopping 11 years ago –I almost refuse to believe it’s been that long– and I was in France with a 3-month architecture fellowship, The Gabriel Prize. It was a life-changing experience for me, and it’s also where I started to sketch in earnest and post my sketches online. One day, I decided to head off toward the Pantheon. It started to rain just as I was passing in front of Nôtre Dame Cathedral, so I made a quick left and headed in. Mass was in progress so the lights were turned up, and in true Urban Sketchers style, I decided to draw what was right in front of me. And my gosh, with the fire in April 2019, I’m so glad that I did. I’ve captured that space both on paper, and more important, in my mind and memory, it’s now a part of my DNA.
For me, sketching these spaces is like solving a puzzle. There is a grid to the structure that usually consists of columns and arches, so that is what I typically draw in first, very lightly. I will also start with what I call the “Shape of the Space”, the two columns and an arch in the middle of the space that gives me information about heights/widths, and proportions. Once that is blocked in on my paper, it’s just a matter of filling the details.
All but one were painted on location, but I love the web and intricacy of the line drawings almost more than the finished piece. Once the line drawing is done, I usually throw it down on the ground and snap a photo. This sketch below of San Giuseppe in Rome did not get color, as I ran out of time before the building closed. The caretaker was kind enough to give me a few extra minutes to finish the linework.
Below is my second church interior ever, also done back in 2013 in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, where I now teach a workshop most years. This was the first time I exaggerated the angle of the columns to either side to give the feeling of a 3-point perspective looking up.
Below is a church in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, teaching there last year with Studio 56.
This sketch below was in Toulouse, Saint Sernin. A Medieval basilica, it was deceptively difficult, mostly because the space is so narrow (being that it’s an older church, they hadn’t completely worked out wider structural spans yet!)
In progress at Sant’Andrea in Rome. You can see my arch and columns in the center where I start the sketch, the vanishing point and the eye level line all clearly drawn in. Arches on the right are blocked in, and because I’m right-handed, I start the final linework in another layer working left to right.
I’m figuring out that LOTS of sketchers post images that were in fact done in the studio (look closely!), so I always try to show a photo of the sketch on the spot so that you can tell it was truly done on location! An Urban Sketcher to the core!
Many more church interiors where these came from, but I hope that you like this sampling! Let me know if you want to see more of these kinds of sketches!
Anyone who knows me or my work knows I’m a huge Escoda brushes fan… since I first saw one in the hands of another sketcher on a boat in Brazil after the 2014 USk Symposium! It became my quest to find one for myself, and I finally did, and I even got to visit the factory a few years ago. I now own quite a collection, and I use them ALL THE TIME in both my studio (architectural illustration work) and when travel sketching.
Handmade by a 3rd generation family-owned business near Barcelona, you can feel the love that goes into making every brush. Beautifully weighted, impeccably crafted using machines their grandfather invented. I often say that my favorite Escoda travel brush should be on display in the Museum of Modern Art!
When selecting a brush, as a general rule, you want to get the largest size you can afford that also keeps a nice point. This is why you see really good watercolorists with massive brushes…if it holds a lot of water/pigment you can paint large areas at the beginning of your painting, and if it has a good point, you can also paint the details at the end. All without constantly going back to your palette to reload your brush.
My favorite brushes at the moment:
Escoda Reserva, round size 10or set of 3: Remember when you were a kid attempting to paint and the brush bristles were so limp, you were basically painting with a stick? You will not have this problem with Reserva brushes as they are made of Kolinsky Sable, the gold standard for brushes because these natural bristles (yes, they are from an animal and Fun Fact: stored at Escoda in a cooler on a bed of moth balls.) They have body and spring, AND they hold tons of water/pigment. A Reserva size 10 travel brush was my very first Escoda! The price has shot up over recent years, so beware the sticker shock. Tip: don’t ever scrub the paper or dry paint on your palette with this brush, or you will ruin the point.
Escoda Versatil, round, size 12: This brush is the synthetic equivalent of Kolinsky Sable. I remember a few decades back when synthetic watercolor brushes were, ok I’ll say it, HORRIBLE. Thankfully, the technology has evolved and synthetics are excellent, less expensive, take a lot of painting abuse, and are preferred by many animal rights activists. The Versatil bristles are fairly soft and hold a lot of water/pigment. I just started using this travel brush and really like it, I typically use it at the start of my sketch when I am painting big washes, then switch to the following brush…
Escoda Perla, round, size 12: Over time, this has become my go-to brush for just about everything. I do use a size 14 short handle brush in my studio on larger sizes of paper, but the size 12 travel brush is great for sketchbook-sized images. The white bristles are a little stiffer and hold a bit less water compared to the Versatil, but for my way of painting, it does just about everything I need a brush to do. I remember as a stroke of great luck, I got to meet two of the cousins who run the company when they were in NYC. My gosh, I gushed like a giddy school girl meeting her favorite movie star when I met these two. So embarrassing! (See photo below with Ricard and Josep, grandsons of the founders.) They asked me what my favorite brush was (was it a test?) and I proudly said the Perla…they looked at each other and said, “Just like Zbukvic”, who is only about the most famous and influential painter in the world!! It seems I passed the test.
I was recently asked by a workshop participant how to find my favorite Perla Size 12 travel brush as it can be difficult to track down in the USA. Escoda was kind enough to send this list of stores that carry the brush–I hope that you will try it and let me know what you think!
I should add that I am now an ambassador for Escoda Brushes! Proud and a bit shocked to be included given their roster! They sent me a list of what I would need to do in this role, and I replied that I already do all those things 😉
Below is me with my brush in Varanasi India in 2017, and below that, visiting the Escoda factory in 2019 with a few workshop participants and a few USk Barcelona sketchers on a bad hair day, but happy. And yes, that’s an Escoda sketchbook, in fact, the very one that I’ve been filling lately with practice sketches at home.
I love sketching interiors of where friends and family live. The things we surround ourselves with are so important to us, a reflection of who we are, and I love capturing this in a personal sketch. I often give these sketches as gifts, a way to say thank you…I did this a lot as a way to thanks friends who helped my mom.
This is a birthday gift for dear friends and neighbors who are so generous, so supportive. It was important to give them a gift that was unique!
Here is something of the process.
This is on 8″ x 16″ Fluid 140lb. CP watercolor paper. I start by blocking out the walls using the two vanishing points that I squeezed into the drawing. You can also see my eye level line connecting the two VPs. I had to start this over maybe 5 times (!!) to get everything to fit and to put the image high on my page so as to capture more elements on the floor, less of the ceiling.
Using the VP’s and working left to right (I’m right-handed), I start to fill in more big shapes, eventually working my way to the details. Once the linework is done, I start to paint the big shapes as an underpainting, using yellow ochre and a gray made by french ultramarine and burnt sienna.
The yellow and gray start to indicate planes that advance or recede…notice the kitchen is dark, the stairs get darker the further away they are. I paint straight up and down to get a sense for reflections in the floor.
And here again is the final version, delivered yesterday!
This past weekend was the opening day of boating season in Seattle and the Windermere Cup races at the University of Washington. Lots of people and boats, gray drizzle, but for me, the highlight was getting to sketch the interior of the actual UW Shell House made famous in both the popular book and the recent film, The Boys in the Boat.
That story–a true story–is about a ragtag group of University of Washington rowers who beat the national favorites and traveled to Germany to race in the 1936 Olympics. In front of Hitler, they WON the gold medal! A proud moment for our country and a legacy that is still celebrated here in Seattle and especially at the UW. Drawing this space was an emotional experience, I felt like I was connecting with that legacy and the young men who lived and worked in this very same spot.
This drawing was challenging! It’s an enormous, fairly complicated space that was initially used as an airplane hangar, and the backlighting from the windows made it very difficult to see. Scaffolding was in the way too, but I kept calm, measured with my pencil, and drew in each bay of structure. Then working left to right, I started to draw in the details…some I couldn’t see well enough to figure out, but I think I got close enough!
The ASUW Shell House is soon to be renovated, and full disclosure, the project was awarded to my husband and his architecture firm, MITHUN. I’m sure they’ll do a wonderful job that will honor the history of this iconic building that holds a big spot in our hearts.
Want to jump-start your summer sketching? I’m squeezing in another perspective sketching workshop before summer officially hits. Three classes, three Sundays, three kinds of perspective views…and lots of watercolor technique too! Where else will someone diagram for you how perspective works and WHY it works the way it does?! Like I always say, perspective is easy when you know what to look for.
What are these workshops like? This course is a 100% live, interactive 3-part online class taught via Zoom in which you’ll learn by drawing along with me in real time in a small group. Rather like a college class, we’ll take notes and sketch together as I present perspective concepts in a crafted PowerPoint presentation, then we will apply those concepts in a step-by-step sketching demo that we will draw and paint together. Yes, you’ll learn lots about watercolor technique too–it’s really two workshops in one…perspective AND watercolor!! You’ll see me work up close (even better than an in-person workshop), and I’ll answer your questions LIVE. They are geared for any artist or sketcher at any level. OK, some people actually tell me that they are the best classes they have ever taken!!!
Sunday, May 19: Class 1: The Essentials of One-Point Perspective: Creating a Sketching Road Map to Follow Concepts of Perspective, developing the “good bones” of a perspective sketch in 3 simple steps AND Intro to Watercolor using a limited palette
Sunday, May 26: Class 2: Two-Point Perspective: It’s All About How You Sit! View Angles and View Eye Levels, One & two-point perspectives—what’s the difference?
Sunday, June 2: Class 3: Multiple Vanishing Points Streets that twist and turn, stairs and roofs
+ DATES AND TIME Classes are 3 Sundays, May 19, 26, and June 2, 2024 at 9am PDT Seattle time (12noon New York, 6pm London) for 3 weeks. Each class is expected to run about 4 hours long (it goes by very quickly and is PACKED with info.)
+ Total WORKSHOP FEE is US$300.00 Included are 3 jam-packed classes on perspective and watercolor urban sketching with live crits of your work during the classes. Classes will be limited in size to a small group maximum of around 20 so that I can provide individual feedback on your work.
I’ll send scans of the completed demo and sketched diagrams for your reference after each class. You’ll have access to view recordings (not download) on Zoom for one month after the course ends. Information about how to pay, list of supplies, etc. will be emailed to registered participants.
+ HOW TO REGISTER Registration is open now. Please email me at stephaniebower.workshops@gmail.com to sign up or for more information. Thanks so much!
Understanding this above, allows you to accurately sketch this below!
Drawing Perspectives 