Build a solid foundation for your drawing skills

You (want or need to) take visual notes during talks, meetings or at school, you create flip charts for presentations and workshops, you capture work sessions on a whiteboard, organise your day in your bullet journal, or draw just for fun but…

• when you want to draw something, you don’t quite know how to?
• you draw something and somehow it just looks a bit off (especially the tricky stuff, like hands and faces)?
• your (stick) figures and people look a bit stiff and you would like to give them more life and expression?

or do you want to...

• get faster, clearer and more confident in your sketching?
• improve your sketching, but you are not quite sure how and where to start?

Then the Pragmatic Sketching Masterclass is right for you.

I designed a comprehensive series of sketching lessons and exercises covering 9 topics to lay a solid foundation for drawing (almost) anything in a pragmatic, simple and clear way.

The topics we’ll cover

• Clear and confident lines:
  Developing basic motor skills
• Sketching objects:
  Dealing with structure, perspective and shading
• Simple, but expressive stick figures:
  Sketching actions and emotions
• Sketching faces and simple portraits
• Sketching different types of people & diversity
  
• Creating scenes
• Sketching hands
• Going from stick figures to full body figures
• Exploring your personal style

Who is this masterclass for?

The class is for anyone who wants to learn (even from scratch) to draw things in a simple, clear and pragmatic way or who wants to improve their current sketching practice by taking a more detailed view at how to approach sketching things, people, actions, emotions, faces and hands and anything else in a structured but also playful way. (Scroll further down to read a bit more about how and why I teach this and see how this approach resonates with you).

The structure of the course

The course consists of a mix of pre-recorded videos that you can work through in your own time and a series of feedback sessions where we come together as a group, discuss our work and any questions that might have come up during practice and where I give individual feedback on your work.

Each week has a specific topic (9 topics in total). On Monday, a new set of videos will go live on the course platform together with practice prompts based on the skills and techniques explained in the videos.

The videos are conceived for you to draw along with me while you watch the video. I’ll show you my systematic approach to break down what you see (or imagine) and put it back together with clear lines on your page.

You will draw along and already get ample practice time while working through each topic. You will also get additional prompts to continue practicing further based on the week’s topic.

After every two topics, we’ll have a 90 mins live feedback session over zoom where I review participants’ work and give individual feedback on your drawings.

We’ll also have a private WhatsApp group where we can share drawings throughout the course, connect with the group, ask questions and give each other feedback.

Course Schedule

All times mentioned for the live session are Berlin time (CET).
The live feedback sessions will be recorded as well so you can watch a session if you missed it.

A bit more on how and why I teach this series

Learning how to draw or to sketch is a bit like learning how to write.

Imagine you never learned how to write. Can you even imagine not being able to express yourself through written words, not being able to note down the things you don’t want to forget, not being able to get a clearer picture by writing down the most important points? Life and work would be so much harder.

Now think about if you could add a similarly powerful and fundamental tool to your thinking and communication… well, that’s sketching for you.

Sketching can help you to observe, analyse, understand and make sense of the world around you and of the thoughts your head. It gives you an additional layer to think through and communicate complex problems with more clarity and explore ideas and solutions in a more concrete and relatable way.

Words and images are like best friends. Together they can do anything. Their strength complement each other and they support each other in tricky situations. The skill to add images to your words, to let simple sketches empower and enhance what you say or write is a can transform how you think and communicate, both on your own and with others.

Sketching is a fundamental skill that can be applied to every aspect of life and work:

Taking visual notes (also called sketchnotes) to structure and remember things you want to learn, stepping up to the whiteboard or flipchart in a workshop or a coaching session to explain your thoughts, planning your week in your bullet journal, capturing fun situations in a visual diary, making your presentation slides more personal and interesting by adding your own sketches, letting a user journey come to life with a simple story board, or drawing just for fun, to relax, enjoy or bringing a smile to someone’s face.

Like with writing, there is a bit of a learning curve to sketching

Sketching is not art, and the action of sketching is more important than the final result. Everybody can sketch. But if you want to feel confident and have fun while sketching, it is good to have some sound foundation to build on.

Sketching is a decision making process.

Good sketches are the results of good decisions that you took with every mark you make: How can I draw this? What is the shape? Where should I place my mark? How big should this part be? Which details would I leave out? Where would I start? How do I get the proportions right? Which thickness of line should I use? Which colour? How do I make it look clearer? How do I emphasise the important part? And so on and so on.

My goal for this series of classes is to lay the foundations with you so you feel confident making your own good decisions when you sketch – decisions that support the clarity of your drawings, decisions that help you create the meaning and effect you wanted, decisions that empower you to experiment and find your own voice and new solutions for your sketches.

Methodical but playful

My approach to drawing is very methodical but also playful at the same time.

I will show you HOW I approach drawing things and explain WHY I do it this way. Through understanding the WHY behind the HOW you will be able to adapt your sketching to the situation you are using it in and to the goal you want to achieve. You’ll build a solid foundation for a thoughtful sketching practice. Understanding the fundamental principles and their effects will open up lots of room for structured experimentation and playful exploration on the way to developing your own voice and style.

Join me this autumn and get drawing!

I’d be super happy if you joined me this autumn / winter to dive deep into sketching pragmatically, joining an international group of likeminded people to learn, practice and exchange around the fundamental and joyful skill of drawing clearly and effectively.

The next round of the masterclass starts on Monday 10th October 2022. I am only offering this course once a year, so sign-up now if you want to deepen your sketching practice.

What exactly is included in the course?

• Detailed instruction videos for 9 topics – about 1.5 to 2.5 hours of video lessons per week
• 6 live sessions (Kick-off, 4x feedback sessions (2h), closing session)
• Recordings for all live sessions
• Over 25 hours of total class time
  
• 3 years access to the full course
• Printable workbook to sketch along during the instruction videos
• All sketches from the videos as a PDF
• Practice assignments for each topic
• Private WhatsApp group for sharing work and connecting with other participants (optional)

Language

The course is held in English.

Do you have any more questions?

Just send me an email to practice@evalotta.shop and I’ll try to answer your question.