July 10, 2013
by Catherine Teegarden Center for Architecture Foundation
Students sketching along Waverly PlaceCatherine Teegarden
Examples of student work Catherine Teegarden

Over the course of four Saturdays in June, 11 adults took part in the Center for Architecture Foundation’s “Sketching the City” workshop. Led by architect and educator Eli King, students were introduced to freehand drawing techniques in a friendly and casual atmosphere using the lively 19th-century architecture of Greenwich Village as the object of their studies. The classes began with introductory lessons on techniques at the Center, then moved outside to a shady spot to sit and sketch. Participants came from an interesting mix of backgrounds: from students to young professionals to retirees, and even included a couple of working architects looking to reconnect with and improve their hand drawing skills.

The class’s first drawing exercise was a rowhouse on Washington Square North. The group focused on the basics of composing a drawing and mapping out the key lines of the façade, slowly working in to the details. Subsequent classes introduced perspective drawing and techniques for showing light and shadow and rendering building materials. Other sketching sites included the firehouse on Great Jones Street and a Federal-era gable-roofed house on the corner of King Street and 6th Avenue. Each class ended with an informal review of everyone’s sketches back at the Center, allowing students to learn from one another and to see the wide variety of individual renderings of the same building.

The Center for Architecture Foundation will offer a 5-session ”Sketching the City” class on Sunday mornings, September – October 2013. Please visit our website www.cfafoundation.org/adult-workshops for more information and to register.