THIS IS AN ONLINE CLASS. We use the Zoom platform for online classes. Login codes are sent prior to the first class only. Some email systems such as Hotmail block our emails to you. Please check your junk folders, and if you have have not received your class info, please contact us (contact@seattleartistleague.com) 15-30 minutes before your class begins so we can reply with the login codes. We will get you into your class.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Drawing Outside with John Lees
- Teacher: John Lees
- Class Length: 6 Weeks
- Class Days: Fridays, beginning August 15
- Time: 10:00 – 1:00pm PST, 1:00 – 4:00 EST
“Drawing Outside” is a special class taught by John Lees, teacher of many of our teachers!
This is a class that is as much an exploration into drawing materials as it is about the landscape as a subject. Zoom classes will take place with everyone in their own locations—John Lees in New York State and students wherever they are. Each session will start with a materials demonstration, or a slideshow talk on drawing. Students will then draw from their immediate environment, whether it’s a suburban backyard, a street, a desert, woods, mountains, streams, or a city view from a window or balcony. The first session will talk about building a collection of landscape motifs.
Exploring:
- One could consider how Rembrandt might draw a swimming pool in Southern California or how David Hockney, Alice Neel, or Albrecht Altdorfer would interpret a cabin, road, and trees in a mountainous region. Imagine Claude Lorrain rendering these scenes in sepia ink, or Alberto Giacometti with a 3H pencil. Think about Seurat, Van Gogh, or Cezanne’s approach—or your own style combining these influences.
- Drawing skills are transferable: drawing a human arm helps in drawing a tree branch; drawing a human head aids in rendering a rock or a building; drawing landscapes enhances your ability to draw interiors.
While students are drawing, John will provide individual feedback in breakout rooms. In the last half hour, the class will reconvene to review the session’s work on Zoom.
Students will examine classical and contemporary drawings, and explore how various materials can create visual images, establish proportions, and build a drawing’s structure. The course emphasizes the importance of sketchbooks, encouraging students to keep one constantly for spontaneous drawing opportunities. Participants will become familiar with different papers and mediums to find what best suits their style.
Don’t miss this opportunity to draw the world around you with guidance from John Lees, a treasured instructor in the arts.
All levels welcome.
Materials ListÂ
- Erasers (Pink Pearl or preferred type)
- Conte crayons (black, sanguine, bistre, white)
- Vine charcoal (optional)
- Pencils (4H to 4B)
- Dip-pen holder and pointed pen nibs
- Bamboo pen
- Inks (black, walnut, sepia, Higgins Neutral Grey)
- Watercolor brush and container for water
- Small jars with lids for ink mixtures
- Scissors
- Flat 1-inch brush
- Clear glue medium
- Palette knife or substitute (for spreading gel medium)
Paper and Sketchbooks:
- Spiral bound Strathmore 400 Series (9 x 12 or 11 x 14)
- Pocket-sized sketchbook with at least 50 sheets
- A sketchbook for visual journaling (5 x 7 or 8 x 10)
John Lees Biography
John Lees was born in 1943 in Denville, NJ. He received his BFA and MFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, CA. He has been exhibiting in New York since 1977 and has been an instructor at the New York Studio School since 1988. He lives and works in upstate New York. Lees is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Purchase Fund Award; the Francis J. Greenburger Award; the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant; and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant.
His work can be found in a host of public institutions, most notably the Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI; the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; The Kemper Collection, Kansas City, MO; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The New Museum, New York, NY.
Drawing shown by Claude Lorrain
