Creative Sketchbook

Weekly: Tuesday afternoons from 2 – 4:30pm

Dates:
First block: Experimental Colour and Texture
6 weeks from 14 April 2026
14, 21, 28 April
5, 12, 19 May

Half Term Break: 26 May (no class)

Second Block: Travel Sketchbook
6 weeks from 2 June 2026
2, 9, 16, 23, 30 June
7 July

Open to all adults. A little previous art experience will be useful but is not essential.

Creative Sketchbook is a drawing, painting and mixed media course. It would suit participants who enjoy experimenting with different materials and approaches. You will be taught a mix of traditional and experimental skills. Sketchbooks are used widely as a reference tool by art students and artists alike and are used to explore and develop creative skills and ideas.

Experimental Colour and Texture (April- May)
The project for this 6-week session (April-May) is Experimental Colour and Texture. This course will develop your understanding of colour theory and how to use colour expressively. Different methods of depicting textures and using line in more abstract ways will also be explored. The course will first focus on painting then on developing your mark-making range and creativity with texture and pattern in both abstract and representational ways.

Class Content: 

• Using the grid to aid objective drawing.
• Understanding colour theory. Learning how to mix from the primaries and analyse a colour’s bias.
• Mixing a variety of warm and cool greys from the complementaries.
• Analysing Fauvist paintings.
• Matching colour to tonal value.
• Using colour in a subjective expressive way.
• Different methods of applying and handling paint
•  Creative Mark-making – following simple rules to make complex surface textures and patterns, and applying abstract marks to a representational image.

Learning Outcomes:

• The ability to analyse colours and mix what you want from a limited primary palette.
• Greater appreciation and understanding of the work of other artists.
• Increased confidence to play with colour in a more expressive non-representational way.
• Improved skills in applying paint.
• Ideas for using a sketchbook to explore and develop your creative practice.

Materials:

• A4 or A3 cartridge hardback sketchbook
• collection of drawing pencils (e.g.HB, 2B, 4B, 6B),
• Eraser
• Ruler
• Glue
• Scissors
• Paints: Either watercolour, gouache or acrylic paint. You will need a warm and cool version of red, yellow and blue (suggested: cadmium red, alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, plus viridian or winsor green). If bringing gouache or acrylic you will also need white.
• n.b. Please bring your preferred choice of paint type. I will be demonstrating with watercolour, so if unsure what to purchase, I would advise watercolour. Cotman travel sets usually contain the colours stated above.
• Minimum 2 brushes: 1 wash brush ( flat or round headed) and 1 medium (size 5 – 8) round headed brush.
• Palette
• At least two fibre-tipped black or dark-coloured pens with different nib sizes.
• Approx 3 sheets of A4 or A3 watercolour (cold-pressed surface) or acrylic paper.
• Optional: water-soluble pencils or ordinary coloured pencils in reds, yellows and blues.

What to bring to the first class:
Please bring paints, brushes, palette, sketchbook, ruler, pencils and eraser to to the first session, along with watercolour or acrylic paper if owned.

What to wear:
Something you don’t mind getting a bit messy or an apron, although this is not usually a particularly messy course.

Travel Sketchbook (June – July)
The project for this six-week block teaches you how to use a sketchbook outdoors to record urban and rural landscapes, people, animals and objects. You will learn a range of approaches in different media and how to use a sketchbook confidently in a public environment and during travel journeys. Weather permitting we will draw outside for one or two sessions. All other sessions will take place in the studio.

Class Content: 

• A range of drawing approaches, both structural and gestural.
• Tips for drawing simple views of architecture.
• Using a range of line and wash techniques.
• Understanding how to analyse tonal values and use areas of light and dark to depict a scene.
• Recording a sense of place through mini compositions.
• Different methods for capturing people and animals quickly and positioning them within a scene

Learning Outcomes:

• Knowledge of how to structure drawings of architecture (simple views) using shapes both positive and negative, alignment and measurement.
• A varied vocabulary of approaches with line and wash.
• Knowledge of using blocks of tone to simplify complex scenes and capture different times of day.
• Improved pen and watercolour skills.
• Strategies and practical tips for keeping a travel sketchbook which make it manageable, fun and remove fear!

Material:

• A4 or A3 cartridge hardback sketchbook
• Approx 3 or 4 sheets of cold-pressed A4 watercolour paper,
• Collection of drawing pencils (e.g HB, 2B, 4B, 6B)
• Willow charcoal sticks – ideally mixed sizes,
• masking tape,
• Eraser and additionally monozero cylindrical or wedge fine detail eraser (will explain at first class)
• Ruler
• Glue
• Scissors.
• At least two dark-coloured pens of different nib widths (e.g. dip pens and bottle of ink, felt pens, brush pens, drawing pens, fineliners).
• Biro
• A small selection of watercolour paints
• 2-3 brushes: 1 wash brush and 1 medium (size 5 – 8) brush,
• Palette

What to bring to the first class:
Please bring pens, paints, brushes, palette, sketchbook, ruler, pencils and eraser to to the first session.

What to wear:
Something you don’t mind getting a bit messy or an apron, although this is not usually a particularly messy course.

Tutor
Emily Burton

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