Online Class: Prepare for Urban Sketching with Watercolor Pencils & Pens

In this class, learn to understand the basics of urban sketching. Through interactive demos and instructions, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will guide participants through the basic principles of linear perspective and atmospheric perspective, which are used to show spatial depth in a scene. Various sketching tips, tools, styles, and techniques for implementing these concepts will also be demonstrated. 

While this class compliments our popular in-person Urban Sketching classes at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, it also serves as a stand-alone lesson that will benefit anyone looking to start or strengthen their urban-sketching practice. 

Supplies needed for this class: 

• Strathmore 400 series Mixed-media drawing pad or Strathmore 400 series Hot-Press or pad/block or Bristol pad or Mixed-media drawing pad or any other brand of drawing pad in any size between 9” x 12” and 12” x 17”. Thicker paper (140 lb or higher) is better. 
• A set of 2H, HB, 2B, & 6B graphite pencils 
• 12” plastic ruler. 
• White plastic eraser 
• Pencil sharpener 
• Blending stumps (AKA Tortillons, often comes with drawing pencil sets) and or Q-tips and tissues or cotton rags (clean pieces of old t-shirts work well).
• Masking tape to keep the paper flat especially if a larger pad is used 
• Watercolor pencils
• Water-brush pens 
• Optional: Water-soluble graphite pencil, water-brush pens if watercolor pencils and water-soluble graphite pencils are used, charcoal Pencils: Medium (2B) and Soft/Dark (4B or 6B), Sakura Micron or similar brand water-proof pens in black and or sepia, 11” x 14” or larger newsprint pad or sketch pad, Tombow Dual Tip Brush Pens in neutral colors, such as, gray and tan.

About the Instructor:

Sudeshna Sengupta’s career as a teaching artist spans multiple decades, continents, and cultures that inform her pedagogy for decolonizing studio art. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1985 from Visva-Bharati, an international university founded in India, by the humanist poet Tagore, the first non-European Nobel Laureate (1913). After teaching art and design at the college level in New Delhi, Seattle, and California, she taught at NMSU-Alamogordo, where she established its first intaglio printmaking studio in 1995. Since moving to Santa Fe a few years ago, she has been teaching credit courses in online studio art at the Santa Fe Community College. Her etching prints are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Association Musée d’Art Contemporain, France; Kala Institute, Berkeley; Artists Trust, Seattle, Chandigarh Govt. Art Museum, India, Gerald Champion Memorial Hospital, NM, and more. Her etchings and lithographs from the permanent collection of the NGMA have been featured in a major exhibition on Women Printmakers of India in 2024 at NGMA, New Delhi. She also conducts workshops and short courses and presents lectures and community-based art events for various age groups with civic, cultural, and community organizations in the US and in India, often with a focus on multicultural and intercultural experiences that emphasize human, cultural, and environmental connectedness through creativity. To see her art please visit: @santafe_online_art_studio on Instagram and notes-and-doodles.com

This class is being offered on a sliding scale.

$10 minimal fee.

$20 covers the cost of the class.

$30 covers the cost of the class, plus a contribution to support educational programs.