Online Class: Gesture Drawing for Watercolorists

Prepare to create botanical-themed watercolor paintings by sharpening your observational drawing skills for capturing natural shapes and forms.

In this class, learn why creating gesture drawings and quick sketches for watercolor paintings is an essential skill for building visual comprehension of shapes and allows watercolorists to define objects with minimal interference when using brushes and paint on paper. Through interactive demos and step-by-step instructions, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will guide participants through basics like holding the pencil correctly to understanding line-weight and more, all of which are skills that will support your drawing practice.

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This class is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. Children are welcome to participate alongside their adults.

This program will take place via the video conferencing app – ZOOM. Details for accessing the Zoom meeting will be with your receipt upon registration and again sent via email the day prior. Please register in advance to access the program.

Note that all program times are in Mountain Time. Space is limited, reservations required.

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 2B, 4B, & 6B graphite pencils
• White plastic eraser
• Charcoal Pencils: Medium (2B) and Soft/Dark (4B or 6B)
• Vine charcoal or Willow charcoal sticks, 1 to 3
• Blending stumps (AKA Tortillons, often come 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.
• Optional: Compressed charcoal stick or black conte stick, a set of watercolor, watercolor round brushes, a container of water, and water-soluble graphite pencils, or watercolor pencils, if anyone wants to add a hint of color.

The items above should be available locally or online from Amazon as individual items in the U.S. and in Europe. They can also be purchased online as individual items or as a set from Sudeshna Sengupta’s class-list (U.S. domestic shipping only).

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 earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1985 from Visva-Bharati University, founded by the first non-European Nobel Laureate (1913) and humanist poet Rabindranath Tagore.

After teaching art and design at the college level in New Delhi, Seattle, and California, she taught at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, where she established its first intaglio printmaking studio in 1995. Besides the O’Keeffe Museum, Sengupta teaches credit courses with the School of Art & Design of the Santa Fe Community College.

Her etchings and lithographs from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi have been featured in a landmark exhibition on Women Printmakers of India at the NGMA-New Delhi in India. Her work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Association Musée d’Art Contemporain, France; Kala Institute, Berkeley, and more.

Sengupta also conducts workshops, short courses, lectures, and community-based art events focusing on multicultural and intercultural experiences that emphasize human, cultural, and environmental connectedness through creativity.

To learn more, please visit notes-and-doodles.com and visit her Instagram @santafe_online_art_studio

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.