Madeline Island School of the Arts - Season 2

This July, as I posted before, the Madeline Island School of the Arts held another course led by a great group of dedicated instructors, including yours truly. 

Once again, it was an incredible week—full of joy and camaraderie, but also challenges and plenty of learning, and of course the awesome food and the beautiful scenery of both the campus and the island.

My workshop was this: "Visual Reading - Using your Perception to Build Scenes" (see here a description)

The results were great, I must say. For those who already had some experience with perspective, it was a good chance to sharpen their skills or simply practice using the personal approach I’ve developed over more than 15 years of teaching. And for complete beginners, it was the perfect chance to jump in, learn, and start experimenting right away. That’s because we were completely immersed in a calm, inspiring setting—starting in the classroom and then taking the knowledge straight outside, just a few steps from the door.

I believe I’ve developed a good balance between the theoretical and practical sides of perspective, especially since I work on a smooth transition from the mechanical system to the visual/perceptive system, making it easier for the students to understand and depict three-dimensional space.

For explaining the fundamentals, I brought along my beautiful little box of colors, which was a huge help - for both indoors and outdoors activities! 

Here are two sketches I made in preparation for the classes. They show the development of my thinking and were used to illustrate, among other things:

1. Framing: Helps make things smaller so they fit onto the page;
2. First lines: Eye level, nearest edge—the first lines establish the dimensions of the subject, but can be adjusted until you find the right fit;
3. Establishing the perspective structure: Add the vanishing points onto the page (I specifically asked them to do this as an exercise);
4. Measuring distances horizontally first, and then vertically: Use the pencil to gauge proportions;
5. Check dimensions again: Adjust the frame if necessary and possible;
6. Start figuring out sloping lines;
7. As your sketch takes shape, mistakes will pop up—after all, drawing is all about making continuous adjustments until, and this is very important, you fully commit to the new reality you’ve just created and move forward;
8. The structure is in place—you’ve put in a lot of effort to build everything up. Now it’s time to start adding some details and have fun! (well, I mean, we should be able to have fun at every step of the process of course - I certainly try!)

It's coming soon! Urban Sketching and Beyond: Solid Foundations, Exciting Applications

In this sequence of images, I explain the ideas that guided me in creating the workshop I'll be teaching on Madeline Island next July!

For more information check this link.

Urban Sketching and Beyond: Solid Foundations, Exciting Application

I am very glad to announce that I will be at the Madeline School of the Arts again in July 2025!
This is so exciting! I love the time I spent on stunning Madeline Island, in the charming and cozy environment of the school's campus. 

Cheers to our 2025 course!

Urban Sketching and Beyond: Solid Foundations, Exciting Application

The same team will be reunited: me, Oliver Hoeller, Nina Johansson and Jane Blundell. We had a great time as friends and teaching together. 

Don't waste your time and go check and apply to this incredible course on this link! 

This time, I will be teaching a workshop titled:

"Visual Reading - Using your Perception to Build Scenes"

The goal of this workshop is to develop tools and approaches to create a drawing of a building and its setting, with character and atmosphere.

It is based on a perceptive approach to perspective, measurement, proportions, depth and tones.

We will be using the school's beautiful buildings for our studies. There is a charming little storage building that is perfect for exploring perspective and visual measurements. Additionally, there's a good-sized barn with great character (where we enjoy our incredible meals!) that will serve wonderfully as the main subject. Of course, the subjects can change, as there are many aspects to consider while on location.

In addition to nature (especially trees, which is the topic for the 2024 season), I love drawing buildings, as well as exploring architecture and drawing techniques.

This time, I will use all my knowledge to help students improve their skills in creating scenes that involves buildings.

This is how my workshop will unfold: 

Morning session

During the morning, we will study, and practice basic concepts related to drawing a scene. We will review the main aspects of perspective both in class and on location, creating small line drawings. Then, we will learn how to measure angles and distances on-site so that we can begin to compose a scene. We will draw some of the charming buildings on the school campus.

Afternoon session

We will start a larger drawing using pencils and/or pens on toned paper. First, we will ensure that the subject fits on the paper and determine how much space will be left for the surroundings. To add character, we will apply white pastel and colored pencils on toned paper to create sophisticated effects.

Below you will find a few examples of this topic. 

Tree-Hunting

During my time in the US, my focus was always on trees, as they were the main subject of most of my activities. 

Following my attempts to find a perfect subject for my classes I went "tree-hunting" around the school premisses (as I told here) and around the island. One subject that stood out was an old weeping willow, by the entrance of the Madeline Island Golf Club. I went there with Jane Blundell to sketch it, but due to the rain, we sketched from inside the car.

The sketch I did there share some similarities with another one I did later in Seattle. I believe this is due to the focus on the branch system. 

In both drawings I used graphite and white pastel Cretacolor pencils and erasers.

The old weeping willow, seen from inside the car

An old tree in the Seattle Arboretum, particularly the branch that extends straight out from the trunk caught my attention - it seemed oddly unnatural.

Tom's Burned Down Cafe at Madeline Island

I believe everyone who steps on the Madeline Island must have a beer or a soda at this funky, hippie bar. Tom's burned down cafe is surviving on the island for decades and has an interesting history behind as you can read in this article.

We went there twice, first on a Friday night, when there was live music and the bar was quite busy. It was one of the funniest bars I've ever been to! I loved the laid-back atmosphere, but what I liked the most was the cool signs! There are dozens of them, hanging around the place, which made me laugh a lot.

We had a great time that night, sketching, drinking and dancing. It was a nice way to relax and sketch, the four of us, together!

Funny sayings everywhere, and lots to sketch

Here's my second sketch, from the outside. The place is so cool to sketch!

And here's my friend's sketches:

Here's Nina Johansson's sketches of the exterior and the interior. Notice how she suggested depth in the one above, leaving ink contour only on the bar (the bar is that tent and stuff!). She uses black areas in both sketches to estabilize the drawings, creating visual anchors and an arrangement of two-dimensional pieces - a dynamic pattern

This is Oliver Hoeller's sketch. We're sketching side-by-side while having a beer and discussing different approaches to on-location drawing. His drawings always have an animated, exciting feeling

Jane Blundell's sketch shows a beautiful balance between elusiveness and description. The blacks under the tent hold the composition too, and the suggestion of the foliage contrasts nicely with the details of the fence and stuff.

US Trip 2024: Getting to know Madeline Island

Whenever instructors give a course on on-location drawing, we need to scrutinize the place, trying to find its best subjects, points of view, seating places, and shadow availability. That's why I arrived a couple of days before the course began, along with my fellow partners.

We were taken around the island, and I saw several interesting subjects, such as an appealing old willow tree. However, I thought it would be smarter to find a good spot on the Madeline School of the Arts premises, making it easier for the students, close to the classrooms and so on. Oliver and Nina found spots outside, which was part of the general plan, and it worked out very well too - the school took care of the transportation and lunch for everybody.

So, my very first pages filled out in the school were these ones.

I found this group of trees in between two small houses and the windmill. A compelling subject, with interesting things to be figured out and solved. I used my painterly approach with pencils. 

I recognized that scene could be challenging because there were too many objects to arrange. I instantly realized the windmill could be a very tricky subject in itself - a dark, rounded shape with fuzzy edges against the sky! Some things must be graphically assessed to be figured out, don't you think?

In the sketch on the bottom, I solved the problem by taking the windmill out of the equation, allowing more focus to be put on the trees themselves (the main topic of my workshop).

I tried a few other options, then I thoroughly read up on the subject. I discovered that would be a great subject for a composition workshop, but it might be too much for one focused on trees. I didn't finish these sketches to save time, but I added a few notes that could be interesting to share with the students.

I found a nice subject a 10-minute walk from the school buildings, still within view. It was a beautiful tree by a pond (featured above, on the right lower corner). Very painterly, but a little too wild. I couldn't handle the bugs, so I moved on.