Urban Sketching Session at Hoffman’s Cafeteria

Urban sketching is about transforming everyday scenes into memorable pieces of art. This unique experience invites artists of all skill levels to capture the energy and diversity of this iconic city through Drawing Plein Air or outside and learn how to develop your eye and drawing skills. 

While exploring the vast architectural, artistic, and urban tropical landscapes of Miami Beach, our experienced instructor will guide you through the fundamentals of Urban Sketching to learn how to break down the complex information you see into a simplified composition. We will explore perspective, proportions, design, focal points, framing the scene, and adding figures to animate your drawing. Students will experiment with various wet and dry media. Drawing tools and materials will be discussed.

We will discuss how color, or the lack of it, can help describe the scene in the most dramatic way possible. You will decide whether complementary, analogous, or monochromatic color schemes best describe the sketch. You will learn to improvise, exaggerate, and tell a story with it!

Finally, you will bring the sketch to life with techniques such as spattering and scraping. We will evaluate and respond to each student’s work and share it with the group. 

The meeting point is in front of the Hoffman’s Cafeteria on 1450 Collins Avenue and Espanola Way. Elegant Art Deco structure in the Nautical Marine style in 1940 designed by Henry Hohauser. It has had many lives as different restaurants and clubs. Now a souvenir store.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR 

Will McGaul has been a professional art instructor since 2011. Will has exhibited in California and Florida. He is a member of the Miami Watercolor Society and the Gold Coast Watercolor Society. Will loves to share his passion for drawing and painting in his classes and workshops, and at the same time, simplifying the process and making it fun.