Category Archives: Workshops

Daily Sketch, Workshops

Workshop By The Sea

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This month I was asked to run a workshop in beautiful North Berwick for the Scottish Seabird Centre’s annual Marine Fest.

It seems to be always sunny in North Berwick, such a beautiful seaside town on the east coast just an hour from Edinburgh. But it’s also a little windy, which I always forget!!

I arrived early and had a lovely look around before my eager sketchers arrived or a couple of hours where I share my tips for getting started with sketching and capturing the views around you with ink pens and watercolours.

It was great fun and we drew shells close up before heading around to the boats and sketching the Life buoy hanging on a beautiful stone harbour wall.

We ran out of time to sketch the boats so I stayed on after lunch and drew the fishing boat with the town’s hill ‘The Law’ in the background.

My next sketching workshop is this Saturday back in Edinburgh’s New Town and there are a few places left for this walk and draw session capturing some beautiful details and touching on a little perspective too. All abilities are welcome and I provide all the materials you will need.

Have a look at this link for more details and to book your place.

My finished drawing above and below as it was before I added the watercolour. I wasn’t sure whether to add the colour or not, what do you think?

Workshops

August workshop sketching

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This week I have had a couple of workshops with Arienas Collective in the New Town.

It is great welcoming visitors to the city and on Sunday I was introducing a sketcher from New Mexico to Circus Lane, their first time seeing this iconic Edinburgh street.

I just love the curve of the cobbles as the pretty houses turn away into the distance. It is the perfect place to end my perspectives workshop.

It was a beautifully sunny day on Sunday, I do admit were a little creative with the sky for this one though 😉

Workshops

Seeing the shapes when sketching

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The latest Zoom workshop with Cassandra was all about looking for the shapes in buildings which can often help you sketch out a scene.

We used tracing paper and print outs from photographs I had taken in Leith. The idea was to highlight the shapes I see when looking at a scene and then use those shapes to draw your own version, block by block.

If was great fun and the 75minutes flew by, and we managed four quick drawings in that time. I love sketching with a fineliner brush as you can get both fine lines and thick brush strokes. I will add a link below to where you can get them.

Our next workshop is live on Zoom on Tuesday the 1st December, from 7pm and each ticket is £10 or £7.50 for concessions.

You can read more about what we will be doing, the materials you will need and how you can book a place by following the link below. I hope to see you there!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/urban-sketching-with-cassandra-and-mark-gas-lamps-with-andrew-kerr-tickets-121979876093

Workshops

Zoom sketching with live music

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This week my new fortnightly zoom workshops with local artist Cassandra Harrison had live music provided by cellist Laura Sergeant.

Cassandra and I have been running zoom workshops for the past couple of months, picking a different medium or artist to have a look at each session and creating step by step ideas so people joining in can have a go and try some of the techniques Cassandra and I use regularly.

Each session runs for 75 minutes on Tuesday evenings from 7-8.15pm, and we have also been asking special guests to join us and share a little about what they are up to, what art they are inspired by and if they like they can join in the art making. Those joining us have included comediens, architects and professors and most recently a cellist who regularly plays in Edinburgh with the Scottish Opera, Laura Sergeant.

I met Laura a few years ago after sketching some of her performances around Edinburgh and so I thought it would be wonderful to have her join us while we sketched the Usher Hall, a venue she has played many times before.

We used charcoal and soft pencils to create the drawing below on Tuesday evening and it was wonderful to be played to by Laura, it made me miss the festival and all the many performances that had to be cancelled this year.

If you would like to know more about the Urban Sketching workshops follow the link below and I hope to see you one Tuesday evening.

Urban Sketching with Cassandra and Mark

Workshops

In person workshops begin again

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Since the lockdown of 2020 began in March I have been unable to run my sketching workshops around Edinburgh.

I am so glad to say they are now back on once again, albeit with some very important modifications. On Saturday I ran my first 2.5hour introduction to sketching workshop with Arienas Collective in the New Town of Edinburgh and it was great to be back drawing on the streets of Edinburgh.

Here are a few photographs from our fabulous afternoon in the sunshine.

Our post lock down classes have reduced numbers of 6 maximum so we can feel safe as we move around and within our Arienas base, which now has minimal surface contact, multiple cleaning stations and also plastic screens between each work station.

We will continue to watch government guidance and keep minimal numbers for the forseeable but do be confident that Arienas and myself are taking all preparations to make the workshops as safe as possible. I also have complete kits of paint, paper, pen and wterbrush that can be added to the workshop or you are welcome to bring your own equipment too.

I have updated my dates for both intoductory workshops and the more advanced ‘Gorgian landscapes’ and ‘Crowds’ versions available on my Workshops Page.