From Sketches to Stories: Drawing with Words

Explore ways to combine drawing with writing to create images that are expressive, surprising and visually compelling. What happens when words become part of the picture? In this playful, hands-on workshop, join Shawne Cooper as she explores ways to combine drawing and writing to create images that are more expressive, surprising, and visually compelling. Using the lively Food Hall at Pier 57 as our setting and inspiration, we’ll experiment with words and images in a series of playful exercises. The goal isn't beautiful handwriting or perfect drawing, but discovering how art and language can work together to tell a story and create a stronger visual experience. If you've joined one of Shawne's From Sketches to Stories workshops before, you'll still find new territory to explore. This session takes the idea in a different direction, with a fresh set of exercises and approaches to the relationship between words and images. No prior lettering, writing, or even sketching experience necessary: just curiosity and a willingness to play. By the end, you'll have explored new ways of bringing words and images together, with a sketchbook full of experiments, observations, and stories that could only have come from you. WHAT WE'LL EXPLORE • How to make words and images work together as a single composition, rather than treating words as labels or captions • How to turn ordinary observations into ideas for drawing and writing • Ways to use scale, placement, repetition, and cropping to give words visual impact LOCATION Enter Pier 57 next to City Winery. Walk through the food hall to the seating area. The workshop will meet in the seating area. WORKSHOP SUPPLY LIST • Sketchbook • Notebook for writing • Pens and pencils • Black fineliner pen (e.g., Sakura Pigma Micron, 05 nib ideal) • Any additional sketching materials of your choosing (colored pencils, watercolor, gouache, markers) Shawne will also have a variety of materials available if you’d like to try something new. This workshop is sponsored by Legion Paper. @legionpaper Please Note: There will be no refunds or exchanges on this workshop. ABOUT THE INSTRUTOR Shawne Cooper is a NYC-based artist, writer, and educator who designs experiences that bring people together. A longtime member of the NYC Urban Sketchers community, she is known for her loose, colorful style and her love of weaving words and images together on the page. An award-winning writer and creative director in advertising, she conceived From Sketches to Stories, an approach combining visual art, writing, observation, and storytelling, which she has taught at Pratt Institute, the New York Public Library, and on several occasions for NYC Urban Sketchers, as well as in Italy and Hawaii. Her current work includes Creatures of NY, a three-part art series she conceived and leads in Stuyvesant Square Park, and art classes for her local StuyTown community. Her work has been shown in galleries and private collections, and even on a flag over Rockefeller Center, featuring Chinese dumplings, no less! See her work at http://Instagram.com/wabisabinyc Tickets for this event are not refundable or exchangeable.