Instructors: Professor David Covo and guests (TA to be confirmed).
Dates: The course will run from Wednesday, August 20, to Tuesday, August 26, inclusive.
ARCH 325, Architectural Sketching:
Seven days of supervised field sketching in selected locations outside Montreal. The course develops traditional skills in architectural sketching in pencil, ink and watercolor. Sketching is explored as a process that frames the student’s encounter with the environment and as a strategy for acquiring knowledge and understanding of the world.
ARCH 680, Field Sketching:
Seven days of supervised field sketching in selected locations outside Montreal. The course reinforces traditional skills in observation, notebook recording and architectural sketching. Students are encouraged to approach the subject critically and thematically, and to treat sketching as a mechanism for documenting experience and expressing their knowledge of the environment.
Objectives:The course develops and reinforces traditional skills in observation, notebook recording and sketching in a variety of media, and explores the kind of sketching that architects and artists do when they travel. The emphasis is on sketching and painting ‘on location’ as opposed to in a studio, so students draw outside every day, working individually and in small groups, and under the supervision of the course instructors. Rainy days provide convincing demonstrations of the importance of public interiors, porches, arcades, canopies and roof overhangs in an urban context.
The act of sketching is examined as a process of inquiry and searching. The sketch is revealed as evidence of curiosity and the result of our attempts to understand the world by observing and drawing what is seen and experienced.
Requirements:
The course requirements are based on the development of a portfolio of work, at least 20 developed pieces completed in the field. Students are also expected to curate the annual exhibition of work produced in the 7-day field exercise, and may be asked to participate in the production of a document that serves as both a catalogue of the exhibition and an anthology of their reflections on the process and the sites visited.
Schedule:
The 2025 edition of the course will take place in Quebec City. The dates are Wednesday, August 20, to Tuesday, August 26, inclusive. For most of the class, Tuesday, August 19, and Tuesday afternoon, August 26, will be dedicated to travel.
We will meet formally as a group seven times. There will be three morning workshops (9 am – 12 pm) and four evening meetings/crits (6 - 7:30 pm). The location of the workshops will vary each day, but all evening meetings will take place at 6 pm at Carter Hall (the reception hall of Holy Trinity Cathedral), 31 rue des Jardins. For more information about Carter Hall, please refer to
The morning workshops: The course will start at 9 am, Wednesday, August 20, with the first workshop at a location to be confirmed. Following each workshop and on free days (when no workshops are scheduled), students will work independently and in consultation with instructors.
The evening meetings: The first of the four evening meetings (‘crits’) will also take place on Wednesday, August 20, at 6 pm. The evening meetings are designed as opportunities for an open discussion and review of the work produced to date, with the participation of guest critics, and will run from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. The last evening meeting will take place at 6 pm, Monday, August 25.
Here is the full schedule of the morning workshops and evening meetings:
Workshop 1: 9 am, Wednesday, August 20, location to be confirmed
Meeting 1: 6 pm, Wednesday, August 20, Carter Hall, Holy Trinity
Workshop 2: 9 am, Thursday, August 21, location to be confirmed
Workshop 3: 9 am, Friday, August 22, location to be confirmed
Meeting 2: 6 pm, Friday, August 22, Carter Hall, Holy Trinity
Meeting 3: 6 pm, Sunday, August 24, Carter Hall, Holy Trinity
Meeting 4: 6 pm, Monday, August 25, Carter Hall, Holy Trinity
Evaluation:
Assessment will be based on the portfolio of work produced. Criteria used in the evaluation of the work include, in addition to the level of achievement in plein-air drawing and painting, engagement with the subject, evidence of comfort with the media, and progress over the period of the course.
The deadline for submission of the portfolios will be 9 am, Wednesday, September 3, at a location to be announced.
Media/materials:
The following media and materials will be necessary. For detailed information on media and equipment, please refer to the document
ARCH 325/680 - notes on media and equipment – 2025. Please see BREAKING NEWS below…
Watercolours, watercolour paper, brushes, pencils, pen and ink, conté crayon, sketchbooks (including the standard 13 x 21cm Moleskine with heavy-weight paper) and drawing paper of varying size and type. Sketch pads, sheet material and watercolour blocks should range from 9" x 12" to 18" x 24".
If you need to buy a set of watercolours, you could consider a set with ‘cakes’, or you could purchase separate tubes of pigment. If you decide to buy separate tubes, you will need to develop a versatile palette. Below is one suggestion for a 12-colour palette – please note that the palette does NOT include black or white, which are unnecessary.
Red: Alizarin Crimson, Indian Red or Winsor Red
Blue: French Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue or Winsor Blue
Yellows: Cadmium Yellow Pale or Aureolin, Yellow Ochre
Greens: Hooker’s Green, Olive Green
Browns: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber
Other: Payne’s Grey
Our first experiments in watercolour (Workshop 2) will be based only on French Ultramarine and Burnt Umber, two pigments that produce a surprising range of values and colours.
As for sketchbooks and pads, we recommend, in addition to the list above, a small pocket notebook or sketchpad for thumbnail sketches and experiments with wash and watercolour. A few good natural hair or synthetic brushes will also be required: a small and medium round, with a medium to large (1/2 inch or ¾ inch) flat are always useful.
Bicycles have always been valuable additions to the standard "kit" and are highly recommended. We have also found that a folding camp stool or small foam pad can make 2 to 3 hours on the ground endurable.
BREAKING NEWS:
Thanks to a recent donation to the School of Architecture by NEUF Architectes (initiated by two ɬ graduates, longstanding supporters of sketching and our Sketching School program, Bruno St-Jean and Azad Chichmanian), with the additional support of Nota Bene (Russell Hemsworth), architecture students participating in the course will be provided with a basic ‘urban sketching kit’ that includes the following media and materials:
Media:
Schmincke “Hordam” 10-colour watercolour set
2 Borciani Bonazzi 621 watercolour brushes, round #10 and flat #12
1 Faber-Castell collapsible watercolour cup
2 Faber-Castell sketching pencils, 2B and 6B, with separate sharpener
1 Platinum “preppy” fountain pen, with set of 4 India Ink cartridge refills
Paper: 3 pads
1 Hahnemuhle A4 watercolour pad - 10 sheets
1 Multi-media A4 spiral sketchbook for work in pencil, ink, light wash - 50 sheets
1 Maruman “SOHO” 5 x 7 inch sketchpad - for thumbnail sketches, small studies
Other larger-format paper (available for sharing):
sketchpads (14 x 17 inch, 18 x 24 inch)
watercolour blocks (10 x 14 inch, 12 x 16 inch)
The procedure for the collection and distribution of the urban sketching kits will be confirmed by Friday, June 25.