City Walk
Discover the art of truly seeing before you paint. This course guides you through analyzing outdoor scenes — light direction, composition, and atmosphere — and translating their essence onto paper. Learn how to simplify complex views, capture fleeting impressions, and express the spirit of a place with freshness and confidence.
City Walk — Plein Air Sketching & Watercolor
Discover the art of truly seeing before you paint. Artist Lei Li will guide you through analyzing outdoor scenes — light direction, composition, and atmosphere — and translating their essence onto paper. Learn how to simplify complex views, capture fleeting impressions, and express the spirit of a place with freshness and confidence.
Lesson 4: City Walk Under Golden Trees in watercolor + bonus in Ink & Wash
Feb 7
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Use light, shadow, and warm–cool color contrast to convey depth, atmosphere, and a quiet winter mood in the city
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Simplify the intricate layers of tree lines
Lesson 5: Cozy Corner
(watercolor)
Feb 21
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Generalized approach to depicting vegetation
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Creating indoor light and shadow ambiance
Lesson 6:Crowd by the sea (watercolor)
Mar 7
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Handling spatial relationships between solid and void
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Simplifying complex distant scenes
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Treating figures spatially to emphasize rhythm
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Techniques for rendering gray tones
Lesson 7:Ginkgo Trees in a Courtyard (Watercolor)
Mar 21
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Expressing autumn light and shadow ambiance
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Sketchy rendering of trees
Lesson 8: Urban Depth at Dusk (ink & Wash)
Apr 4
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Simplify dense urban details into clear structural layers with depth
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Capture warm evening light and shadow to convey mood and spatial compression
Lesson 9: Snow in an Alley- Student’s Challenge (Bonus)
Apr 18
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Conveying the atmosphere of a snowy landscape
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Techniques for rendering snowflakes
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Handling the interplay of sharp focus and soft blur in the composition
Jan 27