Workshops
One thing I enjoy almost as much as painting is sharing my love of watercolors and sketchbook journaling with others. My classes are packed with information and inspiration, and I hope my enthusiasm and organized approach to teaching helps all of my students to move ahead on their creative journey. Check the listings below for scheduled classes and workshops. If you’d like to schedule a class in your area, I’d love to talk with you. Just drop me a note via email.
US Workshops
Watercolor for Sketchers
February 10-11, 2025 (FULL - wait list)
2-day workshop at Villa Serena in Sarasota, FL
Do you love to draw but feel challenged when it comes time to add paint to your sketches? Do you want to build your skills with watercolor and learn to paint with confidence? In this two-day workshop at the lovely Villa Serena Inn, I’ll share the techniques I use to create colorful watercolor sketches in my sketchbooks and travel journals, and I’ll show you how to paint many of the subjects that we sketchers encounter most often.
My organized approach breaks the process down into manageable steps which build on each other, one step at a time, and result in finished sketches you will be proud to share. Subject matter will include flowers and foliage, trees, food, buildings, skies, water, tea cups, and more. Each student will receive a full-color spiral-bound instruction book which includes all of the step-by-step lessons from the workshop, so you can refer to it during the class and later on at home.
With my helpful instruction, encouragement, and one-on-one guidance, your skills and confidence will grow, and you will leave the class feeling excited about capturing your world on the pages of your sketchbook.
Registration: Read more and register on the Villa Serena website. Questions about the class? Email Leslie.
Sketch It Now:
Capturing the moment in your sketchbook journal
February 14-15, 2025 (1 spot just opened up!)
2-day workshop at Villa Serena in Sarasota, FL
If you loved my introductory “Sketch Your Life!” class but need some fresh inspiration, then this two-day workshop is for you! I’ve dreamed up more fun projects, page layouts, border designs, and lettering styles for you that will inject new life into your sketchbook pages. You’ll learn some great ideas for incorporating sketching into your everyday life, and I’ll show you how to create exciting sketchbook pages that are filled with colorful images, beautiful hand-lettering, and interesting page designs. Fun guided projects will give you a framework in which to create, but you’ll be encouraged to add your personal style to every page, making it entirely your own.
The illustrated class handbook will even include my famous “Boo-Boo Bible” which offers strategies for dealing with the inevitable surprises that crop up when we’re sketching.
Join me in beautiful Sarasota next winter and get excited about your sketching practice again!
Registration: Read more and register on the Villa Serena website. Questions about the class? Email Leslie.
Creative Travel Journaling
March 23-28, 2025
5-day workshop at Montreat, NC
Capturing travel memories has never been easier, now that I’ve compiled my best travel sketching tips and ideas into one exciting class! An illustrated travel journal is the best souvenir you can bring back from a trip, and I’ll help you plan yours from start to finish.
We’ll begin by talking about the three stages of travel sketching, and I’ll give you concrete ideas for subject matter for each one. I’ll share my onsite sketching process and discuss realistic vs. optimistic expectations. You’ll learn how to tell your story through images and words, with options for journaling ideas and creative page layouts.
All the extras will be included, too, like title pages, lettering styles, borders, banners, and inventive sketching approaches, with examples pulled from my own travel journals. We’ll even venture outside for some plein air sketching, weather permitting.
Material covered in class will include:
- How to begin a travel journal long before a trip
- Ideas for page layouts for your travel journal
- How to plan a composite sketch for pleasing results
- How to draw a selection of border designs and fit them to your sketchbook page
- Simple lettering styles for labeling sketches + lettering options for titles
- Easy ways to transfer lettering to your sketch
- How to draw banners
- How to test color choices for page elements
- How to unify a page using color
- How to paint your sketches with watercolor
Registration: Complete information about the 2025 Kanuga Watermedia Workshops is available on the Kanuga website.
Find Your Flow:
Sketching with Intention, Confidence, and Joy
April 7-11, 2025 (2 spots left)
5-day workshop at Summerhill Cottage in western PA
We’ve all felt it, those rare moments when we’re fully immersed and focused on what we’re doing, so absorbed in the sketching process that we lose all track of time. When we’re in the flow, work feels like play as we draw and paint with effortless confidence. So, how do we make those moments a regular part of our creative practice? I’ll show you how in this five-day workshop filled with practical ways to make sketching more fulfilling, satisfying, and fun.
Day 1 starts with a series of quick no-stress warm-up exercises, using a variety of materials and sketching techniques to get your creative juices flowing. Then we’ll move on to designing uniquely personal sketchbook pages using my varied project ideas. You’ll be encouraged to set intentions at the start of every project to make the process flow more smoothly and help you accomplish measurable goals with every sketch. We’ll combine exciting page layouts, border options, and hand-drawn lettering to make one-of-a-kind sketches, and I’ll be there every step of the way with help and encouragement to ease you over the challenging spots. I’ll also offer drawing, watercolor, and lettering demonstrations to clarify and expand on each info-packed lesson. As a bonus, all of the great ideas you learn in class will be included in a comprehensive full-color spiral-bound class handbook that will keep things fresh in your mind long after the workshop ends.
Approaching the sketchbook page with mindful intention is a game-changer! It will help you to find your flow and sketch with confidence, so you can more fully enjoy drawing and painting the world around you.
I’m looking forward to welcoming you to my home studio in Center Township, PA, for this workshop. I have a spacious painting area plus overhead camera and monitor setup. I’ll even make you lunch each day!
Price: $750.00 for the 5-day in-person workshop. Class will be held from 9-4 Mon-Thurs, & 9-1 Fri. Enrollment is limited to 8 people.
Registration: Email Leslie for a registration form, payment information, and info on travel & lodging
Sketching & Journaling in Santa Fe
May 4-9, 2025 (full - wait list)
5-day workshop with French Escapade in Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe has a rich cultural history that dates back centuries. It has long been a center for the arts and is even recognized as a “UNESCO Creative City”. Could there be any more perfect place for an art workshop?
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains make a beautiful backdrop for this town filled with historic adobe buildings, colorful markets, and world-class restaurants. There’s so much to sketch in the city itself: bright blue doors, red hot chili peppers drying against adobe walls, and the distinctive regional architecture.
We’ll have a spacious studio at our hotel where I will teach lessons each day on drawing, watercolor, page design, and lettering. I’ll even show you some lettering styles that will fit well with a southwestern-themed travel journal. During our five days together, we’ll enjoy the amazing food that Santa Fe is famous for, and have a chance to browse shops selling local art and handicrafts. We’ll have an opportunity to visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and gain insight into the life and work of this reknowned artist. We’ll also visit historic sites in the city itself.
Small group workshops like this one offer a chance to get to know each other on a personal level. I get the nicest people on my workshop trips, so don’t worry about coming by yourself. I promise you will make new friends and have the time of your life! It’s the very best way to travel. My friends at French Escapade will take care of all the details – all you need to do is relax and enjoy all that Santa Fe has to offer.
Registration: Read more and register on the French Escapade website. Questions? Email Jackie at French Escapade or Leslie.
Watercolor for Sketchers
May 19-20, 2025 (1 spot left)
2-day workshop at Summerhill Cottage in western PA
Do you love to draw but feel challenged when it comes time to add paint to your sketches? Do you want to build your skills with watercolor and learn to paint with confidence? In this two-day workshop at my home studio in Center Township, PA, I’ll share the techniques I use to create colorful watercolor sketches in my sketchbooks and travel journals, and I’ll show you how to paint many of the subjects that we sketchers encounter most often.
My organized approach breaks the process down into manageable steps which build on each other, one step at a time, and result in finished sketches you will be proud to share. Subject matter will include flowers and foliage, trees, food, buildings, skies, water, tea cups, and more. Each student will receive a full-color spiral-bound instruction book which includes all of the step-by-step lessons from the workshop, so you can refer to it during the class and later on at home.
With my helpful instruction, encouragement, and one-on-one guidance, your skills and confidence will grow, and you will leave the class feeling excited about capturing your world on the pages of your sketchbook.
I’m looking forward to welcoming you to my home studio in Center Township, PA, for this workshop. I have a spacious painting area plus overhead camera and monitor setup. And a yummy homemade lunch is included each day!
Price: $300.00 for the 2-day in-person workshop. Class will be held from 9-4 each day. Enrollment is limited to 8 people.
Registration: Email Leslie for a registration form, payment information, and info on travel & lodging.
Sketch Your Life!
An Introduction to Sketchbook Journaling
May 21-23, 2025 (Full - waitlist)
3-day workshop at Summerhill Cottage in western PA
Get ready to learn, play, and grow in this jam-packed three-day workshop! It offers a fun-filled introduction to expressing yourself creatively through illustrated sketchbook journaling. You’ll be treated to a show of inspiring pages from my journals, and I’ll share the secrets to designing artful sketchbook pages filled with watercolor sketches, dynamic page layouts, hand lettering, and decorative elements like borders and corner designs. Best of all, I’ll offer clear guidance on how to organize and design pages of your own. Then the real fun begins! With pencil, ink and watercolor, you’ll sketch and paint several pages in your own sketchbook using what you’ve learned. Before long, you’ll be seeing your world through new eyes as you record the everyday things of life in your sketchbook journal. (Each student will receive a 45-page full-color spiral-bound handbook filled with all the information from the workshop.)
I’m looking forward to welcoming you to my home studio in Center Township, PA, for this workshop. I have a spacious painting area plus overhead camera and monitor setup. I’ll even make you lunch each day!
Price: $450.00 for the 3-day in-person workshop. Class will be held from 9-4 each day. Enrollment is limited to 8 people.
Registration: Email Leslie for a registration form, payment information, and info on travel & lodging.
European Workshops
An art workshop tour offers a fun, safe, and easy way to see Europe. All the logistics are taken care of for you on my European sketching trips, and the itineraries include the perfect balance of time spent painting, touring, shopping, and just plain relaxing. The destinations I have chosen for my workshops are places with incredible scenic beauty, a rich cultural and historical heritage, wonderful food and wine, phenomenal shopping, and friendly people who love American visitors. I hope you’ll join me on a European sketching adventure soon!
Watercolor Sketching in Giverny
August 30 - September 6, 2025 (1 spot left!)
7 nights near Giverny, France
Sketching in the Cotswolds
September 8-16, 2025
8 nights in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England
Complete information coming soon!
Watercolor Sketching in Alsace
October 1-8, 2025 (4 spots open)
7 nights in northeastern France
Rhine River Cruise for Sketchers
Coming in 2027
8 days & 7 nights of luxury cruising on the River Rhine
Dates and details will be announced in mid 2025.
To see a sample itinerary, visit the French Escapade website.
I’m Leslie. A painter, teacher, and lover of all things creative. A sketchbook artist who captures everyday life on the pages of my illustrated journals. I love sharing, connecting, and encouraging people to find their creative voice through sketchbook journaling. Read more about me, my art, and my life HERE.
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