We had really good fun in this session looking at texture and detail.
We created sample sheets where we experimented with creating a variety of marks that we can then refer to when creating texture and detail in our artwork.
We then drew textured details and whole objects from our still life sources. We will be able to use many of the images to develop further artwork from.
A lovely session!
It’s been a perfect day. We had the great good fortune to be in an absolutely beautiful, late summer garden, very kindly and generously opened up to us for the afternoon by a very talented and skilled gardener, thank you, Diane. The only thing is, there was so much to draw that we couldn’t fit it all in, so we may have to go back!
There are some wonderful drawings, and some lovely watercolours. Everyone paid attention to measuring in some form (measuring length as well as angles), so well done all of you for that, and also there are some very good compositions. Well done everyone!
(Next week we will be drawing still life again - as well as the hall and the window views - looking at texture and detail. Please bring items in to draw).
We looked at measuring today, using a pencil to check measurements, distances, and angles when drawing from direct observation to help us see more accurately:
what the shape of an object really is
the spacial relationship between objects
and to help us see more clearly when we are ‘stuck’ in a drawing
It was a good session and everyone worked hard. The learning today will be invaluable for your art journey. Well done!
Today we continued looking at positive and negative shapes, as well as how shapes work within compositions to create differing effects. We looked at the ultimate negative shape / space - the sky! We looked at the science of what negative space is to help remind us of its importance in drawing (that it is made of atoms and molecules and has mass, that same as everything else).
We looked again at Picasso’s ‘One Liners’ and had another go at this technique.
And we have more July colours (everyone do please all remember to be making a note of August’s colours).
Well done on all your hard work again!
Well done everyone on working so hard in today’s session on line, shape and composition. I think you will all agree that you have produced some fantastic, original and unique drawings.
There was lots of food for thought while we were taking part in this activity, and the artwork produced also has lots of potential for further artist exploration - again, really well done!
We will be continuing to look at these three artistic elements next week, and you can choose any activity, or come up with your own ideas.
Today we worked from ‘dark to light’ (opposed to last week when we worked from ‘light to dark’).
We created a mid-tone ground from either graphite pencil, graphite sticks, or charcoal, and then ‘drew’ out the lightest areas using erasers; so the erasures were our initial drawing tools (both plastic and putty rubbers).
We then worked back into the drawings with our pencils (or graphite sticks or charcoal) which resulted in a kind of dance, of lifting out, and putting back in, until we were happy with our results.
Well done every one!
We explored light and shadow today, using artists Morandi and Seurat as our inspiration. We practiced shading, smudging, rubbing away, hatching and cross hatching. We tried to use as few ‘outlines’ as possible and instead used the edges of our shading, erasing, and hatching, to create the ‘lines’ and edges. It is amazing how it works, the mind fills in the rest.
So here we have some wonderful examples of very careful and sensitive observation of (amongst other things) apples and jugs!
Today as a group we made another large still life to work from. We started off with some warm ups to get our creative muscles warmed up and ready for action.
We continued looking at the formal element, ‘line’. We experimented with using line only to convey form and depth within our still life drawings. We experimented with using a variety of lines such as feint, thin, soft, dark, bold and thick.
Great work everyone, you work with focus and dedication, good work.
It was a very bright and sunny day for our outing at Standedge Tunnel, so some of us were seeking shade to make our artwork in! Also due to the sun the photos of the artwork aren’t brilliant so my apologies for that. For today’s session, we were focusing on composition, looking to see what effects, feelings and emotions we could convey in our artwork by focusing on different compositional formats. It was really great though to be out together, supporting each other, drawing and painting outside. We will have to come back here in the autumn, I bet the colours will be very different to today. Thank you everyone for coming along to our art outing, it was very enjoyable.
Today we started a new drawing project, ‘Looking & Seeing’. I don’t know about anyone else but I had an absolutely lovely session. A fantastic still-life was set up with items that everyone brought in, and then the most careful and well observed drawings were made. Very well done, everyone, I can’t wait for the rest of the sessions! And remember, we are on an outing next week to Standedge Tunnel - details are in this week’s brief. See you you all there next week.
Today was a catch up session as it was the last day of our exploration of watercolour. Everybody has worked really hard and learned so much over the past few months, a really big well done to you all. I have had so much fun and I do hope you all have too.
There is a selection of wonderful work on the blog today, including an end of project exhibition!
Also included is one group member’s ‘Picture Present’. As you all know, I did a picture for my daughter as a wedding present, and some of you took up the challenge and did one also. The student’s Picture Present is an absolutely beautiful little book filled with watercolour paintings of verge flowers from their street. It is exquisite and an inspiration. Very well done. And indeed well done all of you, you have learned some quite complex things during this project, give yourselves a really big pat on the back! :)
Today we looked at mixing our skin tones using watercolour. We saw how there are many ways to do this, and had a go at trying some of them out. First we made swatches of colour that matched the colours and tones we could see on our skin. Then we had a go at applying these colours by painting our hands and facial features. Everyone produced the most beautiful artwork, it truly is inspiring. Well done all!
(See you all in two weeks on Weds 29 June)
We had a lovely time sketching outdoors today - wildflowers, landscape, sheds, gates, sculptures, trees, paving, chimney pots, sky, clouds, gravestones. Amazing what we could fit in. Everyone did really great and produced loads of fantastic sketches, well done! (I was so focused on everyone’s artwork that I forgot to take photos of the wildflowers and scenery - I will remember next time).
We experimented with using various media over watercolour resulting in these fantastically creative artworks. Well done everyone!
We had fun painting with gouache and ‘body colour’ paint today. Both very expressive mediums to use. Really wonderful artwork was produced - well done everyone!
Today we experimented with using ‘pen & wash’. We used a variety of drawing tools to draw with permanent and waterproof ink. We then created ‘washes’ of watercolour over the dried ink, or, we created washes first and then drew over the top of the washes. There were quite a few different activities so we will continue next week, alongside using the ‘body colour’ and gouache.
Today we investigated what effects we could achieve using pencil with watercolour. There were three activities - 1) pencil was the ‘star’ and watercolour was the ‘supporting act’, 2) pencil was the supporting act and watercolour was the star, 3) and then finally where they were both the stars of the show equally. They were fun and interesting exercises to do, resulting in some very creative artwork.
Today we started off a new block of sessions having fun with warm up drawings; some were drawn with the non-dominant hand whilst not looking at the paper, some were drawn from memory, some were drawn using a ‘dangle-pen’ technique, and some with dip pen and ink. We are also continuing with watercolour and so some students worked in watercolour for the second half of the session, including watercolour and ink, which we will be covering in more detail soon. Good start everybody!
Today was the end of this term so we celebrated by painting some wonderful watercolour pictures! Not all the pictures are finished and some were exercises, but everyone as usual very kindly let me photograph them to share on this blog. We also have a picture from part of the home work, to capture something growing or changing, as well as some examples of our ongoing homework, to capture colours for each month. This term has been really good, with students working very hard and supporting and encouraging each other in the process, well done everyone.
Today we drew and painted objects and scenes from the views through the windows in the hall using only watercolour (no under drawing in pencil or pen). The result is truly absolutely beautiful paintings, full of character and feeling. They communicate really well the countryside around the hall. Really well done everyone, you should be really proud, they are GORGEOUS paintings.
Also the final photo shows a really fantastic series of drawings from our homework documenting ‘growth’ - thank you for brining this in to show us, there was another but I didn’t get a photo. Do bring in your homework next week and I will take photos for the blog.
