22 March 2023

We have a variety of images today, all exploring many elements of picture making, including the use of: line, mark-making, shape, colour, light & shadow, and composition; as well as using observational looking skills and measuring methods; and application of media, such as how to obtain differing effects, and using mixed media on the same image. 

Media used included: charcoal, coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, watercolour, oil pastel and graphite pencil. 

Phew! What a full and amazing session it was! With a wonderful wide range of artwork produced, thank you everyone for your unerring handwork in these sessions. 

15 March

Today we continued with van Gogh as we were still finishing off from last week (where we had a snow day, and so worked from home).

We also looked at various cat artworks from differing artists, which are great fun, and a good contrast to the van Gogh’s.

And, I’m very sad as I have missed off someone’s artwork, I don’t know how that happened and I do apologise, but I will get photos next time, and add them to the magnificent array of van Gogh trees that we have here.

Thank you all, a wonderful session, I enjoyed it very much 

1 March 2023

Today we looked at the drawings of Vincent Van Gogh, and made copies of either a whole drawing, or parts of a drawing. Some of us drew freehand, and some used measurements to help with the placing of the lines and shapes. Some of us drew upside down, to better see the shapes (without getting derailed by ‘labels’) as well as the negative shapes. Some of the artwork isn’t finished, so we may see new versions next week!

We also have two updates on our colour project (where we are recording the colours we see around us each month) with February’s colours.

All of the artwork produced today is fantastic; it’s well observed, considered, and expressive. Really well done everyone! 

8 February 2023

This week we copied drawings by contemporary artist, Elizabeth Beard.

We again practised using the various measuring and blocking in techniques to help us get started, and also to check along the way, as we were drawing.

So the measuring techniques are a way to know where to place our very first lines and shapes at the start of our drawing exploration, and a way to check our accuracy as we go along. We are not aiming for photographic reproduction, just a light outline of where shapes and lines roughly go.

Well done, everyone, and, you all chose the hardest images, so double well done!!

1 February 2023

‘Atelier Drawing’, also known as ‘Mastercopy’ (copying drawings, sculptures and plaster casts to increase observation and drawing skills)

“Atelier is a French word that translates literally as studio or workshop. The individual artist’s studio was traditionally also a place where the teaching of young artists took place” - Tate Galleries 

A fantastic second session of Atelier Drawing, really well done everyone for your hard work and bravery for delving in with these exercises, they are not easy, they really put us through our paces, and you have all done really well. It is all worth it though, and you should see hard evidence before your own eyes of learning! Each week, you will all demonstrably grow your drawing skillset, and this is good! Well done again everyone, you are each of you making amazing progress.

18 January 2023

Today we continued looking at different ways to portray snow, and it was very exciting, because there actually was snow!

Mainly we used watercolour, pastel, and pen. There were lots of blues, purples, greys, grey-greens, and feint blushes of pinks and lemon yellow, as well as bright red berries (and chillies!). We looked at how others artists depict snow, as well as working from our own direct sources.

Some really lovely work, well done everyone! 

11 January 2023

Today was our first session back after the Christmas break. It was lovely to spend it experimenting with looking at ways to express snowy, winter scenes. We looked at how various artists had created snowy pictures and had a go at how they had done it, as well as creating our own images from various sources. We used coloured conté pastel, watercolour, acrylic, and water based oil paint, all on various surfaces .

I had ordered snow so we could draw it direct, but it didn’t arrive, doh!

Thank you, everyone, for a lovely, gentle first session back. 

14 December 2022

I only got chance to take three photos during this, our last session of the year, but they are fantastic artworks.

We have a watercolour thrush, speckled with brown and flushed with golden yellows. It has a bright red berry in its mouth. The bird comes towards us showing us its beauty, and the leaves gently lighten and fade around the edges, leaving our imaginations to fill in the rest, maybe to even imagine this bird in our own garden. This is something we actually can all see in our gardens at the moment, the birds feeding, and it is uplifting to see them.

We have a pen drawing of some large, fat rose hips (more winter food for the birds), their differing shapes have been rendered with careful observation. We can imagine their shiny scarlet hues, and we can see the dried, brown sepals that seem to waving hello to us. The leaves have been studied and drawn with great care, their shapes and inner veins delicately rendered, with the rose hips overlapping, giving depth to the drawing. We can almost feel the prickly thorns piercing our skin. Ouch!

And we have a badger, drawn with stick, dip pen and white gouache and on brown paper. The stick and dip pen are perfect for portraying the bristly fur and winter grasses under the badger, with the white gouache adding highlights to the face and further winter foliage texture. We can almost sense the badger’s aliveness, its warmth, maybe even the sounds it is making. We can imagine the badger is under the tree in which the thrush is perched, and just along from the rose hip bush, filled with birds. We can also envisage the badger is getting a snug snoozing spot ready for a nice long warm winter sleep.

Have a great break everyone!

30 November 2022

We continued with our own work today, creating small images suitable for artists’ cards and gifting. We have some lovely techniques being used with regard to composing and framing work, expressive torn paper edges, wrinkly paper, sparky paper, watercolour drips and splashes, watercolour backgrounds, winter trees, painted birds, coloured pencil birds, ink hares, and lots of tiny winter scenes. Really good work everyone, and a lovely session too.

16 November 2022

I am really enjoying these last sessions of the year, slowing down, relaxed lessons, reviewing our work from the year, creating compositions, drawings, paintings and prints to celebrate and show off our learning from the year, or that we can give as cards and gifts.

Well done, everyone on fantastic work today!

9 November 2022

Today we did a combination of work including own work, small pictures and larger pictures, suitable for gifting as seasonal artists cards and pictures, and the beginnings of printmaking! It’s always good to find ways to share our artwork with others, and Christmas is a perfect time for this. 

In the brief we had some examples of small artwork measuring 6 x 6cm, and some of you experimented with this size, using previous artwork as a primary source, as well as direct observation through the wonderful window views at the hall, with beautiful results - lovely compositions, mark-making, line work, texture and detail. 

We also have some exciting layered watercolour work (potentially still in progress), building up subtle and nuanced marks, textures and depth. 

One person made a start on printmaking, experimenting with roughs, seeing what the ink is like and how it behaves. There is even a print on some silver paper! 

Well done everyone, a really lovely and enjoyable session. 

26 October 2022

We have continued again this week with ‘own projects’ and I for one am enjoying it very much. What fantastic artwork everyone is producing.

We have mysterious looking watercolour aged doors, overgrown with lush green; beautiful ink flower compositions in gorgeously subtle colours; accomplished graphite pencil work utilising a variety of mark making; a carefully observed still life with coloured pencils, rendering apples that we can smell and taste; a creative and layered piece combining text, image, colour and black & white, with fantastic use of hatching and cross hatching; a lovely line drawing of complex oak leaves, very effectively showing drying eaves curling about each other; and a beautiful large pastel piece with pinks, purples and blues for us to feast our eyes on. And last but not least, we have some October colours. 

Well done everyone! 

12 October 2022

Today was the second week of personal projects, so a variety of activities were happening at the same time. 

We had students using pastel chalk on black paper to create stunning autumnal plant and flower still life artwork; we had beautiful and subtly coloured flower ink paintings; we had amazingly detailed and very well observed coloured pencil squash; and we had experiments in hatching and cross hatching on a prepared background, very creative and original. 

Great work everyone, thank you for a lovely session and for the hatching challenges! 

5 October 2022

Today was the start of our own projects, spending time exploring what we individually and personally would like to focus on, for the month of October; very exciting! Accordingly, we have range of subject matter in our online gallery today - graphite pencil, watercolour, oil pastel chalk pastel, and mixed media. Fantastic work everyone, well done.

The start of a new month, also means some exciting new colours from the previous month, and we have some great colours from September. Do remember to record each month’s colours, we will be doing project based on them in April next year.

14 September 2022

For this, the final session in our drawing project, ‘Looking and Seeing’, we put it all together. We drew with awareness of: line, shape (including negative & positive), composition, light & shadow, texture & detail. 

It was also an opportunity for some of us to draw using colour, which was very exciting after several weeks working generally in monotone and more neutral colours. 

To round off the project in a befitting manner, we had a fantastic cabbage that was a joy to draw. One person also had marvellous marbles, and another had some beautiful onions. We also had some more texture marks made, and a drawing using Van Gogh’s pen and ink mark making as inspiration. 

Well done everyone on a really great project, I have enjoyed it immensely and I do hope you have all managed to get something out of it.