Friday 2 May 2014

Gorse, of course.. Water colour, student work

Sometimes, the next simplest step is to do something prickly... and to do it quickly.

Prickly, quickly.

Frequently, my students don't complete their artwork during a session as my emphasis is on providing the right tools to complete the job rather than try to finish something within a specific (short) time frame. Having the tools to understand what you are doing is an empowering experience.

This week, I decided to shift the boundaries and make everyone work quickly, on more than one painting at a time, and the objective was 'what happens when I do this?'. Which means, you'll never do it wrong.

Under my nagging (tsk, I mean instruction), students worked to understand the architecture of, the underlying structure of the plant, simplifying it to work out how to begin, and to understand that if these basic structural elements were not correct (even in a very loose painting), then the plant would look wrong. Lots of washes, wet-on-wet and layering. Yummy.





The amazing thing is that Nisa, one of my most careful students, who never finishes anything in class, is the only student who DID finish TWO paintings in the time. Prickly and quickly is perhaps the way forwards!


Nisa's speedy work!

1 comment:

  1. Some lovely work. I like to draw quickly too to get the basic outline correct. This method also works well with my writing. Some of my most creative writing comes out of the 10 min exercise at the end of class. No time to ponder, just get on with it.

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