Toadstools and mushrooms, pen and coloured pencil on tinted paper, students work.

So, I'd been watching a very impressive clump of toadstools as it grew in the garden, waiting for it to reach a suitable size to dig up for my students to draw. This week, it made the grade....

 ...and I got out the spade. It was a pretty slimey, slithery-topped variety but the individual stems came away happily enough, giving folks a selection to choose from.

A toadstool platter...

 Add a box of delicious coloured pencils, and oh joy of joys!!

Caran d'Ache, my brand of choice

Ailbhe's lovely study

Everyone worked on tinted card - 'white' is not a supportive surface to draw on. It is harsh on the eyes and offers a too-stong contrast, in many instances. The darker tone of the grey card gives a different, warmer effect and while it means that colours don't behave the way they would on white paper, we can quickly work out the differences and enjoy the experience.

Clive's work, next to the toadstools. 

We began by drawing in pen - again, this is not as scary as it sounds ('what, no rubber???)! The pen doesn't feel too dark going onto the tinted tone, and once a line is there, it simply....stays there! 

It's actually liberating, not restricting. 

A closer look at Clive's drawings

Alison's drawing showing lovely colour blending.

As the week went on, the toadstools began to wilt, so I introduced some large field mushrooms, which offer a different range of colours. We might, at first glance, assume that there is no colour in a mushroom... (tsk!!), but a closer look reveals soft yellows, pinks and even blues.  And, as Paul noted, there's a lot of mushroom-colour as well!! 

The Thursday morning class! Yummy!

You can see from the photos how effective the pen is, in conjunction with the coloured pencil. The pen gives a strength of dark and helps the drawing to look confident.

Bernadette's lovely artwork - first time using coloured pencil!

Suzanne's lovely drawing

Adding a bit of soft white to the background area can help add drama to the finish.

Glynis's triumph!

David's artwork is a joy of compositional delight, making full use of the paper colour

Ken's lovely artwork - first time using coloured pencil and a great start.

There were even more lovely drawings, but not all my photos come out so well, so I have selected only a few. A great subject, an interesting way of using the mediums, and lovely results. 

Ewa's stunning drawing. 

Next up: Children's class, portrait workshop and oils weekend. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk


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