Monday 27 November 2017

Drawing on location, at the Titanic Pump House, Belfast

You'd be forgiven for thinking that somewhere as industrial as the Titanic Pump House would be the last place you'd want to draw. Apart from the fact that it's oily, dusty and uncomfortable, it is also more than a bit chilly. But if you wear enough layers of clothes, and keep moving about a bit, the temperature is the least of your worries..! 

The start of my demonstrations
Industrial landscape

The space itself is full of pattern and shapes: the tops of the arched alcoves and windows are mirrored by the rope loops, the railings divide the visual area into sections and the limited colours are just delicious. And that's just what my students thought when they arrived, suitably dressed for the temperatures (it was colder inside than out!) - we were also glad that the cafe was right next door, and totally warm and welcoming! 

Standing to draw


Jim using his initiative to turn a wooden block into an easel!

Neill working in chalk pastel

Clive hard at work.

Using the machinery for 'comfort'!


Jim's lovely work in progress
Below, my drawings by the time we finished for the morning. 
White and grey compressed charcoal, immediate to use with strong results. 






My drawing and painting instruction book, Notes from The Atelier, has now got over 40 five-star reviews on Amazon! Available on Amazon, or directly from me (which is a bit cheaper!). A lovely christmas present for the arty person in your life.



www.juliedouglas.co.uk
email:  julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 




Friday 10 November 2017

water colour daisies, demonstration in class

Last week in class I asked students to do small drawings of daisies, then spend most of the session playing with the background. 

This timy painting started as a line drawing, then background added, with the flowers having a light wash of colours at the end. 

'Playing', when we are adults, can be very tricky!! We are accostomed to expect exact rules, or at least definite consequences, so that playing can seem...a waste of time (horror! The reason we 'work' is to fascilitate our 'play'). But playing within a small set of boundaries feels less open-ended, so in this session, the boundaries were to create a dark background, with dots of wet-on-wet in a paler colour, just to 'see what happens'. What could possibly go wrong?!

The full set, showing how small the paintings are.

I did a few examples in a small Moleskine sketch book, leaving them at various stages of completion - it is important to have a reference of early stages of work, otherwise we can forget how we started (a down-side of watching someone else work ).

This shows the detailed line drawing, and I painted the background first.
 So rather than producing one painting, I did several. Mostly I drew the flowers, and painted the background first. Working in this way means that you haven't spent ages on the details, which can make you less willing to risk getting messy! Risk is GOOD!
In this example, some of the petals have a wash of colour before I began the background
 Another good reason for doing the background first is that it gets rid of the white paper. White is not our friend!! It is loud and attention-seeking, and the soner we paint over it, the sooner we can make correct value decisions in the rest of the painting.
Petals first, background second

No drawing at all - straight to paint, working outwards from the centre of the flower
Workingstraight to paint is liberating and worth trying - the key is to 'blob' colour onto the page, then push is around, as opposed to doing a line-drawing with the brush.

Working across two pages keeps it light hearted and not prescious
It was good fun - playing is to be advised when learning to paint, but playing with boundaries is the best of all.


My drawing and painting instruction book, Notes from The Atelier, has now got over 40 five-star reviews on Amazon! Available on Amazon, or directly from me (a bit cheaper!). A lovely christmas present for the arty person in your life.



www.juliedouglas.co.uk
email:  julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

Saturday 4 November 2017

A lovely bit of homework! Student water colours.

I don't actually set work for my students to complete at home, but sometimes - particularly if they have missed a session - someone will put in a bit of time at their own drawing board. It is very rewarding for me to see the results.
Brigid's painting - amazing!!
The painting above, by Brigid, was started during a class,  and she took the leaf home and finished it. I think it's totally beautiful.

Lovely colours and composition by Liz 
Notice how the colour-restrictions were noted on the side of the page - it's always worth doing exercises with a restricted number of colours. Not only does it give the painting a lovely unified feeling, it also helps you understand the range of colours at your disposal.
Another lovely design by Pauline

A lovely spread of studies by Dawn. They look real! 
Notice lots of colour 'tiles' on the left page of Dawn's lovely book (above), testing the mixes before putting them onto the drawing. The dark red leaf on the left page is the actual leaf, but all the others are Dawn's paintings.

 The painting above and below is by Sara, who worked in this at home. The photo above shows that Sara did a wonderful job of getting the leaves just about same-size as the original (the real leaf is on the paper at the top). This photo shows the first layer, a 'wash' of lemon yellow.

Sara's lovely artwork

 Above - the finished artwork, totally delicious. Below, the leaf itself didn't last so long!!!




My book, Notes from The Atelier, has now got over 40 five-star reviews on Amazon! Available on Amazon, or directly from me (a bit cheaper!).



www.juliedouglas.co.uk
email:  julie@juliedouglas.co.uk