Baby, Baby - Step by step portrait colour pencil

Recipe: How to make a portrait. 

Ingredients: A model. 

One A3 sized sheet of Bristol Paper (smooth)

F pencil (if the art shop tells you there is no such thing as an F pencil, leave immediately, for you know more than they do...) 

Colour pencils ( Caran d'Ache Luminous, Caran d'Ache Prismalo 1, and some Derwent Artist)

Putty Rubber, Sharpener, kitchen roll (to keep the page clean) 

Lamp with daylight bulb - on all the time, day and night, directed right onto the paper. 

Melamine Drawing Board (perfectly smooth) 

A dog, or at least a bicycle, for fresh air when the eyes start swapping sockets

BBC iPlayer to catch up on Rick Stein in India, mmmm. 

A kilo of Stamina and two cups of elbow grease. 

Instructions: Stir all the ingredients together and bake in a warm oven for a week. (If only!) 

.... Draw the subject in F pencil carefully and lightly so that you can rub the lines out as you add colour. Add colour LOCALLY, so that each small area is fully completed before you move on to the next. Some people draw a layer over everything first then continually go around and around the whole image until it is done. Personally, I find that way of working soul destroying and rather like pushing a wheelbarrow up hill. Drawing should never destroy the soul, and working up small areas to completion means you can see your progress as you go along. 

It starts off looking like an Ordnance Survey map, not at all flattering. So although the client wanted to see what I was doing, I couldn't show her until I was quite a long way into it. It just looks too weird.. 

Small, gentle (but not 'fluffy') strokes, with everything having at least two colours. 

Large, plain areas are the most difficult in colour pencil, and while I often say I don't like drawing hair, a very large hairless forehead is far harder..!!!! Even my son looked at this forehead and sighed, oh MUM, what are you going to draw there, it's... EMPTY?! I know son, I know.. 

Once everything is 'covered', then hours are spent relayering to get the balance right. 

I forgot to photograph it totally finished - in this pic I haven't done the teeth, but you get the idea. This took about 35 hours. Portraiture, more than any other subject, is an intense process, with added pressure of pleasing the client - we can never truly see a person as others see them. So once it's done, time to get OUT and get the fresh air. I have two more portraits on the drawing board, I'll show you when they're done.

Upcoming workshops - oil painting for all levels, portrait drawing, intensive portfolio course and childrens art days.

Email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk for info

New York New York! A great big adventure.

I might not have mentioned this in the blog, except that I'm getting so many emails and calls from worried students and people wishing me well that I need to set the record straight.. Yesterday I was honoured to be named the first Beard Scholar at Belfast School of Art and I'll be using the scholarship to attend a course in the Grand Central Academy in new York, a school of classical realism, started by Jacob Collins. I 'discovered' GCA a couple of years ago and have wanted to visit ever since, so its is fantastic to have this opportunity and I'm very excited to be going.
However, the newspaper has said that I am going for a year - in fact, I am attending a course for a WEEK! (but I'll do my best to cram in a years-worth, honest!) It will be late in the summer, and I'll take a big empty suitcase to put all my knew knowledge in, to bring back to share.

Meantime, it's business as usual back at the ranch, and now that my term has finished for my Masters, (see http://juliedouglasdrawingpaintinglearning.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mistress-of-arts-college-and-portfolios.html) I'll be posting more of the artwork that's been produced in my studio recently.

And yes, I DID go on my bycicle every day to college, and YES it's quicker than driving, and YES it feels great - even in the snow.

Tulips in water colour, student work

I carried the tulips arrangement into a second session as students loved it so much and wanted time to get the painting onto a second stage. Well, this was a spontaneous decision, and it was 'interesting'  having two tables festooned with cloth for two weeks, trying not to move anything, especially as I had a weekend drawing workshop in the middle... Obviously the tulips wouldn't last, so everyone worked on those in the first session, leaving the cloth etc for the second hit. 

The results are wonderful, I am so pleased.

Jayne McC - several hours work

Thomas R, showing the scale. Lovely neutral non-colours. 

Sarah B - showing the whole table around her

This close up of Sarah's painting shows that she drew a larger area first then decided to crop in closer to a more intersting section for painting. 

Nisa V - lovely washes 

Jean C-E - lovely use of the paint, very sensitive. Jean have only just begun working with water colour. Note the colour dots along the bottom of the page, excellent!

Ruth T - interesting cropping, allowing the leaves to pop out over the boundary. This lovely background colour is Antwerp Blue.

Deirdre G

Chad - a beginner to all things drawing and painting

Chad is a lovely student. His family bought him a term of classes as a Christmas present as they were 'fed up hearing him say how much he wanted to paint, but never got around to it!'. Luckily he really enjoys it. However, the most wonderful thing about Chad as a student is that not only is he amazed at what he produces every week, but he is also PLEASED with himself for doing it. This is a marvelous attitude and one we would all do well to aim for. The act of producing something, associated with the pleasure in the attempt, is the reward, more than the result on the page. Of course, this is easier to cultivate as an attitude when we have more success than not, but most students don't notice the success, they see more of the struggle. Let's accept the struggle as part of the success!! 

Jayne had relatives visiting from America during this session, her cousin Jen and her mother Margaret, who were pleased to join in. But as they were new to water colour, they escaped the tulips and enjoyed the famous Banana exercises!

Jen, seated, and Jayne (foreground, bananas, yum!)

I still have some space on the free event for ireland's national Drawing Day on 18th May, which will be held at Belfast School of Art. If you would like to come along, please contact me for more information and to register.

National Drawing Day of Ireland, Saturday 18th May 2013

Saturday 18th May is the National Drawing Day of Ireland and I am delighted to be hosting an event in Northern Ireland. The aim of National Drawing Day is to give everyone the opportunity to draw for the sake of drawing, under the guidance of an experienced tutor.

Student drawing on location - Ulster Museum

Whether you'd like to draw for pleasure or to improve existing skills, this is a positive, fact filled fun experience for eveyone to participate in.
If you love drawing but haven't done it for years, or if you draw all the time and simply can't get enough, then why not take this opportunity to connect with the power of drawing in a hands-on workshop with me in Belfast School of Art. The event is completely free.


No matter what level you are at this workshop will help you see things in new ways and help you create drawings that serve you in design, or self expression. Numbers are limited and booking is essential.

Students drawing on location - Belfast City Hall

Sessions will be for all levels of experience, with a variety of subjects and media, learning to observe in new ways and understanding space, shape and form. Numbers are limited and booking is essential. There will be several sessions throughout the day, and students need to bring their own materials.

Students drawing at the museum

Student drawing - out the window at the Art College

If you've always fancied going to art college, this is your chance!

For full information and booking please call 07730 560 517 or email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

(please note this is not a childrens class).

All About Green. Apples in Water Colour.

I've always loved green, and while I wouldn't say it's my favourite colour, I know I feel better when I'm in the woods or looking out at the garden. I work in a sun room at the back of my house and all around me is green. Fantastic. 

Recently I set a restricted colour exercise for my students - this is a great thing to do, to reinforce student understanding of how colours mix, by reducing the options. To make it harder, I added a glass bowl.

Students were only allowed to use one yellow. If they used Lemon Yellow, the greens were cooler, if they chose Cadmium Yellow, the greens were more on the side of Olive Green. There was no wrong choice, it was all to see what mixed with what. They used Payne's Grey to intensify the dark tones. 

Above: Shirley having a really good look at her work. I'm impressed with the number of sample colour dots she did on her page - excellent! 

By Nuala T, student

Linda A, student

J. Mc, student

By Helena S, student, who has been accepted to study Illustration at Bournemouth college of Art! 

I am holding an Open Day soon to display my work and the work in progress of my students. Keep an eye here for details. 

I am delighted to also be hosting a free drawing event in Belfast as part of Ireland's National Drawing Day on 18th May 2013. I will post details on venue and the plan for the day as soon as all is confirmed.

Tip toe through the Tulips, Water Colour, Moleskine Sketch book

I love tulips, and I love spots. And I really love pears.

Tulips are a lovely subject - a complicated mass of leaves, which are nicely explained in swathes of greens (try mixing Cerulean Blue with Lemon Yellow for a lovely range of 'spring' greens), and deceptively simple petals. And what colour ARE they anyway..? Permanent Rose gives a lovely clean purple, with the added bonus that it's on the bright side as well.

I started with a clear accurate line drawing, which included surface information of shadows and the pattern on the cloth etc. 

Tulips in spotty jug,  by Julie Douglas

I've had this spotty jug for ages, and only painted it once before, in oils. It was lovely to paint in water colour. 

I set this as the subject for my weekly classes, who asked for it to be carried on for a second week. Lets hope the flowers last - just in case they don't, I asked all the students to complete the flowers first, and work on the jug and cloth next time. They have made an excellent start - below are some examples of student work in progress. 

Jayne got a bit carried away and has made early progress on the fabric. Delicious. 

Patterned fabrics are less difficult to paint (who knew?!) as they make the folds and creases clearer in the way the pattern breaks up. Ikea do great, strong patterns for painting. 

Next Up - weekend water colour workshop, portrait workshop, oils and weekly drawing and painting classes. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Q: What's the difference between a Line Drawing and an Outline?

A: All the difference in the world. 

An outline is that imaginary place around the edges of things, where the object ceases 'being', and becomes the background. 

Nothing actually HAS an outline. All things are fairly solid, and just Are, or Aren't. To draw a line around the edge is fine, but if it's all by itself, it doesn't constitute a Line Drawing. 

A Line Drawing provides information, using lines only, about all areas on the subject, INCLUDING, but not exclusively, the edge. A Line Drawing is like a map of the entire tonal range, shadows, markings, outside edges, reflections, everything you see before you, but without the addition of actual tones or shading. 

A drawing which is the outline only is (or can be) an empty, sad and soulless thing. A Line Drawing, on the other hand, can be a fabulous expression of the contours and shadows and all aspects of the subject, but without the use of tonal areas. A Line, expressive?? YES. 

Are you following?? !

Below are three stages of a drawing as sent to me recently by Distance Learning student M L-S. The first shows a heavily simplified outline drawing - this is much more difficult to draw because you are having to edit most of what you see in front of you.

  

In the second image (above), I lay tracing paper over the first drawing and added more of the 'explanation lines' - the missing information about all the shadows and reflections etc that are visible on the surface of the objects. ALL of these were addressed in the 3rd drawing (below) in the tonal study, but it is much less painful to include the 'internal' information (or Surface Information) in line as you do the initial drawing. The drawing at the top is an Outline Drawing, above is a Line Drawing.

Lovely pencil drawing by Distance Learning student Marianne L-S

Below are more lovely examples of different students line drawings, to illustrate that there is more than one way of dawing in line. These were all done by 1st year Art students.  The 1st, 2nd and 4th are all sketch book studies, size around 12in x 8in, the 3rd drawing was A1 - enormous. As you can see, all the drawings use a variety of weight of line - so that some areas are deemed more important than others. Using the same quality (or type) of line throughout the drawing would create a dull and lifeless drawing, but the use of thicker, heavier or lighter lines not only creates interest, but also serves to provide a certain amount of depth. 

Next Up - Children's Drawing Day, Portfolio Workshop, Big Drawing Day, Water Colour workshop.

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

When a Distance isn't a Distance

Technology and the internet has transformed our lives, and there's no going back, only faster and faster forward.
This is very exciting, and just about anything we can think of can be reality very quickly. However, this doesn't mean that everything happens quickly. Change is rapid, communication is instant, BUT the skills we need to be really good at something take almost as long as they ever did. This is not a bad thing, it is just the way it is. And perhaps the learning of deep skills is the saving grace that people are seeking - the time and focus required to be really good at something is in that place where the fast-moving world can't reach, once we start focusing - it is a mindset, a choice, a commitment, a discipline.

One of the beauties of the internet is that it reduces miles between us. It means that we don't have to be beside the teacher any more. This week I accepted a new student for Distance Learning - she is in Kansas City Missouri, 4164 miles from me. Or a click of the mouse. It's so exciting to exchange knowledge and create new bonds across the globe - or just across the pond.

And because the requirements of students is different I am beginning to personlise the courses so students get to venture more into areas that interest them individually. This makes it never endingly interesting for me too.

So while students may rightly regard their creative learning experience as a journey, they aren't alone. It's my journey too. In fact, I'm the navigator.

Distance Learning - for info on the course, which has modules in Drawing, Water Colour, oils and portraiture, email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Pencil Drawing, portrait first stage

These drawings are the first stage in a portrait commission. I don't always do a full tonal drawing but I really enjoyed spending the time on this. It took 11 hours in one sitting to do both studies.

I drew them quite freely as I wanted them to look like a drawing - the aim was to give the client an idea of scale, rather than get a strong likeness at this stage, although it does look like the boys.
Working in Black & White helps focus attention in the right place, without the distraction of colours. A portrait is about the people, not the colours.

Next up - Big drawing Workshop, Portrait Workshop, Distance Learning kick-off, Water Colour Landscapes & Skies, Oils workshop. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

'Little Star' Guitar, step by step colour pencil

This is a small artwork, a commission where the client was giving the artwork to the guitar player, David Bell. He calls his guitar Little Star. I decided to use colour pencil as the strings would have been incredibly fiddly (excuse the pun!) if I'd used oil paint.

As you can see, I start with an accurate line drawing of everything. 

This is so that when I add the colour, all I have to decide is what colour I need, not where to put it. 

                          A careful series of layers.

And a close-up to show the pencil strokes. Bear in mind that this IS an enlargement - the lines are small and close together, not long, and with an even pressure - not heavy. More and more layering means that no lines at all are showing in the end result. In colour pencil, less is not more, more is just enough.

Little Star, by Julie Douglas, Colour pencil on Bristol Board, approx 14cm x 14cm

For info on courses, workshops, events and commissions,  email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk