A little foray into Pastels - trees on tinted paper.

I rediscovered the joys of colour pastels during a two-day pastel workshop that I held in the summer.  The students embraced the challenges of the chalks, and enjoyed the effects particular to this medium, including their tactile nature. Getting the hands dirty!

Students on the workshop

Some student studies from the first day

I  fell in love with the immediacy of the chalks and decided to do a few more drawings myself after the workshop, to see how far I could push them. I hadn't done any tree paintings for a while (I love trees but find them so challenging that I can only do one or two per year,,,,) so thought it would be interesting to see how they would turn out, in pastels. 

The start! Rough and general, not specific.

I chose to work on grey paper, size A3. I began by gently marking where I wanted the tree trunks, drawing them lightly in lilac, as bold structure-lines breaking up the page. I then roughly blocked in the contrasting tones, with particular attention to the brightest areas so as to retain the clean lights. 

Close up of the textures

Once the big tones were blocked it, I revisited adding detail using shorter strokes. I learnt a great deal, about how much (or how little) layering the pastels accepted, and how some looser areas help direct the viewer's gaze. It was satisfying, interesting and frustrating, in equal measure. It took about 4 days at the easel. 

The finished artwork - 'Light Through the Trees at Shaw's Bridge'

Autumn colours. 

For the next tree-scape I chose a blue paper, and marked in the trunks first, as previously, keeping the sunny-side of the trunks white and the shadow-sides cool blue and purple, which contrasts vividly with the folks and browns. 

For info on workshops and weekly classes please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

Cold!!

It's been a cold cold winter, and even with the heating on, the studio is fairly chilly. But my wonderful students, they wrap up with more layers, and keep on keeping on! 

For the first time in all my years of teaching, the studio is full of blankets for putting on laps - and it's cold enough that no one scoffs! A blanky is a lovely thing!

 

Charcoal and oil wipe out technique, gladioli and wild garlics

Hoorah, the buds are peeping out and spring is trying its best to appear!! So my eye has been attracted to plants. For the first time in my life, I bought some artificial flowers, so that my oil painting students could paint lilies without having to see them wilt. The only creepy thing is that the lilies themselves were fairly identical.. but they served an excellent purpose. I also succumbed to some rather splendid stems of artificial gladioli, and did a charcoal study as part of my demonstration. 

Previously, I drew some wild garlic, photographed while on a trip to Cavan with friends. We walked down a rarely-used path and the sides were banked with vast swathes of wild garlic - the aroma was wonderful. 

I did a charcoal study first, see demos below, then an oil painting. 

I began the oil painting in the same way as the charcoal, by loading the canvas with raw umber paint, wiping out the light areas, adding more ray umber where needed and wiping out again. It's a lovely soft process, allowing the work to remain blurry and unfocussed in a different way to a purely additive technique. 

After the underpainting, I painted over it with a Grisaille...

 

...then painted over the grisaille in colour. 

 

Below, the finished painting, with two layers of colour, over the Grisaille. 

For info on workshops email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

 

The eyes have it... or not, in this case!

 It's always nice when a student asks to try something new, or confessed a secret desire for a subject that they have not yet tried. So I was pleased when my student Paul asked if we could do a portrait using water colour. But rather than a full portrait, I decided we should breakout down to a manageable starting point, and concentrated on drawing (first) the lower part of the face. In other words, we left out the eyes... 

The first stage of my demo, showing the drawing develop. 

Left - a simple wash all over, Right a bit more colour on the lips

finished demo. 

The point of the exercise was to demystify painting the face. Putting a drawing down first really helps. Below you can see some student artworks, from Ann-Marie, Nichola, Linda and Alison. Delicious!

NOT putting the eyes in made the subject feel much less daunting. Once the eyes are included, you really feel an obligation to the person being studied. 

However, Liz McM took the plunge, with great success... 

Liz McM, who laves drawing faces but has a slight allergy to watercolour. A lovely study! 

For info on classes and workshops, gift vouchers of my book,  please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

or see website 

www.juliedouglas.co.uk

Water colour leaves Student artwork 2022

I think I left it about a week too late this year to go leaf collecting.. By this week there had been a lot of rain, and some wildly windy weather and most of the leaves had turned brown. However, I did gather enough for us to have some choice. 

Tania's gorgeous page of work 

Leaves are lovely to do in water colour. The shapes need not be overly complex (and of this exercise I avoided those deliciously coiled, dry leaves) (that's for another day...) and instead looked for strong shape with good colour variation. This means that the main task of the session is playing with the paint, rather than spending most of the time drawing. 

A modest little leaf but perfectly executed, by Kate E. A triumph of understatement. 

The other great thing about leaves is that once you had the shape drawn in, then you can really play wit the paint and try a bit of wet-on-wet, a round of layering, a dose of lifting out.. and whatever else comes to mind. The drawing will stand the assault because the shape is so distinctive, and no two leaves are exactly the same. Room for manoeuvre without pressure. What a great combo!

A page from Georgie's sketch book - the bottom leaf is pen, with wash. 

Rachel's finished page of studies (delicious!) 

 

Rachel, proving that a chilly studio is manageable if you keep the hat and coat on!

Very characterful and atmospheric painting by RoseJane

A lovely delicate painting by Pam, enhanced with a bit of flicking!

While we were all working away, Carlo let us know that he was thinking about us even though he couldn't be with us, as he was on a warm beach somewhere in Europe... sigh. 

For info on classes and workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Vouchers available as Christmas gifts! 

Portrait workshop with visiting art group

 I was pleased to welcome members of Kilmood Art Group to the studio recently, for an afternoon's portrait drawing workshop. A couple of months earlier I did a full portrait demonstration on Zoom, and while I was unsure about the idea, it actually worked tremendously well. I had my camera facing directly onto my page, so it filled their screens and gave them a better view than I actually had of the artwork!       

Interestingly, even though I have been teaching for more than half my life, I still get nervous demonstrating to people I don't know, so I was glad that some of my own students Zoomed in too, and while I couldn't see anyone at all, I gelt comforted knowing that they were there. Thanks guys!! (for being there, and for not heckling!!!!) This made it all the more lovely to welcome the art group Tony studio for a hands-on session. I must say that the standard was excellent!

We worked from a photo that I had taken specially for this purpose, of my younger son. I'm sure you agree that they all got a likeness, and all dressings were delicate and sensitive. 

A lovely time had, by all.  

For info on weekly classes in drawing and painting please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

www.juliedouglas.co.uk 

Rosehips, drawing and watercolour

Gorgeous artwork by Ken 

When I choose images to adorn this blog, I am usually spoilt for choice. I don't always remember to take photos during a class, and sometimes when I do, I"m not sure who's artwork it is, after the event! So I choose a random selection each time, to show what has been going on in the studio, and hopefully this will encourage others to join in. 

Glynis's lovely painting 

 It's such a pleasure to be n the lookout for nature's bounty, and the rose hopes this year were plentiful and lush. I got the best ones from the hedgerows along the Comber Greenway (thought the most enormous offerings every year are usually in the central reservation of the dual carriageways, but I don't stop to collect those....!)

Beautiful and delicate, by Toni

It's always lovely to see how everyone creates their own unique artwork, and it is very beneficial that we all work on the same subject at the same time. We learn from each other - and benefit from the encouragement of those around us. 

Two lovely studies by Phil, who joins the class using Zoom 

Georgie's rose hip, in coloured pencil.

All the paintings here were done during one two and a half hour session, except the one below, which is by Nicki. She was enjoying it so much that she did extra time and got it finished. And what a winning result! And LOOK at those TILES!!!

This artwork is by Nicki, and I'm sure you agree that it's STUNNING!!

For info on classes and workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Website www.juliedouglas.co.uk

If you would like to give a gift of something arty and useful why not give one of Julie's books? Full of illustrations by Julie and her students it is a great read and very beautiful too!