SKY Portrait Artist of the year, 2020 - the filming

My finished portrait of actor/director Noel Clarke

This was the most stressful painting experience I have ever had, and it was exhausting, thrilling and, in a strange way, exciting all at the same time. Having done so much prep, all I wanted to do on the day was get ON with it, and found it difficult, at times, to even speak to the camera as I was so focussed. I felt nervous but ready - and didn't want to let my team down. SEVEN of my students flew from belfast to London to support me and watch the proceedings, and my brother and his partner also came, so I felt well supported. 

The Team...Margery, Sara, me and Catherine - the night before, like as if it was all a blast... They did, to be fair, text me at 6am to make sure I was up and ready for filming.. 

The venue, Battersea Arts Centre, was excellent, with consistent lighting and lots of space. There were cameras everywhere, with each artist easel having it's own camera in front and behind. 

Sara next to my self portrait

It was the first time that noel Clarke had sat for a portrait, and he was anxious in case he didn't do a good job. He needn't have worried - he was fantastic at sitting still and he was lovely to paint.

The first marks, literally! I always begin by using my hand-span as a guage for the head.

When I did my practice paintings, I worked sometimes from the model, and sometimes from my phone - I found that my phone was quicker, and that if I started from life, the camera wouldn't 'see' the same angle that I did, so it needed to be one or the other. If someone is going to sit still for four hours for me to paint them, then it's the least I could do to work from life. Most other artist, I understand, didn't do this. Great pity. On the other hand, this was less a paint-a-thon and more of a race, so whatever is the quickest! So I put my fastest-music in my headphones (ABBA! Not even joking!) and got started. 

The drawing, directly onto the canvas to save me the time of transferring it. I forgot my fixative spray, so was a tad nervous about painting over this... gulp. But nothing ventured... If I had drawn on a large pad, or larger canvas, I might well have NOT painted, but continued drawing.

The nerve wracking bit - adding paint on top of a perfectly fine drawing... will I 'lose' it...?? No going back now! (Photo courtesy of Katherine Tyrrell) 

Some of the camera crew - this was my view! 

Hard enough as it was to paint in such public circumstances, the worst bit was being taken outside at regular intervals to 'talk to the camera' - nightmare! I don't even like having my photograph taken, so this was torture. Though the crew were all absolutely fantastic and lovely. 

The fabulous Tai-Shan Scheirenberg

Joan Bakewell!

In the centre, 'the team' a bit star struck with Stephen Mangan. Far left is Gregor and Maeve, come to cheer me on, thanks! 

The quietest time was during the lunch break, when the hall emptied. Many of us continued painting, glad of the uniterrupted time to get as much done as possible. Even so, it was a marathon right up to the last minute. I didn't walk around the hall at any point - on the far side from my space all the self portrait were on the wall, but I didn't want to see ANY! (no room for nerves!)

Just seeing this photo brings it all back to me - it was getting busy by now! (Photo courtesy of Katherine Tyrrell)

Battery recharging!! 

With about 10 minutes remaining, I could hear one of the producers whispering to the artist next to me, asking 'what could possibly go wrong?', and I knew that she'd be asking me next. My goodness, there were so many potential answers to that question, mostly of the non-arty variety... and when she DID whisper, Julie, Julie what could go wrong?, I just hadn't the time to stop painting and said 'I have no words', and ignored her! Oops!!! It was a relief when we were told to put the brushes down..

and... it's all over. 

I was sorry not to get through to the next round, but I so enjoyed the experience. And, I'd do it again!!

Arty Hen Party!

A couple of weeks ago these lovely ladies spent a morning laughing while doing some drawing and painting, as part of their Hen Do. What a great fun way to spend time time getting to know each other! 

 We started in the easels room, with a bit of charcoal, drawing pears and plums. I stood up to do a demonstration for them, when suddenly they all burst into song, and they did a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday for me, awk!! After the demo, the ladies got over their initial nerves, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in - with excellent results!

Bride at work!

After tea and cake we moved into the other room for a bit of watercolour painting, and as you can see, they all did a brilliant job. 

The full line up! Brilliant bananas!

Bride (sporting a new BARA apron!), bridesmaids and bananas! 

The studio is perfect for groups wanting to spend time learning a new skill, be it co workers, family or friends. A warm creative environment with space for up to 16 people at a time.

For programme info on upcoming workshops, please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Why small is the new big. Mini landscapes in water colour, student work.

 I have asked weekly my students what they'd most like to tackle in class, and their requests are varied, with a few surprises... The less expected answers include 'hands', 'sheep', 'cows' and 'birds' (does anyone know of a taxi dermist?!) (for birds, not cows or sheep..!). I am trying to work through as many suggestions as I can - last week we drew hands and this week it has been landscapes, in miniature.

Catherine M

 Why miniature, I hear you wonder...? There are many good reasons for starting small. One is COMPOSITION: Staring small allows you to focus on composition, identifying key points of interest rather than trying to put everything in. Landscapes can be daunting because of the scale of them in reality, so we must be selective about what we include, and what we leave out. Paring down information by working small really helps this.

Christine W.

Another good reason for 'small' is CONTROL: With water colour, one of the biggest challenges is controlling the behaviour of water over large areas. Working small allows you to observe the behaviour of water over small areas at a time, without the stress of trying to cope with large scale. 

Another benefit is to be gained from QUANTITY - working on several, not just one little artwork, take the pressure off 'the one'. Think of each painting as a draft, preparation for the next one and the next. 

PLAY: it is so important to be grown-up about the notion of playing, and let go of the actual outcome in favour of messing about! Lets call it 'playing, with intent', or 'deliberate playing'. Remembering that the aim was to learn about simplifying, I think they have done tremendously well. 

Sara C.

 The artworks here are by several students, who bravely played, and won! All images are no taller than 4 inches (10 cm) and were from photographs I had taken of the local area. Sara, above, moved on to using coloured pencil (bottom right of image) to tackle the lovely patterns in water.

Pat F

Carolyn G

Liz C

Hilary J - this artwork is in coloured pencil, on water colour paper. 

Ciara C

Ciara C - a closer view

Ciara's artworks, above and below, are beautifully executed and have a gentle illustrative quality about them.

Ciara C

Upcoming workshops include Friday night Life Drawing (7th June), and the summer programme is available  below. To be added to Julie's mailing list to hear automatically about extra workshops, please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

NEW** Portrait drawing and painting: Mon 22 - Fri 26th July 10 - 4.15pm, from photos, and with a model. Fully tutored, cost £600. 

August 22 - 26th: Drawing and oils workshop with Julie Douglas. This workshop will improve your drawing skills using pencil, charcoal and chalks, teach you how to create beautiful still life set-ups and you will produce an oil painting based on one of your own  arrangements. This workshop is perfect for all levels of ability, and is an excellent preparation for the oils workshop which directly follows, with Maestro John Angel. (see below). Cost £600 (materials list provided)

August 28th - September 5th: Oil Painting like the Masters. A workshop delivered by the Maestro Michael John Angel, from the Angel Academy of Art, Florence. Details of this can be found here: 

http://juliedouglasdrawingpaintinglearning.blogspot.com/2018/09/maestro-in-belfast-august-28th.html

Boots and ballet shoes! Student's drawings from Belfast Academy of Realist Art.

Last week I decided it was drawing time, and set out a variety of boots, shoes and ballet shoes. 

The first class used charcoal, and the rest of the week students opted for graphite pencil. The results were amazing. Here are a few examples. 

Charcaol drawing by Teresa L. (size A3)

When attending a weekly class, students have the benefit of trying lots of media, which broadens perspective and changes perception. The down side is that it's only once a week! 

Pencil drawing of work boot by Christine McC.

Christine hard at work. You can see here that the drawing was A3 sized and larger than the actual boot. This gives a dramatic drawing. 

Jane's lovely drawing of a boot.

Beautiful A2 drawing by Sara C. Great use of the page. 

Sara's drawing next to the shoes - larger than life!

 Students work very hard, and hardly grumble at ALL..! But for those times when a good grumpy sentence is really necessary, I've decided that a loud turkey-gobble is the best solution. So, instead of naming all the faults in your artwork and getting more and more agitated in the process, the new best thing is to do an impression of a turkey, using the most appropriate emotion to match your frustration. Not going the way you wanted?? GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!! I know it seems ridiculous, but it WORKS!! The frustration gets out of your mouth, without increasing your self disgust, and everyone in the room sympathises before bursting into laughter.

Alison working on her large and fabulous charcoal drawing.

Lesley's lovely drawing.

Dramatically large drawing by Pat.

You can see the pink boots in this photo - quirky!

Catherine working on her lovely drawing.

Catherine's drawing. 

A difficult angle, a pair of shoes in their box, surrounded by tissue paper. This is Glynis M's artwork. 

 I'm so proud of my students. Well done everyone.

For info about classes please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

website www.juliedouglas.co.uk

Julie Douglas has written a manual on drawing, 'Notes from the Atelier' which contains over 32 exercises as she delivers them at her weekly classes. A hard backed book with over 500 photos and drawings by Julie and her students, it's the perfect home study or gift to yourself or your arty friend. Details here:

http://www.juliedouglas.co.uk/#/julies-book/

Practice Makes Permanent - oil portrait sketches (time lapse)

I've been doing a lot of portrait paintings recently, around 15 in quick succession. It was an interesting experience and I'm sure that it has changed my approach, for a little while at least! I wanted to work quickly, so set deadlines of four - six hours. I was lucky that I'd already planned a week away with an arty friend, so we were cocooned in a cottage for a week, with only paints, knitting wool and a 1000 piece jig saw (and some excellent Audibles). Blissssss!! Bliss, but very tiring. I managed to produce 7 paintings in 5 days. Would I do it again? You bet! (But next time I'll factor in a spa at the end to unknot my painter-shoulder..) 

The drawing, completed enough to transfer onto canvas.

For this portrait, I decided to take time lapse photos, and I've put the results below, both of the drawing stage and then the painting itself. I much prefer to work from life, but in this case it was not possible, so I worked from a phone - which is roughtly the same 'size' as a head would be if the sitter was right in front of me. I don't zoom in, except to check measurements. The drawing was done quickly and not brought to a high level of completion - just enough to know I had the likeness and correct proportions. 

Very basic set-up!! 

Click the movies below to watch the process (each film is around 17 seconds). 

The drawing took 45 minutes, the painting took just over three hours. 

For programme information about upcoming workshops in Belfast, please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

I have an oils workshop from 22 - 27th April, a Portrait workshop 25th & 26th April and Friday Night Life Drawing sessions every second Friday.