Figure Drawing Workshop with Colleen Barry in Belfast 2014

Figure drawing is one of my favourite things. To have a whole week of it is wonderful.
I was deligheted to welcome Colleen  Barry to teach in Belfast, fresh from a two week course at the Angel Academy in Florence.

Students were from a mixture of past exprience and from many backgrounds - Fine Art, Animation and Beginners. To accomodate this variety, Colleen started each day with 20 minute poses, allowing plenty of practice in the all-important starting point of figure drawing. Robert was our model and he had an impressive (or depressing, depending on how you're feeling at the time!) portfolio of outrageously difficult-to-draw poses for the short drawings, and how we all scurried around the room trying to find the least-horrendous views. (Discovering of course that all views are equally difficult, but just in different ways!) 

But the main focus of the week was one pose, studying form and learning about anatomy. Robert was a fantastic model - I can't begin to imagine how painful it is to stand in one position for several days and I am very grateful for his professionalism.

Colleen doing a demo on form shadow verses cast shadow

We enjoyed watching Colleen demonstrating, not only about the figure but explaining about light, shadow, tone and form in general. Colleen is a gentle teacher, an incredibly knowledgable artist who is willing and able to spend time explaining so that everyone understands. She is a lovely combination of inspiring, and modest.  

One of the daily anatmony talks. 

Alice, Jeremy (aka Leonardo), Caroline (showing Peter how to sharpen his pencils), Peter, Sarah, Pat, Colleen Barry and jacinta) 

Julie, Jacinta and Alice, suffering on the wooden horses.

To make it even more perfect I'd have to suggest a shoulder and back massage at the end of each day - sitting on a hard wooden 'horse' for a week is not comfy.. ! I had a great tip froma  student I worked with in GCA, who recommended support socks for days when standing to draw. 

Colleen was joined in Belfast by her husband Will St John, who is a wonderful painter and sculptor - he spent time seeking out his family roots, in Comber, County Down! 

Ciara, who was kindly practicing the pose just in case Robert needed a break..!

The whole group, skeleton and all (giving Robert an affectionate hug). 

A fantastic week - I hope to display some of the drawings during the Belfast Festival of Art and Design in March. 

Upcoming courses - Oil workshop, Colour Pencil workshop, Belfast. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

The Draw in Symposium, Belfast, 2014 - an Extraordinary Experience

The last weekend in August 2014 was very special, for many many people. The Draw In Symposium was an incredible two days of open hearted sharing, with artists from many disciplines coming together to share their experiences, to swap stories and ideas, providing a lively, passionate, authentic creative experience for students of all ages and from all backgrounds. The place was buzzing, and everyone who was there was changed in some way.

L-R: Colleen Barry (from the Grand Central Academy, New York), Matt Weigle (also from GCA, NY) Aidan McGrath (architect and photographer, Belfast), Paul Foxton (artist, London), Peter Cooper (animator, Belfast), PJLynch (illustrator, Dublin), Shevaun Doherty (botanical artist, Dublin) and me, wth an L-plate,  introducing everyone to the sessions ahead. 

And while, in my teaching, I have regularly witnessed individual students having AHA moments of understanding, watched the great relief some experience in truly understanding something they thought was beyond them, and seen many people joyfully uplifted through their own progress, I have never seen it happen to so many people at once. It was humbling and hard to describe.

Me introducing Paul Foxton

I think it was the most profound, moving, inspiring and fast moving weekend of my LIFE. Such an incredible experience, so much knowledge shared. Amazing.
But it was so much fun too. Energetic and delicious!

PJ Lynch giving his portrait demonstration. 

Big screen was so helpful behind PJ Lynch. my son modelled for him 

Peter Cooper encouraging students to view his sculptures. 

Believe it or not, Paul Foxton is in the middle of this crowd, doing his demonstration. 

Paul Foxton

Shevaun Doherty, talking us through her wonderful botanic paintings, in the gallery. 

A bit of audience participation, playing with clay during Peter Cooper's demonstration

One of my figure drawing workshops

 On the first day we began with a panel discussion where the artists answered the questions I asked, each of them describing the relevance of Drawing within their own practice. This  gave the audience a glimpse into the practicalities and nitty gritty of creative development. We had demonstrations in Creature Sculpting by Peter Cooper, oil portraiture by PJ Lynch, Studio Practice with Paul Foxton, talks by Colleen Barry and Shevaun Doherty. In between all of this, students peered at the drawings and sketch books and roughs on display in the gallery.

My wonderful volunteers, Pamela, Katy, Rory, Niamh, Liz, Lisa (chief whip) and Judith. I couldn't have done it without them, they were fantastic. 

On the second day, PJLynch, Paul Foxton and I gave workshops (in portrait drawing, Studio Practice and Figure Drawing) and this was a marathon for the students AND us! I worked out that over 300 pieces of artwork were generated that day - that's a lot of drawing.

It was an extravaganza. And I look forward to doing it again!

PJ Lynch portrait workshop

Some lovely student drawings

By the end of the weekend, my volunteers were a bit the worse for wear... 

Here is just some of the lovely feedback I recieved from students:

From G.M. - A really talented and inspiring bunch of people - all gathered by you and infected by your enthusiasm. Well done on it all. The organisation, balance of presentations and goodwill engendered was fantastic.

From R.K - I just wanted to let you know what I thought of the weekend symposium which you organised. My sister and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute and we came home fired up and even more enthusiastic to get cracking to find out if we can do it! I felt as if the whole course was set up for me alone, as you made it all "do-able". I loved the artists, so cleverly selected and I would love to have heard more and more and more about their practice. 

PJ Lynch was so fantastic and I could have stayed with the portraiture all day but then I felt the same about the figure drawing.

Most of all I feel affirmed and a little more confident (something I have spent my life giving others in teaching). I don't know how long that will last but I am determined to give myself a chance now that I have given up teaching.

I loved the course, the tutors, the people, the art of course and the craic. You were a breath of fresh air to listen to and see in action.

From J.F. - Well I absolutely loved the course and was really pleased I got to take part in it. I was there for the weekend only. My highlights were

• Colleen Barry's talk - I felt privileged to be in the same room as her. 
• P.J.s Workshop - Thoroughly enjoyed this and was very happy with my portrait. I'm a member of Illustrator's Ireland, as is PJ and I was feeling trepidation about doing his workshop. I draw cartoon people while he creates masterpieces so I was feeling a bit mortified but he was great and I really learned a lot.
• Your workshop and I'm not just saying that :)  I feel like my drawing is very stiff so your workshop was EXACTLY what I need to loosen up and look at things differently - inside edges instead of outlines. 

            So thank you again for the opportunity Julie, I left feeling really inspired.

Paul Foxton made comments about it on his blog here
http://www.learning-to-see.co.uk/belfast-draw-in

Photos are here on PJLynch's Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pj.lynch.520/media_set?set=a.10152730640183982.1073741832.781593981&type=1

More photos here on Paul Foxton's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/paul.foxton.10/media_set?set=a.10152504160632023.1073741826.682462022&type=1

From a room to a studio...Oils Workshop Belfast

What does it take to transform an empty room into a studio??

... Lots of easels, stools, lights and shadow boxes, helpful porters to move them all... and, fresh from New York, Matt Weigle, to arrange them, just so!

Matt arrived a few days ahead of time to help prepare for his Oils Workshop this week. It was great watching him work so carefully to make each workspace as good as it could be, and to take him to St George's Market to choose fruit for painting. This took rather a long time, and as usual, I bought far too much because for every lovely plum I found, there was another and another...

Day 1 was the setting up of our individual objects, then blocking in the drawing. 

Matt Weigle doing the drawing demo

The view from my desk

My set up

I'll keep you posted on the progress... This week is the run up to the Draw In Symposium, and its a great way to get warmed up!

www.draw-in.co.uk

Nature sketch book exchange project, Holywood stones.

And so, the sketch books are still going around the world, with each one taking on it's own character as we fill the pages, slowly slowly. 

So far, I have been doing things which grow, but I do so love stones. And they ARE natural..

Unfinished ring of stones, 18cm x 16cm showing the process involved. Julie Douglas 

 Some subjects really lend themselves to water colour, and stones - in spite of their solidity, which seems so at odds with the wateriness of water colour -  certainly work well.

More stones, 17cm x 13 cm, water colour, Julie Douglas

There's something about the blobby quality of working wet into wet, the unexpected random happenings of the paint as it moves before drying is very like the uneven patterns on stones. The difference between the first two photos, above, is that the top one is unfinished (so you can see how it is started), the bottom one has had more layers added once the wet-on-wet has dried, giving a crisper edge. The next images were for the sketch book project. 

 I went for a walk on the shore to find stones for painting. Beaches all have their own characteristic stones - some beaches turn up smooth rounded stones, some, like East Sussex have stones with enormous holes in the middle. Holywood stones are characteristically small and nobbly, like chunks of nougat (see above). So it takes a good bit of staring and patience to find vareity and interest. But, once you find one, there's another, and ooh - there's another. Pretty soon my pockets were full, and the coat was too heavy to wear!

A variety of shapes and sizes.. Julie Douglas

When I worked in the first couple of sketch books, ones which belong to other artists, I stuck a piece of my preferred water colour paper onto the pages, as I don't like the paper of the book itself. But this time, I just got stuck in, using the book itself. I had to use a lot more water than usual as the paper is so smooth and wants to absorb the pigment. I did the paintings while my students painted their own stones beside me. I have to admit, some of them were shapeless blobs for a good while (the stones, not my students!!), but when it's someone else's book, you have to just keep on working till it begins to look better.. Shadows vary according to the time of day I did each stone. 

I was happy to include one little heart-stone from my mammoth collection... 

Upcoming courses: Portrait drawing, intensive portfolio preparation, oils workshops. 

Later this summer - 23rd August, BIG DRAWING DAY at The Drawing Office, Titanic Quarter Belfast

Draw In - drawing symposium with some amazing visiting artists including PJ Lynch, Paul Foxton, Katherine Tyrrell and Colleen Barry (NY). www.draw-in.co.uk

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk