Cherry Cherry - a new set of 'Kremer' Water Colours in Gray!

 I love black and white work, and think that giving concentrated time to understanding values will help improve colour work later on. So I was intrigued when Lisa, who I stood at the next easel to me last week on a drawing course, showed me this new set of water colour paints, in shades of gray. Who KNEW....?! The thing that is surprising here is that usually, no white is used when painting water colour, as it has a tendancy to 'fog' the colours, and stop them being transparent (which is one of the main charms of using this medium). So next morning I headed to the art store to buy a set to try out. Everything about them feels 'different' - some of the pans are sticky to the touch, others feel a bit rubbery, like putty.

They were nice to paint with, but I had to remind myself to keep switching 'colours' rather than using water to dilute. The consistency is thicker than usual, but some of the darker grays have a lovely warmth about them, with the paler ones veering towards brown-gray rather than blue-gray. There is no actual Black in the set, but the darkest gray is rich and sooty. I'm not sure if I liked them - but I do tell my students that they need to use a new medium about 5 times before deciding if they're our new best friend or not. The first time, we are more aware of what it CAN'T do, the second time we're a bit more prepared, and by the third time we can really get a sense of what it CAN do, and after that, we practice it.. So I'll do plenty more. 

Having said that, it was a treat to do a quick colour one afterwards!

Upcoming courses: Intensive portfolio course for college entry

Big Drawing Day at The Drawing Office, in Belfast's Titanic Quarter.

Draw In - symposium, Belfast 30/31st August.

Oil Painting workshop with Matt Weigle

Figure Drawing Workshop with Colleen Barry

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

www.draw-in.co.uk

Dear Susan... how to procrastinate, productively

Susan is a Distance Learning student of mine, who lives in Wales, UK. Once or twice a year she visits me for a drawing or painting weekend, to recharge the batteries and get kick started on a new set of exercises to work on at home.  Like many distance students, she has a busy life, and travels around the world with work, which is not handy for her art. Last month, she wrote in despair, very frustrated and upset about her latest artwork, had an impressive hissy-fit, and declared that perhaps she'd pack it all in, harUMPH. Joking aside, it was heartbreaking to read. Particularly as her artwork was great..! 

One of the amazing strengths that distance students acquire, is the capacity to stick with it, no matter what the interruptions. This is so very hard. This IS Discipline. My tip for anyone who hasn't been at the desk recently, and is about to resume - recap, revise and recoup before moving on to the next exercise. Refresh yourself by taking a small step back and start simple and small - it'll give you a better spring in your step to move forward. 

So this month I was thrilled that Susan's letter showed she'd turned the corner. With her permission, here is some of our exchange. I have not shown her crit, for that belongs to Susan - the words below show how it FEELS to produce, how it IS to produce and illustrates the rewards of continuing to strive. 

Dear Julie 

Distant Learning Course: Susan B. 

Bloc 3, Exercise 8: Pomegranates on Canvas, June 2014

I feel really pleased with myself. I got back to this exercise this morning – having got up really early to start work. I did find myself procrastinating, putting on a wash, emptying and loading the dishwasher… but I decided it was now or never. Either I do it, or I abandon the whole affair with paint!

I had already done an afternoon on the pomegranates three weeks ago. But, I had to go to Germany for a week, so today was my first free weekend since...

So, I pushed myself upstairs. Julie and her last crit were ringing in my head.

I decided I would look at what I had done three weeks ago, over a slow coffee; have a feel of the paint, and the paint brushes [I need new ones definitely], take my time before I actually do any painting as such.

The start was not so good – despite the effort to refocus the brain and the mind on this. I was rather unsure what I was doing. I thought - ring Julie – she said I could. I don’t know what I am doing here…. I don’t know what to do!!

But, as if by magic, - or now that I look back on it – as if by telepathy from Julie and her crit to me, I for the first time in my life stopped feeling scared!! Scared of the paint, the paper, the task, the output! For the first time ever I had this strong sense that I could in fact let go of all of that – and just paint.

What a difference that makes! I have so, so enjoyed my morning. I have discovered lots. First, although it may seem common sense to know this – I have just realised that what is first put on the page is NOT the finished product; it is important, because it defines the composition and the size of the drawing, and in this case the basic shapes of the fruit. But, it is not the end result. There are processes to be gone through after that and they take time, and they are just as important as the first session at a painting. In fact, it is after the first session is over and the painting is retuned to again, then the layering and the depth, and the richness of the painting begin to emerge. I have discovered layering. I know that Julie often says ‘there was a fair bit of layering’ when she shows you one of her paintings – but this is the first time I understood what she meant! Layering is wonderful – it gives depth and richness to a painting; I used to think that layering was all about putting on paint to fix mistakes. So, you layer over a mistake – and as I make many, - and am constantly frustrated by my inability to draw and to get the composition on the page anyway reasonable [such as not squashing the composition in to the end of the page, and leaving loads of blank space above that somehow has to be filled in!], layering had become for me a remedial action. And Stressful! But, today I discovered layering has a function in its own right – not to correct mistakes. It allows you to make the painting come to life, to enrich the colours, to give more tonal variation, to deepen the image! Ah, I am slow…..

However, I think that I go carried away with the layering idea – and now need to think: there is a difference between layering and turning it all into a mud brown. When to stop? 

I also discovered that by not being afraid of the painting – I could move my brush to make more bold lines. This may not make sense Julie – but I have discovered today that I usually keep to using the brush as a dabbing tool – ‘just a little blot only here - just in case’ approach. Today, letting go of the ‘having to have a painting to frame’ tyranny, I was able to stretch my hand out and make bigger lines, across the pomegranates so as to form the different surfaces, rather than being constrained by the ‘not too much of the brush just in case…’.

I had no idea that painting was so emotionally complex when I started all this – the exercise of painting is like a mirror in to our personalities!! It reveals all!!

I also like using canvas: it has a lovely feel and I like the springy surface. I used only a small canvas – which is less daunting. But, this sacrifices a sense of space. I still find it hard to put in any details with oil colours and with such small working surfaces.

Julie, I owe you big thanks. By keeping your crit in my mind today, I have broken through a real fear barrier! It may rise again, but, I guess now I know it can be scaled….

Susan 

Dear Susan

Many thanks for your WONDERFUL letter. So so delightful to read the difference in your words, in your emotion and your experience since your last letter. I felt great relief in reading. As a teacher, I truly have the best interests of my students at heart, so it was painful for me to read your last letter, so full of self judgement and despair. For you to have lost your balance, and consider quitting painting altogether would have felt to me like my failing - certainly not yours. However, all of this creative path is your own, Susan. No matter how I contribute, it is YOU that does it all.

:)

I guide and explain just enough to get your inquisitive genes flowing, I hope, because there isn’t a Right Answer to much of this. There are multiple-possibles, multiple-probables and lots of OOH, aHA!’s. Even for me who has been doing this for a long time, even for all artists who are striving to be the best they can be. Because at some point, we get it. At some point we realize that WE have to Look, WE have to See, WE have to learn to control our materials. And that’s what makes it a never ending journey of delicious discovery, and whether you are working in a room full of others, or alone in the back bedroom, it is a solitary personal journey. 

Now that I’ve written that, it dawns on me that THIS is why we procrastinate. I do it too. Though I am ‘wise’ enough (which means I’ve been procrastinating on a Professional Level for some time...) to understand the various degrees of procrastinating, and that they are a part of the creative process. Rather than feeling guilty about procrastinating, I think viewing it differently really helps. For example, what if:

1. Inability to get on with the thing that you THINK you SHOULD be doing, means that you aren’t in the right head-space to do it? What if there is something deep within us which resists ANYTHING, when we think we OUGHT to do it? 

2. What if we recognized that in some way we feel a small bit that we are selfish and that spending time doing something for pleasure is wrong..? 

3. Faffing about doing household chores is a form of head-clearing, necessary (for women, anyway) to preparing ourselves to enter the right energy?

4. What if we took a mental review of our own behaviour patterns and worked out our best-time-of-day? Once we identify that time, we can enjoy guilt-free-faffing, so long as we time it right. (I had a sad aha! moment when I discovered this for myself. My children were very young, and my time at the desk was limited and had been for many years, through looking after them. One day they were both invited to friends houses after school, so I was in my studio drawing. Then I noticed the bird song had a slightly echoey sound about it, which I hadn’t heard for a long time. Birdsong has different pitches at different times of the day. This was a late-afternoon sound, and it echoed around the trees. It struck me then that it was so familiar because it had been the sound of, the accompaniment to, my drawing. My Best-Time was from about 3pm onwards. If I was settled at 3, I could work like a train till midnight. And what time do the children leave school to come home...? 3pm.. Recognising this helped me enormously. I forgave myself for faffing. But I also altered my way of working, because I knew that I wouldn’t have access to my best-time for many years to come. So, in order to not have years of frustration, I prioritized my day - I knew that the things I HAD to do, I always WOULD do, even if late at night. So I did the drawings first. This is discipline. And it was a choice. It’s not the same in your case, but it isn’t MUCH different. Your time is very limited. But you ARE choosing!

5. ‘A solitary personal journey’... No wonder you had to force yourself up the stairs. This is difficult! We set standards for ourselves! And on top of that, we go it ALONE?! Good grief, it’s a miracle that we manage it at all, no wonder our bodies procrastinate, for it is EASIER to NOT do it.. Yet, we so want to.. When we feel procrastinative, it is because at some level we know we are taking a journey into our souls. Gulp. And to improve, we have to be honest, vulnerable, open. Those are difficult, very personal things.                         

I am so proud of you!

When we have a long break from things which require skill, there is a fear about starting again. In this instance, the last experience you had was very negative, because you weren’t forgiving yourself, you were forgetting yourself. So your procrastinating was forgivably understandable. 

Because at some point, we get it.  Interestingly, we have to be a certain way into the learning experience before we get it. I think you have gone through a creative rite of passage. You went into the Black Hole, that make or break point, and chose to climb out and carry on. Welcome into the light. 

I am so proud of you!

Now I hope you understand what it means when I say that all artists are learning, always. I hope you understand what I mean when I say that it would be a mistake to assume the paintings in galleries look the way the artist had hoped, when they began them. Often, by the time artworks reach the gallery, the artist has moved on, glad to have stopped those paintings, as the next one will be better... 

Your pain is not over, but it will be frustration tinted with understanding, which is a fine thing. You need to keep the desire alive, the desire to stretch - it’s just that by now, you almost know too much...!! There is no going back! Allow yourself to have fun sessions, and challenging sessions, and recognize the joy in learning new things, over and above the completion. We’re a long time in the learning, we might as well love it! Your job is to balance difficulty-level with pleasure. 

I am so proud of you!

It is interesting to read about your Fear. Recently I have started mentioning fear in my weekly class. Someone was so tense, as they’d missed a couple of weeks (!!) that I could see they were hardly hearing my instructions, for their inner voice was loudly screaming. So I said that the worst thing that would happen is that they would have to start again in 10 minutes, but they wouldn’t actually DIE while trying. The difference that made was astonishing. They were instantly relieved, laughed, and did a great drawing.. What’s going on there then...?! In my absence, please speak to yourself. If you hear yourself say I can’t or I’m rubbish or anything else that I wouldn’t say to you, change it immediately. Soften it to ‘I can try’. ‘I love learning’. ‘I love this so much’. ‘This is going to be fun!’ You could even say, ‘Fear, you’re going to DIE!’ 

I am so proud of you! 

Julie 

For upcoming course info contact julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

www.draw-in.co.uk 

Pink, makes the boys wink..! Peonies, water colour without drawing.

Going straight to paint with water colour is a refreshing and liberating experience. I find it relaxing. And if you are relaxed when painting, it shows in the outcome.

Sketch book studies for demonstration, Julie Douglas

In a class situation, going staight to paint means students spend the whole session painting, giving them not only a better chance of completing their artwork, but a fuller opportunity to try different techniques - more playing and experimenting.
This week I wanted my students to paint with a colour restriction. Limiting the range of colours is a great way to discover new tones and mixes, and it is also a good way to ensure the image holds together well.
I was seduced by some lovely peonies, which were a perfect subject for colour restricting.

The two paintings below show the starting points, and neither were taken any further. 

This shows how pale the first layer is. Red pigment not only stains the water, but also the page so a light start makes it easier to change your mind. 

The colours we used were Permanent Sap Green and Lemon Yellow for the stem, Permanent Rose for the flower. Later in the process students were allowed to try (I say TRY) Alizarim Crimson and French Ultramarine on the petals, if they needed it. 

This painting shows a build up of the second layer of tones, on top of a dried base-shape. 

The two images below show the beginning and end of one flower. This one I didn't use such a pale mix to start, as the final colours were so strong.

Julie Douglas

Julie Douglas

Upcoming workshop: Figure drawing, portrait drawing, Water colour for location, beginners drawing and portfolio courses. 

I am holding a drawing class in The Drawing Offices, in Belfast's Titanic Quarter. 

For details on all courses email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

www.draw-in.co.uk

Batchelor's Button (cornfower) in water colour, student work

Time - how long is it?       

                                                                                                                                                     Sometimes there is nothing for it but to change the boundaries of time... If we spend the same set amount of time on each artwork, then we can get into a bit of a rut. Either nothing will be finished, or else you will get into a formula so that you complete artwork within the time. The down side of the latter is that your work won't progress and you will ultimately feel less satisfied and frustrated. 

The gorse exercise in the previous post 

was an attempt to change the boundaries, by working on two paintings at the same time.  This week, I did it again, by starting students with a time limit of TEN MINUTES. 

You'd not believe it - they were too shocked to even MOAN! I set the timer, helpfully suggested they use a pale blue for the petals and a green for the leaves... GO! 

And after the first ten minute painting, we did another one. There wasn't a peep out of anyone.. And now, once everyone was warmed up, they were given the final hour to work uninterrupted. 

Pat F, water colour, student

I have not shown any 10 minute paintings here - these artworks all took the hour or so. The advantage of the warm-up painting is that it helps you get a feel for time. Doing several 10 minute painting means that suddently 20 minutes is quite a long time.. 

Shirley F, colour pencil - the top flower is the drawing, the bottom one is the flower! 

Sarah B, colour pencil. Again, the drawing is on top, the flower is on the right. 

Sarah M, student, water colour

Nisa V, or Speedy-Nisa as she's known in class (not), water colour

  I think the colour pencil studies were completed more fully than they would have been, without that rush start. The water colours have a freedom about them, because changing the boundaries allowed a 'letting go' of the possible outcome. Very little pencil was used, most of the drawing was done with the brush. No time to mess about!



Upcoming workshops: Intensive portfolio preparation, Oils, Drawing the portrait, Big Drawing, Water Colour landscape. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk


Drawing Symposium, a full weekend of demonstrations and workshops in figure drawing, portrait and more, with visiting artists including PJ Lynch, Katherine Tyrrell, Paul Foxton and Julie Douglas. 30th & 31st August, Belfast

Oils still life painting workshop, BELFAST - 25th - 29th August, with Matt Weigle from Grand Central Academy New York,

Classical Figure Drawing, BELFAST, 1st - 5th September, with Colleen Barry, from Grand Central Acadmeny, New York.  For info on all courses, email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Lemons and ellipses and composition.

This week I gave my class a big challenge. Nothing new there then... I arranged a lot of white and off-white bowls on a dark cloth, and popped a couple of lemons inside. But the challenge was not about drawing, but about composition. How to select the most interesting section, and portray only that..? 

the set up

Students began by drawing on cartrige paper, with a time limit of around 30 minutes to get the whole thing drawn in. This caused some anxiety, as the arrangement was large.  I showed no mercy... And didn't allow them to use a rubber either. This meant that lines had to be free-flowing, with the whole arm contributing to the arcs required to draw round the ellipses, altering and ammending as they went along, leaving the 'wrong' lines in place, and carry on regardless. Phew! 

Stage 1, full drawing (student work)

The next stage was to place layout paper over the top of the drawing (layout paper is thin and semi-transparent, so you can see through it even though it is white), and draw small 'boxes' - squares/rectangles - then move it round the image to isolate interesting smaller sections and draw over them. 

Stage 2, on layout paper,  zooming in to select a varitey of cropping options (student work)

This cropping and zooming stage is very interesting. If the original set-up is busy enough, then often there will be potentially half a dozen possible variations of cropping. Zooming in creates a more intimate view point. Zooming out, therefore including more of the objects, is colder and less personal. Once each student decided which image they preferred, then they drew it out afresh on water colour paper (they couldn't directly trace as their initial drawing was not accurate enough - this was because of the time restraints of a two hour class). Below is the painted version of the students chosen composition. it was around 8 inches square. 

Below - this photo shows the first and third stages, before it was completed.

By T. Raju, student

Below the finished painting, which is so interesting, full of tonal values. By T Raju, student - he did attend for a second session, giving more time for completion.

Stage 3 - painting of the chosen favourite composition, water colour, student work

Third stage, by Liz C, Student

It is important to note that the paintings are not finished - the exercise was in composition, and the many stages involved menat that there wasn't time to finish painting, but much was learnt.

This is an interesting use of the background 'box, by allowing all the bowls to break out of the boundary. By Pat F, student 

lots of circles in the kitchen

One of the up sides of using food props of course, is the recycling. Tonight, as a break from college work, I used some of the lemons to make lemon curd (note - it is aways worth making time to make lemon curd), and chopped up another to tart up my drink. 

Up coming - Oil painting weekend workshop, Belfast. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

This summer - Julie is organising a Drawing Event called Draw In, which includes two 5 day workshops (in figure drawing and Oil painting still life) and a weekend Symposium of talks, demonstrations and workshops with artists P.J. Lynch, Paul Foxton, and Classical Realist painter  Colleen Barry (from New York). More info soon! The dates are 25th August - 5th September

Portrait drawing, Belfast

Yesterday I went to an untutored painting session, with a clothed model, to practice some of the things I learnt at the Grand Central Academy, New York, when I was there in August.

Clare, by Julie Douglas

Truth is I had a presentation to prepare for college - I'd done all the ground work but not yet assembled it. In the past, these preparations have gone on long into the night... So I hadn't time to do an all-day session, but decided I'd go along for the morning one anyway, and try not to feel naughty.. Imagine, using DRAWING as the best form of procrastinating!! (I recommend this. Instead of ironing and tidying up to avoid getting to your desk, use drawing to avoid the housework or any other cumbersome task..) 

It was a loft space, with plenty of room.  I chose an easel and fiddled about for ages deciding on just which spot to set it up for the best view - this involves negotiating with the person behind, lest you block their view. We got settled and the model sat down - she had chosen the outfit, and wore many layers of knecklaces. It was one pose for the whole morning, a different pose for the afternoon - if it had been one pose all day I would have got my oil paints out, but two and a half hours just isn't enough for me. So I was happy with my HB and a sharpener. 

Clare was an amazing model - I've never known anyone sit so still for so long. At her breaks, it was the students who did the most stretching, more than she did - standing at an easel is hard on the back, especially for portrait work as you can't afford to move any more than the model. By the end, I was racing to get it all finished. And I was... exhausted! I look forward to going again. 

Brilliant way to spend the morning, and the presentation was FINE! 

The only down side was the smell of turps, as one person was using oils. This was a terrible shame - there are plenty of odourless thinners available, and just for the record, all others are barred from my studio environment. By the last half hour I was feeling sick. So if you are working in a group situation, be thoughtful and use Sansodor as a thinner, and if you're not using HUGE amounts of paint, Vegetable Oil does a great, odour-free job of cleaning your brushes. 

Next up - intensive portrfolio preparation course, childrens half term art class. Belfast.  For details 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

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

A few yummy shoes, pencil

Recently I got my classes drawing shoes - very good fun and loved by all. Here's a group shot from the Thursday Girls.

One of the important things to consider BEFORE we start drawing is the view point. Rather than just plonking an object on the table and getting stuck in, it pays off to spend 5 or 10 minutes playing with the height of the object - try putting it on the floor and looking down on it, or putting it high so you have to look up at it. With these shoes, I put them on a box on the table to make them roughly eye-level. Much more interesting.

 Raising the viewpoint by just a few inches can make all the difference.

Lovely colour pencil study by Pat F, student.

Textured pencil work, by J McI, student 

Drawing - always the best route to everything else. 

For info on courses email jule@juliedouglas.co.uk

Drawing back from the edge.

Cloth in pencil, by Julie Douglas. Moleskine sketch book

Last term I started my Masters-Mistress at college
(see  http://juliedouglasdrawingpaintinglearning.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mistress-of-arts-college-and-portfolios.html).
Studying Multidisciplinary Design means that all students come from different disciplines, and we each carve our own individual path to our personal goals, although we attend workshops together. The advantages of this varied group of students is incredible - we have huge skills between us and are constantly helping each other with things, as it seems the easiest and most obvious way forward.
In fact, Collaboration seems to be the only way, both in the creative workplace and in any business setting where the business hopes to expand or even just to survive. Puts a whole new perspective on the phrase 'I know a man who Can'.

The work is stretching and rewarding but absorbs hours like a sponge. So to do the Masters I knew that something in my routine would have to 'give'. And that something was time at my drawing board.

Uh-Oh.

Now, to a certain degree this is FINE, particularly as I made that decision. Creativity has many forms. However, I have got so much college work done that I can now get back to the desk. Which is so much easier to say than to Do. The next discipline, then, is to actually get to the desk (and not because its covered in paper and files). The Habit has to be carefully reformed. Or perhaps less carefully and more CONSCIOUSLY.

My desk is in a sunroom at the back of the house, and at this time of year, its a fridge. So, any old table will do. The next mental hurdle (for it's all in the mind), is Time. My artworks are demanding of time and effort (What? Did you think it was easy?! There's a good reason for all those corny sayings like 'Suffer for your art'.. ) and so, like preparing for the marathon, small steps of preparation are needed. But they may not be what you expect them to be. Here's my list of kick-starter steps

1. A commitment to another person.

2. A commitment to yourself.

3. A determination to not give up (it takes a lot of self motivation to be self motivated...)

4. Forgiveness

5. Praise

6. Acknowledgement

7, 8, 9, 10. Humour.

11. A mantra to say in your head.. Mine is 'stay in your chair, stay in your chair..' - if I get up, the spell is broken.


So, here comes the sketch book, oh joy.

Mushroom on tinted card, colour pencil & pastel pencil, Julie Douglas

its also important NOT to be Tidy (if tidying is a way of avoiding sitting to work). Draw amidst the chaos and Order will appear.

The best way to stop myself knitting was to draw it.... 

Cable pattern, pen, by Julie Douglas

Pen is a good idea too, as rubbing out isn't an option - Draw on regardless.

Sometimes, a doodle turns into a drawing - usually, as in the case below, on the back of something else..

Although this is rough, each drawing is leading into the next, until the finger-tips drawing, which begins to look more confident. Tip - don't judge your work, just draw ON.

And soon, a new Habit emerges...

Busy holidays. Step by step oil painting

So I had two weeks off college, but that doesn't quite equate to two weeks OFF. No. I did some classes, got up to date with my Distance Learning crits, did The Christmas, got back to my drawing board and finished the tiny Mince Pie. I notice its taking a really long time to dry, for all the size of it. White paint is the culprit - slows the drying process. I put my thumb on the front of the star yesterday to 'make sure' it was dry to varnish, but no, oops - hope the thumbprint doesn't show through..!

stage 1

The first stage always looks terrible so I try to do this in the afternoon or evening, so its dry for the next day to crack on with the colour and more steady observation. This is on board, so needed 3 layers of paint.

blocking in more thickly

Working so small meant I was inclined to occassionally put my finger onto a wet patch. I ended up holding it in my hand to paint. It was lovely to be painting again - remembering the delicious sliding and slipping of different pigments, and nudging the paint around.

big for a mince pie, small for a painting!

The biggest thing to remember with this kind of painting is that more observation is needed with each layer - working from general to specific.

All done, albeit it a loose study, and I feel more human again, after a long absence from Painting. 

and also, between walks, I did a LOT of... knitting! The best things ever are these fingerless arm-length mitts, which keep my arms warm when I'm sitting drawing, very quick to knit.

Upcoming workshops: Portrait workshop (Dublin)
Oils, Water colour landscape and Portfolio Preparation and childrens drawing, Belfast.
For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Christmas Snowmen 'Awards', and Angels

I know it's not Christmas any more, but we haven't quite reached the 'Twelfth Day', so just time to share the Snowman series that is evolving. I got some lovely cards, and the Best Original Artwork this year was from 9 year old Jack Flanagan, the son of a student of mine in Killaloe, of his drawing of...

Jack Flanagan, aged 9, Killaloe

Then there was my 'Best Card from a Student', which cheered me so much. On the envelope (which was left quietly in the kitchen for me to find later), written very large, was the word 'Teacher'.  This, from a student who is no younger than myself, but obviously just as young at heart!

This Happy Snowman below is my favourite of all time, for its lovely drawing, and perfect words.

When I was putting the decorations on the Christmas Tree, this fellow was once again waiting for his place. This snowman was made some time ago by my eldest son. Many of the ornaments on my tree are things the children made when they were very small - semi-shapeless 'lumps' covered in glitter, angels made from pasta etc. I wouldn't dream of putting them on a seperate tree - they all go on with the grown-up decorations, just where they should be.

Hand made by Christie

And these gorgeous Angels were made for me by Krystina Pomeroy, a lovely gift when she stayed with me during a workshop. They are made from old clothes pegs and are 'Domestic Goddess Angels', obviously.

The Baking Angel, cleaning Angel and Shopping Angel, by artist Krystina Pomeroy

These acts of thoughtfulness, and the hand of maker, particularly in these small things, are what Christmas is to me (as well as all the singing!).

Upcoming workshops: Portfolio Preparation, Oil painting workshops, Water colour, Portrait workshop (Dublin), monthly Childrens Drawing Classes
for info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk