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

Portrait commission, colour pencil on Bristol Board

I have just finished working on my portrait commission, and wanted to show some of the stages involved.

Above - the finished artwork. It's hard to photograph it - it looks a lot warmer in reality. The smoothness of flesh is created by using thousands of tiny strokes, with very sharp pencils. A blunt pencil creates a clumpy lumpy texture, but a sharp pencil give control, albeit slow and careful. 

I began a week ago. 

The first stage is, I admit, really weird-looking. I draw the whole image out so it looks like an Ordnance Survey Map, so that when I am working in colour, I don't need to make so many 'drawing' decisions, and can concentrate more fully on the colours and tones I need. 

I seem to start with one eye, every time. 

Above - showing the tiny strokes of flesh. The forehead is a challenge, especially when it is smooth and perfect. 

Creeping down the face - it looks rather like the colour is being poured on. if only it were that simple! I complete small areas at a time, so that I don't have to revisit the whole thing over and over. I do have to do a lot of comparitive observing, all through the artwork, and again  at the end, but generally speaking, as much work is done as I go along as possible. 

Pressure is a much misunderstood aspect of colour pencil. if you lean very gently, you are effectively doing a rubbing of the paper, and that is not what you want. You need to lay colour down with conviction, but without leaving any trace of your line. The exception to this is in the hair. You can see above that I lay the initial tones down more roughly, to get the paper colourse, before going over it again and again to build up a really rich dark colour. A lot of elbow grease here. Mixed in with walked to the park so the cabin fever doesn't set in.. 

Above - another view of the less-sharp pencils, roughly put down for the initial hair.

Many hours later (about 20) everything is almost covered. The white paper is beginning to look very cold, so I added a light warm ochre above the heads to soften it. (see top)

Next up: drawing and water colour weekend, 

Portrait drawing workshop

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

A Titanic Experience - The Big Draw in Belfast's Drawing Offices 2015

October is The Big Draw, a festival championed by The Campaign For Drawing, in the UK, to encourage and promote drawing as an activity that includes everyone.

Obviously, this sits extremely well with me, as I view drawing as one of the most important ways to connect with our own selves as well as communicating with others.

A festival like this is the perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight on drawing, and what better venue to get Belfast on the map, than the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices?

The Drawing Office, 1912

These iconic buildings were where naval architects and draftsmen drew up the plans for the ships which were built here, including the Titanic. I have been honoured to have regular access to the building over the past couple of years for drawing workshops, in partnership with the Titanic Foundation, who are in charge of ensuring the buildings are cared for. Soon, major renovation work will be underway and the building will return to it's former glory.

Maeve and Siobhan, from the Titanic Foundation, helping with the set-up

Did you know that the word 'titanic' means Gigantic? Massive, enormous, fantastic? If we're having a BIG Draw, it might as well be titanic. Over 100 people, children and parents, arrived to make it not only a big draw, but a really big class too.

Tables were laid with long lengths of paper, like table cloths, and after listening to me reading a story, which featured Samson and Goliath, the two huge yellow cranes which tower above the Ship Yard,  everyone set to work, drawing on the same sheet. 

But that really did mean EVERYONE. It wasn't enough that the children were drawing - the parents had to do it too. After their initial hesitation ('What? Me? Oh no, I can't... I haven't... but....'), and a small bit of encouragement ('here's a pen', smiling face), Mum's and Dad's started joining in. 

Above, Dad is engrossed... 

This changed everything. No longer were the adults over-seeing. Now they were participating. In fact, the parents were so settled in that we had trouble stopping them! 

By George, aged 7

A peek at Bailey's drawing 

After an hour and a half, 8 large sheets of paper were filled, a Titanic effort, of fun and imagination. A very different type of drawing to what the original draftsmen were doing in this building, but imagination is the start of every idea, and the ideas were flowing today. There was a tremendous feeling of happiness and well being. H&W - happy and well!

H&W - happy and well! 

With Judith, my enthusiastic helper, and all the drawings of the morning

This link takes you to a video created by Paul Marshall. 

https://vimeo.com/144224737

Some of the artists!

Thanks to everyone who came and drew, and thanks to Maeve, Siobhan and Catherine at the Titanic Foundation for their work in setting up and promoting the event, and to Judith Gordon for helping. 

Portrait Drawing, graphite pencil

I have just finishsed work on the preparatory drawing for a portrait commission.

I don't always do such a finished 'rough' - it often depends who the client is, how well they know my work, and what their requirements are. I do enjoy this stage - it's a great way to get to know the pattern of the faces and sort out balance of tones etc, in order to create a good portrait (as opposed to a copy of a photograph, which is an entirely different thing altogether).

Finished rough with client-led alterations

Also, in this instance, the photographic reference was from a couple of years ago (as provided by the client) and this means the little girl's face has changed shape as she has grown. So it is necessary to use more recent photographs as further poeints of reference to ensure the portrait is a satisfactory mix of truth as it was when the photo was taken, combined with the truth of how the child is seen now. 

I like to start with the eyes, choosing one eye to be dominant over the other.

Once most of the first face was blocked in I moved to the second face. Children's faces are difficult as they are so much smoother with more subtle variations in tone across the flesh. 

At this stage, above, I showed the drawing to the client, as a sneek preview to ensure things were looking familiar to him. He was delighted and asked only that I take some of the fulness away from the jaw on the child - you will notice this if you look at the final drawing at the top of this page. I also softened the tones a lot on bothe faces and finished the background loosely. 

The size is 32cm x 35 cm. I will show you the colour version when it is done. 

Now I'm off to the post office to send the original for approval - fingers crossed! 

Next up: Two day landscape water colour workshop 

In November - Portrait Drawing workshop and Oils weekend. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

The Big Draw - 

As part of the Big Draw 2015, I am holding a Children's Drawing session at The Harland and Wolff Drawing Offices in Belfast's Titanic Quarter on Saturday 30th October. The event is free. For bookings and info  Catherine.mccooey@titanic-foundation.org or call 028 9073 0490. 

More information here

                   http://visit-belfast.com/whats-on/event/the-big-titanic-draw

Heaven is a place in Holywood..

.well, it was until I bought all the gourds in town, and now Heaven is in my house!

On display at the shop... I want them all!

Although I am not overly attracted to Orange things, in autumn it's an eye-catcher that can't be ignored - jolly, warm and hopeful, with the colour of fire. I love autumn, it's abundance of colour-contrasts, berries and seeds, a last gift before nature takes a rest. 

colour contrasts: orange leaves,  blue sky

As well as the leaves slowly changing colour, gourds begin to appear in the shops in the run up to Hallowe'en. With their twists, stripes and warts, they are like nature's joke - they aren't edible, purely for decorative entertainment.  

Abundance of warty temptations.. Be careful to check for mould as you want them to last as long as possible. 

They make the most brilliant subject for drawing and painting, and aren't offended if you add extra bumps and lumps. 

Safely at home 

Colour pencil drawing in my Moleskine Sketchbook

Warts and all

Drawing these is all about surface pattern. Great fun. 

Upcoming workshops in Oils, Water colour, portrait drawing and Colour Pencil. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

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