The start of a new term at BARA - pastels, charcoal and water colours!

It's always an interesting challenge to decide what to give students at the beginning of the Autumn term. Some are new to the class, and some are returning but feeling rusty after perhaps not doing any drawing or painting all summer.

Ann, Natasha, Fernando, Ben and Clive working hard at the drawing boards. 

A useful start to a fresh block of classes is to work in black and white, and pastels are a great way to cover the whole page relatively quickly. It also requires that students use their whole arm to draw, working large, which is kinder (as a warm-up session) than working too intensely with pencil. Working very small can make us feel more tense, and tension isn't good for our creativity!

Catherine, Liz, Jackie, Hilary, Carolyn and Glynis (all looking happy!!) showing their lovely drawings!

This was Angela's first class - great drawing!

Catherine, also her first class, doing really well with the pastels. 

Upcoming classes in October - Oils, Friday Night Life Drawing, Portrait workshop and Children's art. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

Bags packed, ready to go!

With a hall full of canvases, multipacks of wet wipes, kitchen rolls, sketch books, tape, scissors, liquin, linseed oil, OMS, tea towels, dust pan and brush... It can only mean one thing - masterclass time!

Canvases, a new lamp...

Students are decending upon Belfast to attend the Oils workshop with 'maestro' Michael  John Angel, who arrived from Florence this afternoon in a heavy shower of rain - hopefully a pleasant change from the heat wave in Italy. I am delighted that he has returned for a second year - we are honoured to welcome him.

Gloves, medium, paint... 

 It's amazing how much you can fit into a Golf - my student Mark did a wonderful job of squeezing 20 Ikea stools in as well as drawing boards, all the canvases and miscellaneous Others.

We spent the afternoon preparing the studio, and it's all set. For the next five days Mr Angel will guide students through the techniques of Bouguereaux - everyone is very excited and can't wait to get started! 

'Dapples at Scrabo', oil painting 11in x 14 inches on linen.

Some paintings are fast, while others take their time to brew. In this case, I started the painting a few months ago (and documented the drawing stage through to the first layer of colour here  http://juliedouglasdrawingpaintinglearning.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/portrait-drawing-and-painting-in-oil-in.html ), and had many interruptions in its progress, with commissioned works, lots of teaching sessions and writing my book. However, I did finish it, I think (..but there's always the possiblity of having another visit at some point..), and here it is. It is part of a series of light dapples. I just love light.

sunlight on skin. 

The book is nearly all written - it's about what happens in my weekly workshops, and is full of illustrations of students artworks and demonstrations on how to approach drawing and painting. I can't wait to share it with you, and I"ll keep you posted! 

Upcoming workshop: oil painting 23 & 24 April, Belfast

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

www.juliedouglas.co.uk

Back to the Airing Cupboard, Oil on board

It is a good idea for artists to meet other artists from time to time, to appreciate each others work and talk about our different approaches. Artists spend a lot of time working alone, so this sharing of experiences ignites new and varied enthusiasm and stops us going... nutty. It's always interesting to see how other people work - from the state of their studio space, to the music they lisen to, the lighting they prefer, their favourite brushes and of course the process they use to create their paintings. 

From time to time I visit my friend the artist Ian McAllister. His paintings are beautifully crafted, delicious mysteries. I took along a painting-to-be, of some little pumpkins that I'd arranged in my airing-cupboard-of-controlled-lighting, which I'd drawn and transferred in line to an art board. 

Ian's 'Dark Start' on the left and my 'Pale-but-interesting' on the right..

It's wonderful to see the very beginnings of another artist's process. As you can see from the two 'beginnings' above, we took the opposite aproach. Ian starts in fuzzy darkness (left), working with a really long brush and adding lights to the dense background. I (right), with my water colour and drawing history, am champion for wanting to preserve my drawing, lest I fall off the edge of the world or something..  So, lets mix it up, we thought... and slathered darks dollops of thinned down paint all over my drawing... 

Big broad strokes, but the comfort-blanket of drawing is still visible. 

Above - we managed a good bit of darker tones on top of the 'slather' until the surface was too sticky to take any more, and I took my painting home to see how I'd get on.. 

Dried, lighter

The image above shows how it dried - the tones had sunk in much more than I expected. The idea was for me to try building up colour using glazes. 

Glazing

I made lots of mistakes. Grr.. I did many layers, which at first were streaky and transparent and unsatisfying. I  did LOTS of layers, in colour, then wiped over it with black to keep it soft and fuzzy. This was verging on the traumatic at times, but I soldiered on...

The set-up 

My goal was to get real depth into the warm orange colours on the pumpkin, and eventually the richness I was after began to emerge, with the colours making the objects look solid yet velevety. Then I had a little accident.. 

Oops...

Yes, I'd not lowered the top block of the easel to secure the board, which was thin and lightweight. So, JUST when I was happy with a days work, and moments before I had to go out to a meeting, the board tipped over and landed in my palette. The dollops were impressive! 

Clipped on! 

Of course, I wiped it off, along with the areas around the dollops which were still wet, and laughed at myself... I worked a while more on the painting, but evenually was fed up looking at it so I ceased. I learnt a great deal from this little painting - some of what To Do and lots of what Not To Do. When I put it away, I really didn't like it, but now, some months later, I dont mind it so much and appreciate having taken the time to struggle with it. Often, what we learn is invisible, but we use it in the next painting and the one after that and the one after that..

notes from the airing cupboard.. Oranges in oils

So, I mentioned that I moved my workspace up to my small spare bedroom, and felt the benefit of being away from the general living space of the rest of the house. After the first painting, of an orange, which I'd set up in  shadow box, on top of a chair on top of a table, I decided it would be useful to have some shelves, to vary the height of my subjects. And then I remembered that the other wall is a set of cupboards, with lots of shelves! Da-naaa!!

So I turned my easel and lamp around, moved a few towels, placed the shadow box on the right shelf and set up the next arrangement. Oranges in the airing cupboard. Perfect...

Fruit in the airing cupboard..

One of the important factors in using the shadow box is the ability to control lighting, or to prevent more light than you want, on the subject. I lined the edges of the cupboard with black fabric, and used the cupboard door to block external light. Yes - a lot of time is spent preparing and setting up. This is so important. Composing, arranging and lighting your subject  is the making of the picture. It has to look delicious, or there's no point in painting it. So all this faffing about isn't a waste of time, it's the creative part. 

One lamp on the subject, another on the canvas. 

I did my preparatory drawing in my sketch book - I love this stage. This is a step which so many students leave out. Why? Drawing is information gathering - we draw information from the subject, to gain understanding of spacial and tonal relationships and to get the balance right. 

Something magic that happens when we draw before painting. Familiarity with the subject, an intimate getting-to-know it better. Then, at paint stage, we've already observed it, we kind of FEEL it, and the NEW decisions we are making are about colour - we still have to make the spacial and tonal decisions too, but we're half way there with those by then..

Underpainting, over a burnt sienna base colour

I painted the white canvas with a layer of burnt sienna, as a good base to paint on.

I propped my drawing up as additional refrence material next to my easel. Sometimes looking at the drawing helps, even though the fruit is still right there!

With this painting, I was trying out glazing techniques, and trying to be a bit looser. The canvas was one that I'd already opened, from my pre-Milliken Brothers days, and it was horribly rough and textured, which at least helped to restrict any over-tight tendancies. Sometimes though, it can feel like we're battling with the materials, which is not a good thing. I stuck with this painting till I couldn't stand the rough canvas any more, and moved on to the next one (making sure it was a nice fine linen).

For me, painting really is about the doing of it, rather than the completing of it. The hope is always that the next one will be better, and the next and the next...

Up and coming workshops: Oils weekend, Belfast. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Orange on black cloth, oil on board, 20cm x 20cm

So... working on the dining room table for a couple of weeks was ok, but I began to get on my own nerves.  Besides, my new toy had arrived... a slim line easel. Time for a spacial rethink.

Excited...!

A... jigsaw?

Which was exciting until I realised there were no assembly instructions with it - puLEASE...!

Compact, but perfect. 

I chose a slim easel because the lovely big ones were too tall for my ceilings. And as I don't work very large, slim is fine for now. My thoughts had turned to my tiny spare bedroom - or the Box Room, as we call it in Ireland. I don't know if that's because you're only supposed to keep boxes in it, or if it's because it's the size of a box. But certainly, it's economical in scale. I squeezed the easel in, after draping the walls with black cloth (this was such a palaver I'm trying to blank it from my memory), put the shadow box on a chair to a height that I liked,  played with the lighting, then began drawing, in my Moleskine sketchbook. (actually, no. After all that, I had anice cup of tea. Phew. THEN began drawing) After that I laid in the underpainting on the world's smoothest, custom made board from Milliken's.  (www.millikenbros.com)

The thing I struggled most with was reflected light hitting my board, so I set up a piece of black foil - dangling from my lamp - to block it. You can see from the photo below that I have two lamps - one on the still life and another on my board. The rest of the room is pretty dark.The black strip in the middle of the photo is the light-blocking foil.

The camera is a wonderful tool, but there are (many) times when it doesn't serve, and trying to photograph paintings is one of them. Below is the finished painting, but the real thing has much colour in it's cloth and looks richer, more velvety. But, you get the gist.

Next up - Portrait drawing workshop, oils weekend, location drawing at Belfast's Titanic Quater.
For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Oil painting set up - shadow box, Irish style

Last summer I spent much of my time planning and preparing for the Draw In Symposium (www.draw-in.co.uk) which ran across two weeks at the end of August into September.

I came out the other side of that determinded to set aside more regular painting time for myself, and in order to do this, I resigned as distance learning tutor for London Art College.  Although I've loved it, it was the right thing for me to do - sometimes the best way to serve students is to produce more personal work, and practice. I've worked with their students for six years, but have many students that I am still (in May) seeing out, who started their course with me.  

So, a new routine!

One of the common mistakes I hear from students is in thinking that you must have a designated area at home, set aside specifically for painting. While this is desirable, it's not essential - what is much more important than setting aside space is setting aside TIME.

I decided to do some still life subjects using a shadow box, and put it on the dining room table, raised up on another box to get an angle that I liked. After playing with the light source, I started drawing. (light, by the way, is so transformative to a subject that it makes the difference between making something worth painting, and not. A perfectly ordinary object can be rendered awesome, by the lighting).

Drawing - this is the important act of beginning your observation of the subject - of form, light, relationships, contrasts, nuances of tone. It gets your eye and brain engaged and in sinc with the subject and prepares the ground for the painting to come.  Yet this is the step that many students seek to avoid! Preparation is key. Draw to prepare. Think of the word Draw to mean Gathering. You're gathering information. You're drawing together the information you need to make a good painting.  

Next I traced my drawing onto layout paper, and transferred it onto canvas by painting a thin layer of burnt sienna oil paint over the back of the layout,  and drawing over my lines with a pen, ready for my black and white tonal study. I think it's important to show you the table by now - filling up, but I haven't had to spread out much - the space required is small.

Note the glass of water -  do not get dehydrated.. It's fine to get so absorbed that you forget to eat, but don't forget to drink. 

Finished tonal study

Next up was the colour version. I traced my drawing onto another canvas, laid down an underlayer with burnt umber thinned with mineral spirit, and left it to dry overnight. 

Underpainting

Starting the colour

By now, I admit, I was spreading out a bit more, and I was worried as had a friend coming to visit for an overight stay... Fortunately, she's a lover of arty things and was happy to share the table with me to do some of her own work. This has GOT to be the sign of a good friend. 

Me and Claire, space sharing

One of the good thing about having a visitor, of course, is that it would be rude not to go OUT, especially when the weather is crisp and sunny. So we headed down The Ards Peninsula, one of my favourite places, and drove over the little islands to the Nendrum Monastic site, and on round to Daft Eddie's for coffee.  

You can't beat a nice dry stone wall. 

A break from the drawing board often means we work more quickly when we get back to it. We also see things with a fresh eye when we've had a change of scenery. If you know you're going to have a small gap in studio visits (or, dining-room table visits), it's important to leave the painting at a good place, so it's easy to pick it up again.

The finished painting

A colse up to show the slathery bits - this is one of the best things about oil paint, the slathers. 

Next up - Portrait drawing workshop, Oils weekend and a Drawing Trail around Belfast's Titanic Quarter. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Cloth, with apples. Oil painting, 8in x 10 in on Board

This painting has taken much longer than I expected and I have learnt a lot. (including, I never know how long a painting will take...) When I began my Oil Painting Learning Journey (thinking that it was a one-way ticket! How could I EVER have thought that?! But it isn't a return ticket either, its one that you hop on and off and sometimes when you hop off you haven't alighted where you thought and sometimes when you jump back on, hey, y'seem to have gone back a stop or two but at least its slowly moving forward....), this is the subject that I started with. Cloth. Because its challenging. Its been interesting returning to it on board, and I am now plucking up courage to revisit Canvas. All encouragement would be appreciated. 

Before starting this painting, I had begun a portrait painting, and once it got to huff-stage (when its wet or when its even more frustrating..), I decided to do the apples as a less-difficult distraction, a side track. A pleasant detour, possibly.  So there's another thing I learnt. The distraction wasn't less difficult. Just differently difficult. (though I reserve the right to change my mind once I restart the portrait, and decide that it was, after all, MUCH more difficult...!)

Rory's Hands, Oil Painting 8in x 10in.

Well, this week I have learnt a lot about paint, though, mostly how NOT to do things. Which is still learning nonetheless. I have been working on a painting of hands, the attraction being the skin tones, but didn't I only decide to have the hands playing the piano... So the great majority of time was spent on painting the piano keys - WHAT a nightmare. You'd think after all these years that I'd see the nightmare bits coming, but, oh no. I'm just Attracted To Things, and away I go... It didn't take long to dawn on me that the task was rather larger than I'd expected, once I started the white-keys-black-keys. Black paint loves to smudge. You only have to glance at it from across the room, and oops, it smudges itself.
And how to get a straight edge - I mean a REALLY straight edge? I decided to try masking it off. It took all morning to cut the stuff out, and the idea was loosing its appeal, but it worked well-ish, until I started peeling it off, and most of the glue from the tape stayed on my board. Sigh. I 'solved' this by liberally slathering black paint on top, and thought I was a genius. How wrong... The painting was too wet to continue, so I decided to have a tidy up and run the vacuum cleaner round. I know, what was I THINKING? When I went back to the painting next day, sure enough, all the thick black paint had turned into a Fluff Magnet.  For the entire street...

You see my difficulty. Anyway, I got there in the end, and while it may seem good to have a reason not to vacuum, the down side is, it means slow-motion mopping instead. It'll be at least a week till the painting dries. Have you ever seen pictures of Francis Bacon's Studio? Total mess. Now I know why. Try explaining that to your mother.. 

(the colour is far from true in this photo, but I can't move it for better light, see above...)

                                Tip - don't use anything sticky on your painting.

Next Up: Monthly Mondays Drawing and Painting, Killaloe, Co Clare, Ireland
Portrait Drawing, Dublin, Ireland
Water Colour Workshop, Dublin, Ireland.
Two day Oils Workshop, Dublin, Ireland
Email for info. julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

COPYRIGHT - just a refresher for all. The copyright on everything in this blog belongs to me - words and pictures, unless otherwise indicated. This means you may NOT copy it, print it out, or paint from it, or even mimic the layouts, without my permission. It would be theft. Rest assured, I wouldn't dream of stealing anything from you. On the contrary, here I am, sharing!
Copyright is a legal issue, and its Interesting Neighbour, Plagerism, is a very large and emotive subject, and one that causes argument, particularly among students, and one which I won't discuss here.  Except, to remind you that, whether you agree with it or not, Copyright means the Right To Copy has not been granted.
As I said in my last post, half the pleasure is in Seeing the things around you, and Your vision is spectacular. Trust yourself!