Autumn in the studio, Comber

 It's been lovely in the studio this half-term. We've studied seasonal delights, including some leaves, warty gourds, trees, plus landscapes and... pigs! We have been using water colour,  charcoal, oils and colour pencil. Delicious variety keeps the spice of creativity alive. 

Here's a selection of works produced along the way. 

The Wednesday session...

Student Sara with her beloved colour pencils. 

Georgie's easel - a colour mixing exercise - Thursday morning class

pauline with her lovely charcoal drawing study and oil study - Monday night class

A lovely double page from Sara's Moleskine book

  

               Ken, Aidan and Alan working hard in the Thursday night class.              

Nicki's excellent yellow-red exercise - Thursday night class

                                                                                                

Peggy working on a charcoal study, Thursday morning class

Lovely water colour leaves, Thursday night class

Lovely little pig study, by Clive in the Tuesday morning class. 

 

 Diana, who really wanted to paint a pig! Monday night class


Well done everyone for working so hard!

For information about attending a weekly drawing and painting class please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

 

Kittens, coloured pencil. And a new studio space!

Recently I have been working on a large number of pet portrait commissions in coloured pencil, mostly cats and dogs. Cocker Spaniels, Springer Spaniels, a curly haired Cockapoo and a gorgeous greyhound called Lulu. I will share some with you. First up, kitten siblings Belle and Bertie. At the bottom of this post I have added progress shots, in reverse order, so you can see the process. 

In other news, I've moved to a bright, more spacious studio, just around the corner from my last one, and I LOVE it! It was a trouble-free move, and I was surprised that I only had two bags of rubbish and a few jam jars to dispose of, so I had somehow managed not to hoard! So, onwards and upwards in the new space.

Students on Thursday night, 

Wednesday morning students working in chalk pastel 

Ruth's lovely pastel drawings on Wednesday morning

Below. progress shots in reverse order of the kittens. Caran d'Ache pencils on Bristol paper. This is a smooth, grain-free surface which loves coloured pencil, though it takes a while to get used to the slippery qualities. And also, you can't rub out! 

For upcoming workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk Courses include figure drawing (clothed model), portrait drawing, water colour magic, location drawing and oils. 

Drawings of skulls, student artworks.

When two of your students tell you they have a collection of skulls at home, the sun comes out, and you ask very nicely if you can borrow them...

Strong and dramatic as a subject, they are interesting to draw and provide great shapes and negative spaces.

Marie, work in progress

Marina using charcoal for the first time! 

Marina's lovely drawing, completed

Lesley's drawing, with a touch of white coloured pencil on the brightest areas

Rosejane's drawing - this was a very small skull and a lovely study. 

Marie's drawing complete after two sessions. Wonderful!

Back row: Edel, Eve, Ann, Cathy, Lesley, Rosejane and Julie.
Seated: Ciara and Marie

Upcoming workshops: Weekly classes resume in September as well as Friday Night Life drawing classes. For info please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

All classes are held in Belfast Academy of Realist Art studios.

Our daily breadsticks.. Pastel drawings BARA students

I was looking through an old A6 sized sketch book recently and found a little drawing of a plaited loaf.  And I thought aha, great subject..!! The drawing was done during a class, MANY years ago. When my children were small, I dond't have time for major painting projects, and the Sketch Book became the life saver - even though the maximum time I had was around 10 minutes during a class, it was enough to help me feel connected. With myself.

Little sketch book study, Julie Douglas 

So I bought lots and LOTS of part-baked loaves and rolls - the kitchen smelled fabulous!

Baskets of bread for the studio

The 'table of choices', from patterned cloth to croissants, seeded rolls, hot cross buns, jam and knives and spoons... 

The first challenge for the students was in setting up their arrangements. It's best to start with lots of options, then narrow it down to just three or four elements. The results were lovely.  They had a choice of tinted papers to work on - it is good to not work on a white surface all the time.

Cathy's pastel study 

Two sessions of work in this chalk study by Christine McC

Pat's oil pastel drawing 

Pat treid her hand at chalk pastels AND oil pastels. The image below is the chalk study - it has a softer look to it than the oil. However, the advantage of oil is a different intensity of tonal values. Note her brave composition, with the knife pointing out towards the viewer.

Pat's start in chalk pastel 

Catherine working on her pastel drawing

Carlo's chalk drawing. Nice and jammy.

A lovely chalk study by Rose-Jane

Upcoming workshops include portrait workshop 22 - 26 July, Oils workshop 22 - 26 August

Life drawing Friday 19th July 6pm, and a weekend session on life Drawing from Friday evening 27 July -  Saturday 27th July. 

For more info plesae 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

Rose hips, water colour, student work

I love to give seasonal subjects when I can, and it was great to collect rose hips from the shore for my weekly classes to paint. Here is a small selection of the many lovely paintings produced. 

A page of Autumnal glory, by David 

Barbara's water colour

Paul's lovely painting

Ben's work

Clive's lovely artwork

Jim working hard!

Jim's painting.