Blooming June!

 

Weekend Workshops in June Saturday 15th June - 2.30 - 4.30pm Drawing and painting for age 8 - 18. Sharpen the drawing skills and brush up on painting in this session. Fun and fully tutored. Cost £35 per person Saturday 22nd June 2.30 - 4.30pm Comber doorways, drawing and watercolour wash. This class is part of the Comber Earlies Food Festival. Suitable for all levels of experience. Cost £45                     Saturday 2nd June 6.30pm - 9.30 pm  Portrait drawing session as part of National Portrait Day! We will draw a famous face in graphite pencil! Cost £75 To book please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Website updates

Hi all

I have spent the last week updating my website... such a time warp, in an all-consuming way! I would be delighted if you took a look, even though I will continue tweaking it for a little while.  I have added extra pages, and included a free demonstration video for all to watch.

 Click this link!

https://www.juliedouglas.co.uk/#/weekly-classes/.

With thanks

yours in art

Julie x

Drawing and Doughnuts and Queen's University, student artworks. A well being session

I recently gave a drawing workshop to a group of students who are studying at Queen's University, Belfast. they were from all different subject areas, from Economics to Philosophy, languages to IT. Every subject, except art. I admire universities and colleges who encourage student interaction outside of their immediate comfort zone, and this mix of students paid attention and came up with great results. I appreciate that some of them may have turned up because of the bribe of 'doughnuts', but they all drew while they munched! 

The challenge for me was that I only had an hour or so. What to teach for such a short period of time...? I decided on spheres, using compressed charcoal on tinted paper. This medium is fairly swift to use, and the lecture was about LIGHT and SHADOWS. 

My demo board, including explanatory labels about light and lack of light. 

Oil painting demos of sphere and egg shape, showing light and shadow behaviour. 

The results! All excellent! 

It was good fun to go out of the studio to teach for a change. 

For info on weekly classes, workshops and group sessions please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Website: www.juliedouglas.co.uk 

Sweet Treats! Sweets in coloured pencil and water colour, student drawings

Hallowe'en got me thinking about trick or treat, so I opted for treat and found an old fashioned sweet shop in Bangor. The choice was enormous, from lolly pop swirls to mint humbugs and cherry lips! I got bags-full of a variety of shapes and sizes, looking for patterns and contrasting colours to give maximum visual joy! Here are a few students lovely artworks. 

Alison S - good enough to eat!

Christine's

Some opted to draw on tinted paper. This works really well for coloured pencil, and saves a fair bit of elbow grease regarding background tones. It's also lovely to ADD white, rather than leaving blank white paper to create light areas. 

Sara, in action! 

Rachel J's tall glass of sweets, excellently resisted! 

this is also by Rachel J, who enjoyed the subject so much that she did a second version. The background paper - which she found by just scanning the room - really adds to the fun of the subject. 

Daniel's lovely water colour. Background washes are a challenge in water colour and I think Daniel did a great job here. 

Tania's, coloured pencil

Rachel O - first ever time using coloured pencil! 

Ken's sweets in a cup, coloured pencil

For info on upcoming weekly classes and workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

Website: www.juliedouglas.co.uk 

Classes are currently in studio with the option of Zoom. 

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.

Boots and ballet shoes! Student's drawings from Belfast Academy of Realist Art.

Last week I decided it was drawing time, and set out a variety of boots, shoes and ballet shoes. 

The first class used charcoal, and the rest of the week students opted for graphite pencil. The results were amazing. Here are a few examples. 

Charcaol drawing by Teresa L. (size A3)

When attending a weekly class, students have the benefit of trying lots of media, which broadens perspective and changes perception. The down side is that it's only once a week! 

Pencil drawing of work boot by Christine McC.

Christine hard at work. You can see here that the drawing was A3 sized and larger than the actual boot. This gives a dramatic drawing. 

Jane's lovely drawing of a boot.

Beautiful A2 drawing by Sara C. Great use of the page. 

Sara's drawing next to the shoes - larger than life!

 Students work very hard, and hardly grumble at ALL..! But for those times when a good grumpy sentence is really necessary, I've decided that a loud turkey-gobble is the best solution. So, instead of naming all the faults in your artwork and getting more and more agitated in the process, the new best thing is to do an impression of a turkey, using the most appropriate emotion to match your frustration. Not going the way you wanted?? GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!! I know it seems ridiculous, but it WORKS!! The frustration gets out of your mouth, without increasing your self disgust, and everyone in the room sympathises before bursting into laughter.

Alison working on her large and fabulous charcoal drawing.

Lesley's lovely drawing.

Dramatically large drawing by Pat.

You can see the pink boots in this photo - quirky!

Catherine working on her lovely drawing.

Catherine's drawing. 

A difficult angle, a pair of shoes in their box, surrounded by tissue paper. This is Glynis M's artwork. 

 I'm so proud of my students. Well done everyone.

For info about classes please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

website www.juliedouglas.co.uk

Julie Douglas has written a manual on drawing, 'Notes from the Atelier' which contains over 32 exercises as she delivers them at her weekly classes. A hard backed book with over 500 photos and drawings by Julie and her students, it's the perfect home study or gift to yourself or your arty friend. Details here:

http://www.juliedouglas.co.uk/#/julies-book/

Hair and beards! Portrait drawing prep before painting, graphite.

Sometimes I will see a wonderful face, in the street, in a shop - even singing in a choir!, and I know I'd LOVE to paint it. 

The first time it happened,  over twenty years ago, it was a young woman with her mother, quietly browsing in a book shop in Rye, East Sussex. She had milky-white skin and very long, burnt orange wavy hair. She ALREADY looked like a painting. But I was too shy to approach her, and have regretted it ever since. So now, I just go for it, and politely compliment the person on their interesting 'head' (I notice that I tell them I like their head. Rather than 'face'), and would it be ok to draw them? So far so good, its always been a YES! 

Soft tones showing the gentle textures on the skin. 

On a recent trip to Bath and Wells, there was a lovely-looking gentleman staying in the same hotel. I mentioned my admiration of his looks to my traveling companions, and was almost immediately sorry, as they pointed him out so often I was nearly 'morto', as they say here. Just before we left, the lovely man was checking out, so it was now or never. 

"Er... excuse me, I couldn't help notice your lovely head..."

And so my new best friend is the wonderful Vernon, who was traveling with his wife and very happily sat for me. Here are some progress shots of my drawing study, and a small video. 

for scale - the drawing is on A2 paper. 

I enjoyed working on the flesh areas, but the beard is a challenge. It isn't finisehd yet, but I thought I'd share the progress so far. 

Hmm. The beard... 

Pencil is so difficult to photograph - the camera doesn't like all that white paper. So I did the video to try to show it better. 

And yes, it seems I have trouble speaking, thinking and drawing at the same time. 

More as I progress... 

Drawings by Julie Douglas, Belfast Academy of Realist Art (B.A.R.A.)