All wrapped up - fabric drawings in pastel

Often used as a backdrop to a painting, cloth makes a wonderful subject in it's own right too.
I set up four options for my students - two were large white sheets wrapped around poles and secured with a knot, a tailor's mannequin with a cloth secured by rope and a shop window 'torso' wrapped in a table cloth. All needed the help of good lighting to make the shadows stronger and the highlights brighter, giving the extra contrasts needed to take a subject from bland to brilliant!

Catherine M, a lovely study in chalk pastel - and in just one session! 

While this is certainly a complicated subject, which really allows you to feel the brain cogs whirring as you try to fathom a starting place,  it's apparent lack of focal point and apparent lack of beauty means there is no distraction. It forces each artist to select a point that interests them - a particular fold, or a series of shadows, for example - and their attention to that allows the rest of the drawing to grow.

Full use of the page by Marie. This was her first session, and she plans to do more next week. 

 The results were amazing. Many students opted to continue their drawing for a second session.

Alison's work coming on well, with Paul hard at work in the background. 

My demo

Great drawing by Christine, who spent two sessions on this stufy

Lesley beside her lovely artwork

Lesley showing her maximum-pastel-holding technique!! 

Brigid's drawing, next to the subject

Brigid's drawing - a lot of work in just one session,

Chalk pastel by David, on larger paper.

Rose-Jane's lovely drawing, pastel

Christine McC - a huge amount achieved in just one session! 

Sandra's lovely drawing. You can just see which part of the arrangement she is studying, near the rope on the mannequin. 

Hilary, during her second session at the subject. Lovely use of composition. 

I feel so lucky to have such a great studio space. The hard floor makes clearing up so easy after using dusty chalks. It's much more challenging to use chalks and charcoal at home, unless you don't mind having multi coloured skirting boards..!

Upcoming workshops: portrait workshop July 22 - 26, Oil workshop August 22 - 26,
Life drawing sessions Friday 19 July 6pm,  Fri 26 (6 pm) & Sat 27th July (10 - 4pm).

For info please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Compressed Charcoal, tonal studies of apples and onions!

Compressed charcoal is a delicious, and very flexible medium. Recently I gave my students the task of producing two drawings in one session, first on white cartridge paper, then on thicker, mid-toned grey paper.

My demo drawings, with the Compressed Charcoal box top left. 

While most of us enjoy colour (after all, we do live in a colourful world!), working in black and white really improves our abilty to see subtle variations in tones. These same tones are necessary in our colour work too but easily overlooked, giving an unsatisfactory result without depth.

Demo showing the variety of tones, using only three greys, and white.

Graphite pencil is excellent for training our eye to see subtle nuances in tones, but using compressed charcoal allows us to cover the whole area in a shorter time frame, helping us to remember to compare tones in areas all across the page (relative to each other) as well as tonal variations which are close together.

My quick demo on tinted card, with darker tones left hatched rather than blended.

After arranging the apples and onions pleasingly on cloth, the drawing was lightly mapped in, and the tonal challenge began in earnest. Unlike charcoal, the compressed sticks come in a range of 4 greys plus black and white. The challenge was to remember to change the stick as we went along - leaning more heavily or lightly doesn't alter the tone. 

Lovely artwork by Brigid

Another great study by Gavin, who enjoyed the challenge so much that he spent the full session on this artwork. 

It's a dirty business, but once we get stuck in, we become more absorbed in observing the subject than worrying about chalky fingers! We worked on white paper first, and enjoyed the differences when we moved on to the tinted grey paper.

Dawn, blending nicely 

Working on tinted paper means that the whites really sing out brightly. it is also a pleasure to add highlights, rather than realying on the white of the paper to do the job for us. It's good to vary the tone of our paper - 'white' is not our friend. It can be harsh and cold. A neutral colour is often better as a base to work upon.

Sara's atmospheric artwork, nearing completion

Nisa, who is getting lovely richness in this study.

A group of studies - not quite finished, but well on the way.

 Compressed charcoal gives a lovely, velvety texture and laying tones on top of one another creates a wider variety of shades, and the result is very painterly. A delicious exercise, and everyone enjoyed it!

A wonderful result from Joanne, with excellent tonal ranges. 

Next up in March: Colour pencil and watercolour workshop. 

Oil painting workshop. All suitable for all levels of experience. 

For information on workshops please email 

julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

For information about my book 'Notes from the Atelier', and to see a preview please click 

http://www.juliedouglas.co.uk/julies-book/notes-from-the-atelier

Masters, Mistress of the Arts, College and Portfolios

It's that time of year again, where students are heading to college. All the hard work preparing the portfolios is a distant memory, and its time to get in there... To all of you, I wish you well.  Remember that you got the place because you are so worthy. And if you want to do something, know that you CAN, you just have to get on with it.

Well, today was MY first day at college too.. I'm (finally) doing my Masters (MFA) in Multidisciplinary Design - a very exciting and stimulating time ahead, hopefully. Though I have to admit I have trouble with the masculinity of the title. I understand the value of being the Master of your discipline, but as the undergraduate is called a Bachelor (as opposed to an Apprentice...), then perhaps the girls ought to be Mistresses? Though I appreciate that this might be a little awkward at polite gatherings, when you say you're at college studying for your Mistress...

Here's me in my new school uniform outside college...

I'm delighted to say that one of the first people I bumped into (not literally), was Brendan, a mature student of mine, who is starting his Bachelors  in the building across the road. I am responsible for helping Brendan focus his efforts enough to get a place at college and Brendan is responsible for me accidentally applying for my course. So we're in this thing together...

My thoughts are with all of you starting at colleges all over the place - work hard, and don't get overwhelmed. And remember, if you don't understand something, ask them to tell you again...! And folks, regarding that word 'Portfolio'... for my interview I scooped up examples of everything I've been doing for the past while. So the portfolio was a case to carry my work in. That's all it is. Its not about the portfolio, its about the You that's in it.

Next up - weekly classes in Drawing and Painting, Belfast
Portrait workshops with Mama Kaz modelling
Water colour and Oils workshops
Drawing for college students, Dublin.

Forked Up - drawings in pencil.

This week my students were mostly drawing cutlery, tied together with string... This is not for the faint hearted (neither student NOR tutor - I have to say that I often felt VERY unpopular...!!). But after much huffing and grumps, everyone did a fabulous job! This is extremely difficult. The first drawing is mine, in my Moleskine book - it's always good to try a bit of the subject during a class, to remember just how cruel I've been. I mean, so I can understand the difficulties that everyone will encounter. 

Above - by Ruth T, student (who discovered her ability to SIGH while doing this..)

Above - by Pat F, who has drawn the arrangement before, so we made it more challenging by putting the forks in a glass of water... 

Above - wonderful drawing by Jayne McC, who is showing off here by using two pencils at once...! 

Above, Geraldine B, student

Above - I am so pleased with this drawing by Hialry H, because half way through she was so disgusted with the 'impossible task' that she started again...and came up trumps. Fantastic! 

Difficlut as this is, it is so much more of a challenge for Distance Learning students, who don't have me there to make their tea and offer soohing noises. Below is a truly lovely set of work from Marianne L-S in England. It's so lovely receiving artwork for crit -  opening the envelope is like getting a present. The fact she did the cutlery on her own at home is a great testament to her dedication. Truly impressive. As she says herself, she is growing old disgracefully - I think we can see from this that age is suiting her! 

Above and below, charcoal, Marianne L-S, student.