The eyes have it... or not, in this case!

 It's always nice when a student asks to try something new, or confessed a secret desire for a subject that they have not yet tried. So I was pleased when my student Paul asked if we could do a portrait using water colour. But rather than a full portrait, I decided we should breakout down to a manageable starting point, and concentrated on drawing (first) the lower part of the face. In other words, we left out the eyes... 

The first stage of my demo, showing the drawing develop. 

Left - a simple wash all over, Right a bit more colour on the lips

finished demo. 

The point of the exercise was to demystify painting the face. Putting a drawing down first really helps. Below you can see some student artworks, from Ann-Marie, Nichola, Linda and Alison. Delicious!

NOT putting the eyes in made the subject feel much less daunting. Once the eyes are included, you really feel an obligation to the person being studied. 

However, Liz McM took the plunge, with great success... 

Liz McM, who laves drawing faces but has a slight allergy to watercolour. A lovely study! 

For info on classes and workshops, gift vouchers of my book,  please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

or see website 

www.juliedouglas.co.uk

The challenge of taking up oils, from scratch.

Oil paint is described as 'the king of all mediums' for good reason. It is unlike any other paint in consistency and performance, and it takes perseverance and a touch of determination to keep going through the initial lessons. (er, and the later lessons...) Like many things which are new to us, we can get disheartened all too easisly, and while I regularly ask students not to judge their efforts, it is difficult to do that! Many people want everything to be perfect first time. A desire which is not helped by the fact that our expectations of ourselves rise as we improve, meaning we often don't quite achieve what we want even though we are improving. The notion of perfection itself is a dubious one anyway, but the creation of an oil painting requires several (imperfect) stages, many of which are unattractive, off balance (tonally) until completion, and would often beneift from an extra layer, or two or three. Once, even though I was experienced in oils, a portrait painting just wasn't going the way I wanted it to. I could have started again, but feared just reaching a similar-but-different state of disatisfaction, so I just kept layering the first one. It took seven layers - SEVEN! And that's ok. I think it would be good to remember that the joy of painting is in the PAINTING, not the finish. If we can work it that act of painting itself is the fulfillment we seek, rather than the finish, then we would recognise more regular 'success'. It doesn't mean that we have to endure the mediocre, or not critique our work or not get frustrated, but sometimes, jeez, GETTING to the DESK is an achievment! Here are some examples of studies and work in progress from the past term.

We have used various techniques. term started with observation drawing, then on to black and white painting so students can become familiar with the texture of oil paint without the extra concerns of working in colour.

We followed this by doing the same subject in colour - so the SUBJECT is familiar, and students get to grips with colour.

Another technique we used this past term was using the underpainting layer as a proper tonal 'support' for the second colour layer. We used Raw Umber to paint the underpainting in one session, and the next week painted over it with French ultramarine to get impactful results - a time-efficient method.

The following photos show more progress shots inlcuding a charcoal drawing study,the raw umber underpainting followed by a 'Grisaille' layer, followed by colour on top.

Finally, a lovley colour painting which took a couple of sessions.

All these lovely artworks were done by students who are new to oils - they have all made an excellent start! For info on all my classes, in drawing, water colour and oils, please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Tip toe through the Tulips, Water Colour, Moleskine Sketch book

I love tulips, and I love spots. And I really love pears.

Tulips are a lovely subject - a complicated mass of leaves, which are nicely explained in swathes of greens (try mixing Cerulean Blue with Lemon Yellow for a lovely range of 'spring' greens), and deceptively simple petals. And what colour ARE they anyway..? Permanent Rose gives a lovely clean purple, with the added bonus that it's on the bright side as well.

I started with a clear accurate line drawing, which included surface information of shadows and the pattern on the cloth etc. 

Tulips in spotty jug,  by Julie Douglas

I've had this spotty jug for ages, and only painted it once before, in oils. It was lovely to paint in water colour. 

I set this as the subject for my weekly classes, who asked for it to be carried on for a second week. Lets hope the flowers last - just in case they don't, I asked all the students to complete the flowers first, and work on the jug and cloth next time. They have made an excellent start - below are some examples of student work in progress. 

Jayne got a bit carried away and has made early progress on the fabric. Delicious. 

Patterned fabrics are less difficult to paint (who knew?!) as they make the folds and creases clearer in the way the pattern breaks up. Ikea do great, strong patterns for painting. 

Next Up - weekend water colour workshop, portrait workshop, oils and weekly drawing and painting classes. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Onions, Oils on board 8in x 10 in.

I love onions.  I found this box of onions outside Coffee's butcher shop on Lisburn Road. He had great rhubarb too..

This took quite a while to do as I have been busy with other things. And it's really difficult to photograph - it's a bit darker on the bottom than this suggests. But you get the gist.

Drawing on Location

 There's nothing quite like having a change of venue to put new things into the creative mix. Recently I took my morning girls to draw in the City Hall, which was a great experience for all, including hearing the guided tour 3 times - on the third time, the guide actually mentioned us in the speech, so perhaps we've become part of the local history already..! (or another tourist attraction?)

Drawing in the Rotunda, a very grand location.
To begin with, students were a bit daunted, especially being so visible to tourists, but they settled down and did some lovely drawings.

                                    A wonderful tonal study by G. Bunting, student (above).

                             Student drawing, D.Gallagher (above), D.Morgan (below)

Deirdre working away, above. 

I don't know what they put in the coffee (great coffee shop..) but on the way back to our drawing boards after a break, we all got VERY excited about the light flooding in from the stained glass windows, really beautiful!

Next up - Portrait workshops, Portfolio course, Big Drawing days and drawing and water colour workshops. Email for info. julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Also, Distance Learning programme available all year round.