Conkering watercolour! Student artworks

 I love Autumn, with the bounty of seed pods and colour offered by the season. This year, the conkers were wonderfully spiky - sometimes they are lumpy instead so I guess it is something to do with the weather. The first ones I found were in August, in Lincoln - absolute whoppers! I bagged a few for my children's class, but they were not ripe and I had serious difficulty opening them. (note: do not try opening unripe conkers infant of a children's class, it will make you look weak and puny...!!) When I did manage to open them, the conkers were tiny and some were white in colour. Wrong on every level!

Spikey-licious!

 

By Jane - the one on the right is unfinished, but still rather appealing!

Above and below - these artworks are by Jane M. Some graphite, some watercolour, some coloured pencils. 

Below - also by Jane M, this graphite study (below) of a horse's eye is remarkably similar to the characteristics of a conker! This beautifully illustrates my constant reminder not to think of what the object IS when we are drawing, but to look  instead at shapes, tones, contrasts and colour. 

Students walking-the-walk at tea break, to give their eyes a rest from looking at their own work, and enjoy seeing how others have talked the same subject. 

For info on courses and workshops please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

ForJulie's work check out the website - www. juliedouglas.co.uk 

Amazing Greens! Student artwork 2022

 There has been some lovely artwork produced by my students so far this autumn. And often the most unexpected subject makes the most delicious painting! A great example of this was Cabbage week! The paintings were superb!

This first image below shows Anne-Marie's painting after one session. You can see clearly that the subject really lends itself to learning how watercolour uses layering to build up depth of colour. The cabbage is all shades of greens, so a good lesson in subtlety and close-colour comparisons. 

The photo below is Anne-marie again, at the end of a second session on the painting. As you can see she has one a tremendous job! And she is very new to watercolour, making it a very impressive start to the term. 

The lovely painting below again shows the excellent range of greens - cool dark blue-greens, mid-value grey-greens as well as more limey yellow-greens. 

Sara's painting - delicious!

Georgie's painting, in her Moleskine sketchbook.

Above, Georgie likes to vary her methods each week an in this instance she did a tonal graphite drawing first then added watercolour washes on top. A very efficient way to paint! 

Christine's painting - atmospheric!

The painting above is by Christine McC. Like Anne-Marie this took more than one session, but she has created a painting full of calm and atmosphere. No such thing as 'just a cabbage'!!

For info on classes, workshops and open studios please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 

website www.juliedouglas.co.uk 

Book! Thinking of a Christmas gift for your creative friend? Try Julie's huge drawing and painting manual. 

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