Thursday, 27 September 2018

black & white and everything in-between

Building on last week's session where we used tonal values in soft pastel to depict distance, this week we worked on A3 white paper to explore the tonal qualities of charcoal.

We worked with compressed charcoal which has different grades similar to pencils, eg HB, 2B etc and willow charcoal which is much softer.

We looked at;
  • masking 
  • how we can take "rubbings" of objects & cutouts placed underneath our paper
  • blending
  • lifting out areas using an eraser

Lovely, messy, experiments below.  
Well done everyone!


demo page

Derrick

Mike

Christine


Me




Thursday, 20 September 2018

aerial perspective in pastel

I think this week the images speak for themselves...
beautiful.

Well done everyone!


pastel on paper 16.5 inches x 6 inches

Derrick

Dorothy

Mike

Monica

Monica

Thursday, 13 September 2018

aerial perspective

After our summer's break, Art Circle is back.

This week we broke down how to depict aerial perspective.  That is, how colours seem to fade the further away they are.  

Our starting point were photographs of an assortment of Scottish castles.
From these we outlined the main shapes of the chosen image onto paper.
Then we used coloured pencils to give more intense colour in the foreground and less intense colour in the background 

By concentrating on the foreground and the background and leaving the castles until last, we could understand more easily how this process worked.

Once satisfied with this stage, an informed decision could be made on how or if, to draw the castle. 

The results are below.  
Well done everyone!

Christine decided not to include the castle but used a more intense colour
in the trees.  This stitched the two areas together.  Lovely!

Derrick inadvertently used an intense green on the distant hills
which brought them forward but his mid-distance trees work
well to visually link the near and the distant.  Nice one Derrick!


Monica:  warm-up drawing in ink

Monica decided to use an assortment of colours in the castle
to finish her drawing.  Lovely!  

demo:  drawing main shapes of image

demo:  (left) how to achieve dark colours without using black

demo:  tonal values using one colour or three

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

an unexpected treat...

Artmap Argyll, an open studio event in their 11th year, had been extended into a second weekend which coincided with our visit - lucky us!  We headed down the Tayvallich penninsula via Crinan to explore.

The beauty of open studios is you're never quite sure what you will find and in some cases, where you will find it.  Artmap Argyll made it easier by using rather large red dots to mark sites.  [The same red dot that indicates an art work is sold - nice one.]

The locations of some of the studios were stunning and in places we may not have visited but for the artists.  So thank you for encouraging us to explore, thank you to the artists who found time to chat to us, a mixture of art and sailing, and thank you to my travelling companion who is very adept at reversing and parking a cumbersome vehicle in weird places.  

Do visit artists' studios if you have the opportunity:  it's a win win situation!

no 28  Scottish National Heritage, Taynish Reserve
image of bog swimmer (my description)

no 27  Jane Smith in The Cube
stunning screen prints and a beautifully illustrated diary, "Wild Island" 


no 23  Lottie Goodlet and her intriguing, flower-like seaweed images
 in her lounge overlooking Jura

no 25  Libby Anderson showing the stages of her work
loved her gannet painting [not shown]

no 26  Caroline Hunter in her garden studio
surrounded by atmospheric seascapes & still-lifes  

no 28  SNH at the Mill, mermaids

No images from me but also on show was no 20, Ross Ryan at the Crinan Hotel.  Fabulous work particularly those made at sea.

Ross Ryan "Rounding Ardnamurchan Point in a Blow"
oil & charcoal on board


http://janesmithwildlifeart.blogspot.com/
www.soundofjuraseaweeds.com
www.libbyandersonartist.com
www.carolinehunterart.com