still life from a copper wire "drawing"

The task;  

• make a few single line drawings by keeping the pencil on the page for each 
• select one and make a wire version using copper wire stripped from old cable
• draw the wire version using pencil
• take a rubbing or print of the wire version

The fab results are below.  Well done everyone! 

demo 

demo

demo

Suzanne

Suzanne

John

Brian

 

interior & composition with pencil

Using 2B pencil and A3 cartridge paper we drew what was near us.  Part way through we considered composition and started to develop a specific area of our drawings working in tonal values and more detail.  

We ran out of time.  However the lovely, unfinished, pieces are below.

Well done!

Next week - pliers...

Suzanne

John

Christine

 

colour, composition & chocolates

Following on from colour mixing with watercolours, we looked at harmonies and contrasts using coloured pencils, card and chocolates wrapped in jewel coloured cellophane.  

We altered the scale too.  The first ones made were roughly sight-size, with the exception of Mike's which were much smaller.  The second drawings were much larger on A4 paper.

Mike was encouraged to go much bigger for his second drawing which he did in style.

The results were brilliant - pun intended.

Well done everyone!

John

 

John (unfinished)

Monica

Monica

Mike (after cropping)

Mike

Mike (A4 paper - unfinished) 

Derrick

Derrick (A4 paper - unfinished)

Christine

demo

Christine (A4 paper - unfinished)

mixing & matching with watercolours

Another tricky media to try out - watercolours.  

There's so many ways of using this flighty media, all of which seem to be designed to trip up experienced users and beginners alike but, we had a go.

We;

• used green as a starting point to mix different shades of green 
• used primary colours to mix different greens 
• deliberately made "mud" also known as neutral colours 
• we tried colour wheels
• had a go at replicating the greens found in images  These developed into experimental watercolour paintings.

Phew!

Well done everyone. 

[Ironically, I mixed up your pages of mixed swatches so there's no names on those.  😕]  

John

Mike

Mike (cropped)

Monica

Monica (cropped)

demo

 

composition & narrative using collage

It's amazing what can be produced from magazines with the help of cutting and sticking!  

Firstly, we looked at analysing images by working through a checklist of elements to consider.  Two of these are composition and narrative.  

Composition is the layout or arrangement of the components of an image.  It also includes the space deliberately left around it.  

The narrative is the story which can be read from the image.  The narrative is subjective and depending on the viewers' sensibilities, different meanings can emerge from one image.  

Many art galleries have interpretive information alongside artworks to help but I would recommend having a good look at the work yourself before you read their sign.

Following on from last week, we also thought about line and brought in how colour plays a key role too.  Then we experimented with images from three different types of magazine to produce the work below.  Even in a relatively small group, we found the images made, evoked different narratives.

Well done everyone!    

John

Mike

Mike

Monica

Suzanne

Suzanne

Suzanne

 

charcoal still life presented with a nod to Cubism

We made an A3 page of experimental masking, mark making and mark removing to give a sense of what charcoal can do.  

This was followed by making several, small, observational drawings of a guitar and case set up as a still life.  The nearby chairs, curtain ties and fretwork radiator covers were included for drawing too.

Once made, the smaller drawings were grouped into cubism-like compositions, giving us the opportunity to talk about the work of Braque and Picasso.

Charcoal can be a tricky beast, particularly working small scale.  I'm fortunate to have been able to practise since my student days others here, although not totally new to charcoal, have not.  They managed brilliantly.  

demo

demo

John

John

Mike

Mike

Monica

Monica

Suzanne

Suzanne