Bit of a struggle this one; hay fever hit so I have about as much spare capacity as a Vespa in the way of a Tesla. Still, sometimes that helps because there’s barely enough wherewithall to choose a medium, never … Continue reading MoMA drawing-a-day challenge, Day 3
This is a work book – guidelines, exercises, drawings to copy and a page next to each to do that. I have never copied other people’s work or tried for the photorealism some artists specialise in making so this was quite a challenge. Add to that the realisation not long ago that lefthanders make their marks in entirely the opposite direction to righthanders and I could see this was not going to be easy. Fortunately, the quality of the images to be copied – there are two da Vinci’s! – makes it clear that perfection is really not the … Continue reading Book review: Beginning Drawing Atelier – an instructional sketchbook by Juliette Aristides
I really didn’t get the hang of this first time round, and I’m not so sure I have this time, but at least after making my colour mixing chart I have grasped the idea of dilution. These aren’t very exciting but they give me a better idea of how washes work. There are some plain single colour washes here, and a blended one. The greys are in preparation for the contrast study in which, last time, I’d struggled with trees. Continue reading Part 1 – another round of washes
Sometimes you just have to go back to basics. I’d skimmed over the paint mixing exercise, not quite seeing the point, then for all sorts of reasons I decided to revisit the early pages of the course materials. There on almost the first page was a grid of mixed colours – extensive, careful, neat; I very nearly turned the page. But after a bit of thought it seemed to me that this was the kind of thing I needed to be tackling. It’s not an identified exercise but I thought it would probably help when I moved onto the one … Continue reading Part 1, mixing paint
This is sketchbook work towards a larger degree piece. I’ve been looking at Gustav Klimt and his mosaic style paintings (and discovering I’d never get that gold leaf look because he used actual gold leaf!). This is a fire screen in my house. It has candle holders fixed in rows to the back so the design is intended to flicker gentle light through to the observer, rather than to act as guard against a roaring fire. They’re both made on a layer of white gesso applied to black sugar paper; one with inks, the other watercolour pencils. Each has been … Continue reading What’s happening on the art front?
Strayfish Arts 