Stone Balancing Sculpture

Painting with charcoal and graphite powder

Create a beautiful painting of beach stones balanced on top of each other. Photograph your own sculpture on the beach, or bring stones with you to class. I will be bringing a selection. During the first part of the lesson we will be experimenting with techniques using charcoal and graphite powder with water and various acrylic fluid binders. I will supply enough acrylic medium binder for the class. If you have coloured or tinted Derwent XL graphite or charcoal sticks, we can use powder from these, which would give us lovely ochres and reds which you often find in beach stones, along with the black, grey, whites. We will also be using various techniques with masking fluid, salt and palette knives. I will provide masking fluid and salt. This is sure to be a fun, experimental class! Please bring old brushes to use, and watercolour or heavy cartridge paper. Do NOT use your best watercolour brushes! I can provide a selection of brushes for the class if necessary. Fixative or hairspray would also be advisable to bring.

Abandoned Boats

Watercolour

Your subject could be an old rowing boat left on the shore or a decaying ship waiting to be transported away to be broken up. If you are able to, it would be good to think about this in advance and perhaps go out and about taking pictures of potential subject matter. We have so much to choose from here! Think of rust and peeling paint…. Think about your composition - you don’t need to have a whole boat in your image, but could just hone in on one section.

You will use various watercolour techniques, including salt (large and small grain) and masking fluid to create interesting textures. If you like, you can use a palette knife to apply and scratch back into your watercolour. You can create a figurative painting, an abstract piece or anything in between.

Anatomy of a Wave 

Acrylics and / or drawing materials of your choice

We will look at the anatomy of a wave and break it down into its various stages. Starting with preliminary sketches, you will create a painting in either a figurative or a more impressionistic abstracted style. Either paint on plain paper, or paint on a map, which I can provide. We can also encapsulate some sand into our painting, using Acrylic Matt Medium and sand, which I can also provide. If you would prefer not to use acrylics, you can use any medium of your choice to create your wave. This class is predominantly about understanding the structure of a wave and then deciding on how you would like to interpret it. 

Foreshortening the Figure - Drawing 

Graphite or charcoal 

Understand the principles of foreshortening and perspectives of the human figure. 

From a photo of a life model in a foreshortened pose, you will complete various exercises and  be shown various tips and tricks, then you will produce an accurate drawing of the model. We will be checking our proportions by making a simple grid. The object of the lesson is to produce a drawing as accurate as possible and to gain confidence in realistically portraying a challenging viewpoint of the human figure.  

Drawing Hands and Feet

Graphite, pencils & usual drawing kit

2 week project - 5th Feb Hands, 12th Feb Feet.

Hands and feet are notoriously challenging to draw. Through a detailed look at bone structure and mechanics you will learn to simplify and demystify this artistic conundrum!

Including: Drawing exercises, breaking down into shapes, proportions of the hand, mechanics and movement, simplify, gain confidence in adding hands and feet to a life drawing, instead of secretly hoping that the feet go off the end of the page! Complete a detailed final drawing each week.