Watercolour private study task 2

If you half close your eyes you can see four bands of colour across the middle of this picture:
1. the pale lilac, pale green and pale blue of the buildings
2. the warm yellow of the garden wall
3. a stripe of bright green sunlit grass
4. the white stripe of a sunlit path

Your first action should be to paint these in as a light washes

Next put in light green washes for the two areas of grass (paying attention to the perspective of course)

Then you can detail your trees and the heavy dark canopy of leaves

After this you can go back to the garden wall to add deeper yellows and some white gouache to put the flares of white sunlight on them (zoom in to see these)

finally add the dark shadows on the two grassy areas and the path that rund along the foreground and through the middle.

bring your masterpiece to class next week.

An exercise in negative space

Hello everyone,

here is the sports photo for one of your private study exercises. This should take you about 30 minutes. 

please follow the instructions closely and bring your finished drawing and your photos with you on Wednesday morning

The editor of this photo was probably presented with a  much larger image to work with. It may have included nearly all of the tennis court, the score board and sections of the crowd.  The editor's job is to pare the photo down to give the reader a sense of the drama of this shot. Both players are going for the same ball and are in the half of the court. One player is focused on the ball, the other is already looking where he is going to place it in the opposing court.

This image has lots of reference points in it to help you reproduce, what is, a complex study of two human forms. 

1. Using greaseproof paper, tissue or tracing paper trace round all the negative spaces created by the white lines, the open tennis raquet, the net etc to reveal the two human forms. 
2. Photograph your drawing
3. shade all your negative spaces in a mid tone using an HB pencil
4. Now, without tracing, use the shapes, negative spaces and other references on their bodies to position  the closed tennis raquet, their clothing and the ball
5. photograph your drawing
6. shade the skin using a 2B or 4B pencil.

Guide to mixing colours

This amazing guide shows exactly what happens when you mix colours together so you can control the results better.

Which blue to mix with which yellow to get the exact green you want?

Although this guide is for watercolours, the colour names are the same for oils, acrylics and gouache etc. the only aspect tha will vary is the transparency of the paint

Faces

There are as many ways of executing a drawn portrait as there are faces to be drawn.

In this selection of drawings you will see a range of styles and techniques being employed.

Carmen Segovia has used line and soft shading to zoom in on the contrast between this man's smallish eyes and his very full lips. the hat and the clothes are unfinished but give some clues about his ethnic origins which add character and personlity.

This charming self portrait by Cathy Johnson reminds me a little of  Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of young renaissance girls.

David Hockney has used pencil and a think ink  wash for this portrait. 

I really like this strong, graphic portrayal of an egg farmer. The whole face is framed by the jet black beard and the hat band.

Julian Opie's portraits are hing in the National Portrait Gallery in London. For eyes he always uses a single black dot. One of his most popular pieces of work was a Blur album cover.

Paolo Gaiviria has drawn an interesting background and included some bold text to complete this portrait 

Isn't this great! The bold shading and bright highlights really bring out the sunshine in this picture

Another Picasso portrait that shows again that less can be more.

So, unleash your personality and develop your own style of drawing for portraits. 

A new perspective

Artists have always used exaggerated perspective to add drama to their images. During Renaissance times in Italy they were amongst the first to use perspective to create more more realistic or naturalistic images. Prior to that, artists used a completely different code of 'perspective' based on the relative importance or relative seniority of the people in the paintings and natural perspective was not employed at all. 

This phenomenon can be seen in religious iconography where the Madonna will be, proportionally much  bigger than the Christ child or any other mere mortals being depicted.

I have chosen some photographs and paintings as examples of the use of exaggerated perspective for you to examine. Each  image is trying to create a different dramatic effect or convey a different message.

Anthony Green RA

In this painting, Anthony has laid out the walls of the bedroom like the sides of a flattened cardboard box  . The effect is to zoom in to the scene of him laying in bed with his lovely wife. 

Artist unknown

This seems to a story about 'biting the hand that feeds you' The focus is on the hand and the food that was being offered.  The hand is almost as big as the whole figure of the lion tamer becasue of the exaggerated perspective.

The photographer from this wedding company is using the railway lines to focus in the the groom.










Exaggerated perspective of small fishing boats is a common way of depicting wooden boats. This device shows off the graceful curves of the little boat and emphasises its wooden construction.

This cartoonist has used exaggerated perspective to emphasise the speed at which Yogi Bear is rushing along with a ladder in hand.

Salvador Dali

This depiction of the crucifixion gives the viewer a real sense of  Christ's ascension and his vehicle is the wooden cross. The very manliness of Christ is the focus of our attention with his arms and shoulders in the foreground.  Below him, life is still carrying on as usual on the shores of Lake Galilee.

The power of negative spaces

Lesson number 2 in the short drawing course focuses on negative spaces. 

We have to learn to see negative spaces and the exercises you will engage with will enable you to switch your thinking. Gradually, you will start to see all the negative spaces and forma around you and the world will, once again appear different. You are beginning to see with the Creative Eye.

One of the masters of Negative Space was an architect who was instrumental in designing the modern world we now live in. Le Corbusier discovered new ways to use space and shadow to give buildings, interiors and furniture new dimensions. Many of these images will seem very normal to you, but he was shaping a new aesthetic that would shake the world out of the ornamented designs of the 18th and 19th century.

See what you think of these and then have a look at the way space has been used in your own home, office block , local shopping centre or school.

What is your drawing style?

The act of drawing puts you in the present; only in the here and now. It is a jealous companion that will not allow you to think about what happened yesterday or what you might do tomorrow.

It will not permit halfheartedness. Whether you are a doodler or Dali, everyone who attempts drawing does it seriously and with good intention. Children sometimes go deaf when they draw such is their concentration.

Children like to share their drawing activities with others but eventually they become competitive and some give up because of that. 


The way we draw is like the way we write, the way we cook, the way we dance, the way we make love, the way we are with our family, with our friends.

If you are passionate, so let your drawing be. If you are serious or humourous so let your marks show that too. 

 If you are tentative, shy, conservative, detailed, gauche, child-like, nerdy, geeky, outrageous, laddish, intuitive, precise or wild; these things will show also.



for all these reasons, the greatest struggle with drawing can be the one with ourselves. Sometimes we see things in our drawings, about ourselves, that we hadn't recognised before.  The other struggle is with quality; we are our own worst critics and we are never satisfied with the work we do. Accept that and move on to the next drawing.

Like dance and music, drawing is the language of the soul. If we were able to put everything into words, there would be no need for music, dance, theatre or art.

When I draw from life my work sings a song to the viewer. When I draw only from photos I have taken the work is accurate, faithful and recognisable but unless the photograph itself was exceptional, the work is heartless.

Go out there and draw it or stay home and draw what is around you. What seems so ordinary to you will speak volumes to your friends, your family and to your children. It will speak back to you too.

Drawing is honest but only you can see the truth in it. Others may flatter you; some may be unkind but their opinions are usually worthless beside your own.

When my drawings truly move another I am very, very happy - it makes it all worthwhile. It is as if they have looked into the window of my soul and understood something of me.


True criticism, from a someone you trust, is like nectar. It is food to your eye and fuel to your passion. Take it and honour it because it will pay you back ten-fold