Painting & Drawing 102

Geared towards intermediate artists, this course invites you to develop your painting and drawing skills.

---

About the Course

This is a chance to develop your skills further after completion of the 101 course.

It is strongly recommended that you complete the 101 course first which gives a solid grounding to your drawing and painting techniques.

This course carries on to an intermediate level to further develop your skills in Watercolour, Oil pastel and Chalk pastel.

Course Itinerary

Curriculum:

1. The Elephant in Watercolour. This is an exercise to practice spontaneous wet in wet techniques so that the painting can 'paint itself'.

2. Texture in Watercolour. This begins as a raw exercise so that the students can practice candle resist, sponging, toothbrush technique and spraying with a spray bottle. After the practice painting the students apply the techniques with more finesse within the painting.

3. The students will be given a new, challenging project along with the 103 advanced artists.

Recommended Materials

Week 1-6

• Set of Pencils HB, 2B, 4B
• A3 Paper, Daler yellow/red cover white Cartridge paper would be good,
• 12 inch ruler.
• Staedler white eraser, or putty rubber
• Windsor and Newton Black Indian ink,
• Windsor and Newton Pure Sable or Cotman brushes.
• 6mm Chisel, Daler Sable or Graduate range for a cheap alternative.
• No. 4 round brush (pointed shape), No.6 round brush

Week 7 onwards

• A set of Watercolours- Windsor and Newton Cotman set of 12,
• Quality Watercolour paper (A3) Hot pressed or Not (Cold Pressed)
• Langton, Cotman, Saunder Waterford or SAA practice paper, Not
• A slightly larger than A3 Drawing board (Artcoe recommended)
• Gumstrip for stretching paper onto board

About the Tutor

I have been involved in the teaching of Art and Design for many years. Some of this involved the delivery of courses at a number of FE colleges, mostly within the area of Graphic Design, but also more general Art and Design courses. I was course leader on the Foundation course at Cleveland College of Art and Design, based in Hartlepool.

For the last 12 years I have been teaching various Drawing and Painting courses around County Durham.The students vary in their abilities but have all benefitted from my challenging and effective approach towards Art. We have covered a great deal of ground within our classes and the student's work has improved greatly in terms of flexibilty and technique.

I always feel that you get out of a subject what you put in. Art can be a hard taskmaster in this way. I set the students challenging projects, stretching them as they pursue new techniques and skills. Many students have stayed with me a long time, growing and developing their skills in Drawing and Painting. Art is so diverse that an Artist is never the finished product, myself included.

Colour and Creation

I have always drawn from an early age, feeling quite natural picking up implements with which to make interesting marks. Later I became obsessed by the technical aspects of drawing and painting, an obsession that stays with me to this day.

I am always looking at different landscapes and an array of other subjects with an eye for how they could be rendered creatively.

I love to use light in a creative fashion within my paintings to set a mood and atmosphere. I try to make my paintings into dreamlike worlds, places where you can disappear into the imagination.

Looking at a subject may seem such a universal thing to do. Everybody has their own experiences and perceptions of the world. But we have only to look at how some of the greatest artists have responded to similar subjects and we can see that there are as many approaches to art as there are people.

Figurative Art, of a recognisable image is often dependent on the play of light on a subject and this can change your perception and the mood of the piece in an instant. Think of the same scene taken in the early morning and then early evening and the different qualities that it evokes. I like to look at what happens to a subject when you look almost directly at the light.

You notice unconventional bubbles of light and effects that change the colours and fray the edges of what you are looking at. The quality and angle of light can cast shadows and create hidden colours. I have heard the phrase ‘Looking at the music of painting’ which means simply the design of the piece when seen on the side or upside down. If a piece of work pleases the eye when not seen as a picture, but as a satisfying design containing colour, shape and tone then it makes for a more rich visual effect.

I have previously exhibited at the DLI museum in Durham and the Darlington Railway Museum. I am always looking to exhibit my paintings further and to hear from people regarding commissions of Artwork.