Charlevoix, Quebec – Day One

I’m back in Charlevoix for my fourth annual painting holiday. This gorgeous region of Quebec is famous for art. Where else in the world would you find a sign like this? “There are other places for this” is what the sign says and it’s right. Charlevoix has a multitude of pretty spots where you can stand at your easel or set down your stool. There is absolutely no need to paint on the railroad tracks. Usually.

Today, we worked in our local village of Les Eboulements and most of the group concentrated on sketching. I think a day of sketching is a great way to start the week. Do a lot of looking  and get a feel for the place.

After lunch in our studio, we had a look at the work from the morning. The biggest challenge was a familiar one; angles and perspective! I did a short review of the use of a measuring stick before we headed back out into the field.

Those nasty roof-lines continued to cause trouble so a quick plein air meeting was called to address the problem. I did a bit of sketching over the course of the day and used my drawings to illustrate some of the ideas we were focusing on.

We held our Critique in the comfort of the studio. It was a pleasure to see a mix of sketches and watercolours. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing more watercolours over the next few days.

Monday Critique

Drawing Boot Camp – Light and Shadow – Day Two

We started our second day of Drawing Boot Camp-Light and Shadow with a brief review of our work from Day One. The subject of our first drawing exercise was a single apple. Our materials were the same as those of Day One; a 2B and a 6B pencil and a measuring stick. Erasers were not used.

Our next drawing exercise was of a white jar. It’s shiny surface gave us a chance to consider reflected light and it’s relationship with direct light. Also, this plain old jar was a good challenge in terms of proportion.

Towards the end of the exercise, and to the huge relief of all, I distributed kneaded erasers. I firmly believe that the overuse of erasers is a hindrance to drawing. I have often observed students scrubbing away frantically at every single line they put on the paper and getting absolutely nowhere. First of all, one should strive to draw with a light touch. Secondly, your preliminary and planning lines are useless if they are constantly wiped off the sheet. Go easy on the erasing.

We took a break and looked at a few books of master drawings. Thoughtful study of the masters is not only instructional but a great pleasure. We discussed the Cours de Dessin, an influential academic drawing course first published in the 1860′s, by Charles Bargue. I have a copy of the 2003 reprint. The very classical Bargue approach had a huge impact, as unlikely as it might seem, on Vincent Van Gogh.

We wrapped up our Boot Camp with a drawing of apples in a bowl. I enjoyed our Boot Camps and hope that everyone learned a lot. I’m considering a series of drawing classes for this fall. Anyone interested?

 

Drawing Boot Camp – Light and Shadow

Last month, I gave a two-day class called Drawing Boot Camp-Proportion and Perspective. Yesterday, some of the same students and several new ones convened at my studio for the first day of Drawing Boot Camp-Light and Shadow. Everyone was issued a sketchbook, a 2B and a 6B pencil, a measuring stick, clips and a support board. Erasers were checked at the door.

We started off with a five-value grey scale. It gave us a chance to get to know the pencils and paper and to practice tip and side shading.

Our next project was a cone. A triangle was drawn on the sheet. A curved line was added from the lower left to the lower right corners. We did the drawing in steps, stopping to discuss some of the principles of light and shadow.

Our second exercise began with a line drawing of a cube. At first, we didn’t look at an actual cube. I drew a cube from memory, in line only, at my easel while I reviewed basic two-point perspective. Once we’d commenced to shade, the top plane was left as untouched paper and the two side planes were developed as two distinct values.

That’s when I put a white cube on a piece of white board under a lamp. It helped us to establish the cast shadow. Following that, a background was introduced. Then, our final step, we graded several of the planes, making them less flat and giving a more natural feel to the drawing.

It was time to work from direct observation. I placed four identical cylindrical bottles, made from brown cardboard, on the platform under the lamp. Each student selected a bottle that showed an interesting balance of light and shadow.

We completed four projects over a very full day of drawing. Day two of Drawing Boot Camp-Light and Shadow is next Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Drawing Boot Camp – Proportion and Perspective – Day Two

Last week, we started our two-day Drawing Boot Camp and it concluded yesterday. We used the yellow, red and blue Prismacolor pencils again for almost all of our drawing exercises. We continued to work on proportion and ellipses and to follow the guidelines from my Drawing Checklist. Our subject matter was quite varied; everything from fruit to bowls, bottles and books. The drawing exercises were short and focused.

Two books, one on top of the other, can be surprisingly tricky. Especially, when you don’t have much time. We tackled this and related subjects after a morning lecture/demonstration on two point perspective.

At the end of the day, we switched to 2B graphite pencils. This still-life of bottles and jars was a fifteen minute exercise. One of our goals was to place the entire group on the sheet without running off the edges or ending up with an extremely small drawing with too much empty space surrounding it.

It was definitely a Boot Camp. We did a lot of drawing and everyone was tired at the end of the day. Including me. I enjoyed it very much, though. I don’t teach drawing as much as I used to in the past.

Over the years, I taught courses such as Beginner Drawing, Object Drawing, Life Drawing, Drawing into Painting and Pen and Ink Drawing at many venues including Sheridan College, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Dundas Valley School of Art and Continuing Education at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Helping students to gain confidence and pleasure from drawing is a very satisfying pursuit.

Thanks for your recent comments about the Boot Camp. I wish you could have been here!

Drawing Boot Camp – Proportion and Perspective – Day One

This spring, I’ve offered two Drawing Boot Camps. They take place on consecutive Wednesdays and each Boot Camp is a two- day class. Our first Boot Camp, dedicated to Proportion and Perspective, started last Wednesday, April 4. It continues next week on the 11th.

We worked very hard all day long on a series of short drawing exercises. Everyone received a new sketchbook and three Prismacolor pencils; a yellow, a red and a blue. Yellow is for planning. Red is for wire frame. Blue is for refining. Each exercise had specific guidelines and goals. Erasers were strictly forbidden.

Overall, we want to draw with more confidence and understanding. We discussed concepts such as basic ellipse theory and learned how to use a measuring stick. We looked at master drawings. We drew a lot and everyone was pooped at the end of the day. Here are a few of my demonstrations from Wednesday.

Tuesday Watercolour Class – Week One

Our first Tuesday watercolour classes of the Spring term began today. I started everyone off with a drawing lesson. Here’s an analysis of the box with the beveled edge in three steps. It’s followed by a value study of the box in a slightly different attitude.

  

The still-life objects are made from cardboard. I bought them at a dollar store. They’re obviously not very colourful but they take the light beautifully so they’re a great subject for a value study. Add a little bit of imagination, as many of the painters did today, and the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday AM Critique

Tuesday PM Critique

Brant Visual Arts Guild – Pen and Watercolour

I was in St. George on Saturday. It’s a charming, small town near Brantford. The Brant Visual Arts Guild have a space there and I always enjoying visiting this group. Pam Kong, above with me, has been the Program Coordinator as far back as I can recall but she’s giving it up to take over as President soon.

Our theme was a fishing village in pen and watercolour. The first surprise for many was the lack of photo reference. We worked from a template I’d created. I wanted to include several elements commonly found in this type of scene.

  

The second surprise was the use of yellow and blue as light and shadow. Quite a bit of paper white was left untouched, as well. This created an overall pattern and relationships between the many different elements in the composition. This demonstration is on smooth Arches Hot Press paper. I elected to use strong brushstrokes with crisp edges throughout the development of the image.

  

The next step was local colour. I chose to stick with primary and secondary colours, ignoring neutrals such as grey and brown.

Finally, the pen. I used a #5 drawing pen, pigment ink, from Pilot. I work quite quickly with these demonstrations in an effort to communicate ideas about the handling of the pen. Illustrating the process and discussing the pros and cons of various approaches is the goal. As such, I rarely work on the piece after the workshop is concluded. It’s job is done. Here are a few details of the pen work.

   

It was a busy day with a lot of new ideas to assimilate. The BVAG was up to the challenge. Several of the group commented on how much fun (and addictive)  the pen is and intend to do more of it on their own. Have a look at some of the work.

 

 

Sustained Saturday – Watercolour and Pen

We had a lot of fun at my studio yesterday. The occasion was the first Sustained Saturday class of Fall term. I set up a variation of the still-life from last Tuesday’s classes. In addition to that, I repeated my demonstration of ‘shape-reading’ and suggested that everyone try it before lunch before settling into a sustained work for the afternoon.

That accounts for the watercolour painters but we had some pen and ink lovers in the group. Two of our artists completed works in pen with watercolour and one exclusively in pen. During the afternoon, I decided to show them some pen and watercolour from an artist whose work I enjoy. I opened up my computer instead of an art book and we went to England to visit Keith Palmer at North Pennine Gallery. They were impressed with Keith’s drawings, the pigs were a big hit, and several of the watercolour painters came for a look, as well.

Back in Canada, our day continued until four o’clock when we tidied up and prepared for our critique. Can you spot the work with pen? One is more obvious than the others.

Sustained Saturday Critique

Tuesday Watercolour Class – Week Seven

I gave the students a few guidelines for their paintings yesterday.

1) A tightly cropped composition. I thought this might create interesting negative shapes and emphasize the idea of painting shapes rather than rendering objects.

2) Add a vertical line to the background to suggest the geometry of a room interior. Although we are surrounded by the geometry of windows, walls, doors and shelves  in the studio it rarely makes an appearance in our paintings.

3) Paint the shapes in the background first and work towards the foreground. Most of the students complete the objects first and consider the background last. Backgrounds are too often treated as annoying extra space to fill in and not as integral elements of the image. This usually results  in a very weak figure/ground relationship. Check this informative link for an explanation of the concept of the figure/ground relationship.

4) Mix all colours using only the three primaries. We tried this last week and it’s always a valuable learning tool.

  

You can see three steps of my demonstration above. Not everyone completed their paintings but I think there are some very strong results. By the way, you’ve probably noticed that not all of the students have been painting. One of the evening students has been studying the drawings of Georges Seurat. Her drawing is in the top left corner of the Tuesday PM Critique below.

Tuesday AM Critique

Tuesday PM Critique

Tuesday Watercolour Class – Week Five

Yesterday,  I was really interested in simplifying shapes and finding a way to unify the diverse colours in the still-life. I couldn’t resist mixing in a brief drawing lesson.

Two weeks ago, we discussed cubic volumes. Yesterday’s still-life included a few wonky blue vases which were an interesting challenge. In the drawing below, I started with a basic tall cube. Using straight planning lines (red), I tried to figure out how the curves worked. Once reasonably satisfied with my analysis, I used blue to create the curves and show the visible edges of the object.

Years ago, I taught first year drawing in the Illustration department of Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. That’s where I picked up the idea of using coloured pencils for drawing exercises. Yellow, the lightest colour, was used for all the planning. Red was used mostly to show the ‘wire-frame’ interpretation of the object. Blue, the darkest colour,  was used to refine the study. Erasers were not used at all as the students were encouraged to reveal every step of their drawing process.

Our usual drawing pencils can be used in a similar way. The lightest lines would be the equivalent of the yellow. Medium weight lines would be the red and the darkest lines would be blue. After Sheridan, I brought this idea to my adult students at the Dundas Valley School of Art and elsewhere.

Now, back to watercolour. I’ve shown three steps of my watercolour demonstration which uses a preliminary wash but with a different approach than last week’s. I’ve left the white of the paper untouched in one area.

           

  

That’s as far as I took my demo. It was a grim and wet day outside so the bright colours of the still-life were particularly welcome.

Tuesday AM Critique

Tuesday PM Critique