...till the Fat Lady Sings.Cathy, Debra, Yvonne, Cathy, Louise, and Susanna painted the fat lady in various poses.I gave them no time to think, told them a little story, named poses, posed her as much a possible and it was just go,go go for a spontaneous painterly expression.They had to improvise a little as well. The Fat Lady is an old friend of mine from Cape Town and she usually stands in my sitting room. A quick shortcut to stylisation is to begin with a sculpture and paint it in such a way … [Read more...]
Oxford Summer School – Blind contour drawing
I love drawing the hand with the students. Hands are kind-of the ultimate in drawing. If you can draw your hand without it looking like a bunch of bananas, you can draw anything. We jump into the deep end with doing a blind countour drawing of the hand. This means that the artist doesn't look at his paper at all, but slowly draws all the contours and edges without lifting his pencil. The results are usually a very strong graphic image. Elizabeth Crowley explored her hand drawings by creating a … [Read more...]
Oxford Summer school – funky birds & a warthog
Drawing words and writing picturesJust how can we combine text and illustration to create an integrated design? This workshop is for calligraphers and would-be lettering artists to learn drawing skills combined with modern handwritten letters. Learning how to look, and enabling the right side of the brain can awaken drawing skills. We will create some exciting pieces of stylised work combining monoline lettering and drawing using various tools and techniques. The less experience you have with … [Read more...]
Oxford Summer School – The crane flies
Top to bottom: Beryl Knotts, Oliver Leech, Viv HanreckDrawing Origami Cranes is a very good way of learning to draw flat planes in space using the pencil held up horizontally or vertically to help check the angles of the wings against an imagined vertical or horizontal. Participants block one eye to create monocular vision to 'flatten' the object and draw foreshortening correctly. This exercise is completed by using monoline lettering to write a piece of text that integrates and harmonises with … [Read more...]
Oxford Summer school – 1000 cranes
I began my teaching course at Oxford summer school and we started by making origami cranes and hanging them in the class to draw tomorrow. This course is called Drawing words and writing pictures and drawing cranes offers the chance for great text and also the drawing of angles and spatial planes.Sadako and The 1000 CranesSadako Sasaki was twelve when she was diagnosed with leukemia as a result of the bombing of Hiroshimawhen she was two. A little friend told her that according to traditional … [Read more...]