Camp Creative

Monday and Tuesday At Camp Creative

Camp Creative in Bellingen, NSW has started - and it has been a wonderful start to the week. We are very lucky in that the weather is balmy and warm without being very hot. Just perfect in fact. 

There are 13 students in the class and each one is  a joy to work with. It is always inspiring to meet and teach people new methods and techniques.

Monday:

I started everyone off with tonal studies - as several are repeat students I didn't want them to have to redo the value scale exercises. So instead I asked each to bring in a plain, simple glass. This allowed me to cover a range of topics - drawing circles and forms in perspective, different grades of pencils, tonal values, reflections, and working dark to light.

Quick demonstration. 4B, HB, F, 2H graphite pencils. Less than an hour 

Then students took the same glass and concentrated on highlights only, drawing white on black.

Demonstration. White colour pencil, white charcoal pencil, white gel pen. 10/15 minutes.

Finally, again using the same glass, rendered in colour pencils. (wax/resin based)

Demonstration. Prismacolour pencils. Over an hour 

Tuesday

Building on the colour pencil lessons of Tueseday, students advanced to Aquarelle colour pencils. Subject was to be a botanical item. Once more perspective was discussed, especially showing how to draw flowers and forms from an angled or side view. Blending colours using water washes created by the pencils and then building on those layers with more colour wash or dry colour was demonstrated. This was an all day exercise and most students finished a drawing - some did more. All there results were darn great!

Demonstration. Actual leaf on left. Drawing on right in Staedler Mars Karat Aquarelle pencils.

Tomorrow - Wednesday, we will be looking at Watersoluble graphites and create a landscape image.