Here she is - little kelpie completed. Not to move on with grounding her so she isn't floating, and creating background effects. First drawing following is the halfway progress, and the second is 90% finished dog. I will tweak her a bit more once the grounding and background is complete.
Had a great day on Wednesday at Mornington art show. Lots of nice people to take to while I demonstrated drawing techniques for 'Muster'. I worked the full day, from 10am until 4.30 so made good progress, but far from completed! Below are some step by step photos showing the process of the drawing:
1. Application of Dry Graphitint
2. Graphitint washed, and colour pencil overdrawing begun starting with the eye. I have used the Staedtler Mars Karat color pencils and Staedtler graphite pencils for this.
4. Dry color and graphite pencil progress
5. Close up of progress
6. Stage at the end of the day
More progress to follow as I continue to work on this drawing at my home studio.
But I did need to mention this nice surprise I found at Mornington!
A Highly Commended for my graphite drawing, 'The Grandmother Tree'.
As told in my previous post, I will be doing a demonstration drawing at the Mornington Art Show on Wednesday January 24, 10am to 12pm, 1pm to 4pm. The convenors requested 'something animal'. I needed to put on my thinking cap because a lot of my recent works have been more 'mechanical' than 'animal'. In fact, I have started working towards my next solo which will be titled 'On Country' which will hopefully have a lot of fun farm machinery.
Keeping to this theme and inspired by season two of Muster Dogs on the ABC, I dug out some old photos of a friends Kelpie and sketched up an idea.
So, this is Tansy, she was only a young dog at that time- she is around 8 or 9 now. I also sourced some shots of mobs of sheep being mustered to add into the background. The sheep are slightly cog shaped which was fun to think about, and I couldn't resist adding a bit of bio-mechanical additions to help Tansy muster those difficult ewes.
'Muster' ©Linda Weil 2024
Planning drawing, final state ready to transfer to 300gsm Lana Hot Press
I quite like using a toned background in my works, usually a tea stain. As this takes some time to dry properly, I have washed in the stain ahead of the demonstration, so the work is prepared for the next steps. I like how the tea color lends itself to the dusty dirt country road.
'Muster' ©Linda Weil 2024, Tea-stained background
So that is the start of this drawing (385 x 285cm). I will work further on this on Wednesday - do come along and see how it progresses!
Mornington Art Show
Jan 19 - 26, 2024
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Mornington Art Show
Jan 19 - 26, 2024
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﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Upcoming VAS Summer exhition
26 Jan - 5 Feb
This is the first VAS members exhibition for 2024.
Join us for the Barbecue and Opening event on Sunday, 28 Jan 12pm to 3pm!
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Final day at Camp Creative. It has been a productive and artistic experience! Today's challenge was drawing in color pencil onto black paper. A flower subject was supplied. Prismalcolor, Polychromos or other waxed pencils were recommended to use in this drawing.
The trick to drawing on dark papers is to learn how the colors react and how the black affects the hue of the pencil. Laying down some white or light pencil first is the trick, then work progressively from your lights to your darker pencil. Because the paper we were working on was a fairly slick and hard surface, progressively greater pressure to apply the pencil layers is needed. Students needed to test this layering of color over white as they worked before applying to the drawing.
My demonstrations: the completed flower on the left, with color tests. On the right is the demonstration showing progressive layering of color.
Below are some of the finished works by the students.
It has been a great week - and I haven't told you half of what has been going on! From daily lunchtime concerts, visits to the classroom by sheep, a Covid scare, artists dancing in the corridors, an evening with top student musicians and featuring David Helfgoff, and much more! A fantastic time.
Thank you to my wonderful students, all the young girls and boys who were helpful guides, the staff at Camp Creative, especially Michelle and Rob Stockton, and my generous billet hosts, Ken and Elizabeth. Looking forward to Camp Creative in 2025!
Today's goal was to discover how to create darks and blacks without using a black pencil! This meant learning how to layer with successive layers of blues and graphite. Additionally, how to draw a bird using basic structure lines and shapes. Students chose to all do the same subject, a Red Backed Fairy Wren from my supplied images.
Once they completed this exercise most students returned to their previous works and finalized these.
Basic construction using directional lines and shapes.
My demonstration
'The Wall' of completed works. Looks Great!
Below is a selection of works that are shown on The Wall - for display to all Campers on Day 4 after lunch.
Final day coming up - another challenge for them - color on black paper!
Day 3 my artists were given the chance to let their hair down a bit and express themselves in an imaginative and creative way. Using color pencils (either wax or aquarelle or both) they were asked to use an insect(s) of their choice as a base. Photos were supplied for reference, and mobile phone use for further information was allowed.
The day resulted in some amazing and creative creations, bugs varied from floral concoctions to engineering to cooking themes to make up their insects! The students are still working on their concepts, but here is a selection of works in progress.
Florals, beads and ballet shoes with gauze wings make up this cicada in progress
This scary spider head and legs will fade off into soft, beautiful butterfly wings
Graters, whisks, teacups, spoons and other cooking implements are used in the creation of this dragonfly.
The mining industry is the theme for this dragonfly. I particularly love how the artist has used earth strata formations to form the thorax of the insect.
And of course, students continued with various studies of tone, hue, textures and forms:
Today we will return to more traditional and realistic drawing using a Red Backed Fairy Wren as our subject. Time to learn how to draw black without resorting to the black pencil! Exciting!
Here are a few images from Day 2 at Camp. We worked hard!
Today was development of skills and techniques using Watercolor pencils (aquarelles) with supporting graphite tone. This involved basic theory in drawing shapes (circles, ovals), and simple perspective. All this was distilled down into a simple color drawing of a spool of colored thread, drawn twice size.
My demonstration: Staedtler Karat Aquarelle on Lana 250HP with graphite
A student begins drawing.
The afternoon session continued our color pencil explorations. Students were asked to choose their own subject from a selection of objects I brought along, or that they sourced. This included shells, flowers, leaves, bark with moss and more. The color medium could be their personal choice, either waxed or aquarelle color pencils.
My demonstration piece.
Below shows a selection of student's works on the display wall. You can see they have done some wonderful work and worked very hard!
We are all looking forward to Day 3!
Arrived in 'Bello' on Sunday morning, a dream flight with Qantas (!) to Coffs Harbour, no issues. And it is fabulous that Qantas now run direct flights from Melbourne to Coffs - no more waiting around for hours in Sydney's very ugly airport for a connecting flight. What used to be 5 or 6 or even 8-hour journey was a breeze at 2 hours!
Weather here in Bellingen is wonderful, warm, somewhat humid but certainly a change from all the rain that is happening in Melbourne. We are billeted with a lovely couple in a beautiful and very comfortable traditional older style home with long verandahs. Situated on a hill top to you can sit on the front verandah and enjoy the beautiful outlook to the Bellenger river valley.
Sunday evening a nice get-together with other tutors and campers in the Bellingen showgrounds. Excellent food and wines, not to mention meeting some nice people, both tutors and student campers.
Welcome to Country by Michael was thoughtfully and respectfully done.
This morning started early - 5am dawn chorus wake-up call by the local kookaburras! Followed by a family of Yellow Tail Black Cockatoos squawking as they flew overhead. Of course, this woke up the cicadas who also joined in the cacophony. Actually, one of the best ways to be woken up - in time to view the beautiful sunrise out my bedroom window.
Class began at 9am - 14 eager student campers! The first day of the workshop is always foundational instruction. Trying out the pencils, test sheets, learning about papers, etc. There is a lot of information for me to impart and for them to absorb, and by the end of the day we were all a little exhausted - but in a good way. They all did some wonderful work.
We started with basic graphite pencil tests, then followed with color pencil (wax) test. Those who have attended my classes will recognize this blending exercise in color pencils:
...and our subject matter being a capsicum drawing from life. I supplied the subject matter, but damn, capsicums are EXPENSIVE up here! All the floods they have been having are the cause.
I will try and remember to take more photos tomorrow and show you the progress. But you can also follow on the Camp Creative facebook page to see a selection of activities and classes happening. We may appear there soon!
They also have an Instgram if you search for it.
Anyway, tomorrow is another big day!
