Drawing Prompt #1: MP

MP has also taken on both challenges! 

Through MP's doorway

MP doesn't have a suitable kitchen window, so she has drawn the view from her doorway. For this drawing she has used Graphite on A4 Hot pressed paper. Although it is a Hot Press, it seems to have a bit of tooth to it giving the pencil work a nice grain effect. This is an excellent composition, the soaring tree captures our attention creating a good balance between positive and negative space. The height of the tree is made obvious by the size comparison to the house. MP has used a lot of linework in this drawing, but has managed to create a good tonal effect with the amount of overlapping and build up of the strokes. Perphaps there should be a few stronger darks in the shadows of the tree to create a bit more contrast but that is just me being nitpicky - this is a very good work!

'From my doorway' by MP

'Teatime'

Embracing the teacup challenge, MP worked with a tea wash, highlighting with Prismacolour pencils (Verge D'or and Nectar) on a  A4 200gsm cold press paper. The tonal constrasts in this work are very good, the darks creating the shapes, forms and shadows. This cup looks very 3D as a result. MP had a little difficulty with the oval of the top of the cup, this is a very tricky thing to do with a brush and tea wash, but the dark tone creating the depth still makes this work. And the handle is nicely done, you feel you could pick this cup up and take a sip. A lightly drawn floral pattern over the cup finishes off the work nicely!

'Teatime' by MP

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

MP let me know that she had some trouble contacting me via email. If you have sent something and not been posted it doesn't mean I am ignoring you - I just haven't recieved it! Please send me a message via the message form on the right and I will contact you. 

Drawing Prompt #1 - Don, Jean & Silke

Three more have come aboard!

I received a few more drawings for Prompt 1 yesterday/last night. Some of you have requested that they not be shown - that is fine, if you are not comfortable with display here - but remember, this is also your chance to show and then discuss with your friends and art collegues in the contact box below.

From Don's Kitchen

Don has done a detailed line drawing of the view from his kitchen. I really like the clever way he has used the just door frame on the left side rather than a full window, it leads us into his garden nicely. I can see pots full of gereniums, seedlings for the veggie patch and empty pots waiting to be filled or else the bulbs to rise in spring. Lots of well drawn ovals here - except maybe the birdbath top which is not quite the right perspective angle. The trees are starting to lose their leaves and Don has observed carefully all the different details even down to the lines of the fence boards and the water mask on the lattice work. Although I would have liked to have seen a little more tonal work and shading it is a great slice of view of his garden from the kitchen.

Don's Kitchen

Jean took on BOTH challenges

Well done, you! Jean is the only one who embraced both challenges, and although she says she is not very happy with them I think she has done exceptionally well.;

Teacup

Jean's teacup is very evocotive, I can just see it filled with her morning cuppa while she looks out of her kitchen window (below). She has used an Arches 300gsm Hot Press Pad and says the paper buckled somewhat. That just indicates she possible got it a bit too wet to start with or didn't allow it to dry fully between coats. But the result is quite good - especially as she used a dagger brush to draw with the tea, something she is not overly famillar with. This cup has great form, the deep shadow showing the bowl well. The rim is possible a bit thick, but tea in a brush is a tricky thing to control. A very good handle - the most difficult part IMO and just a hint of surface design. 

Jean's Teacup

Kitchen View

Jean has again tried something new for her - she has used a Art Graf  watersoluble medium to create areas of grey tonal wash, defining areas with 2B and HB pencil. This has given a good tonal range, the white window sill standing out in the morning sun, dividing the image between the inside and the outside world. A good attempt at the perspective, a few issues but on the whole not too badly done. The back fence is a bit undefined - is it solid or can you see through it? But it is saved by the magpie standing on the rail caroling away. All the perspective lines lead to and point to the bird, drawing your eye to it. Clever!

Jean's Kitchen

Silke's View

This is a very inviting view from Silke's window. She has used a Stilman + Bern Alpha Sketchbook which is a lovely white 150gsm paper and takes her graphite pencils well. I love this viewpoint she has chosen, it accentuates a busy puzzle of lines and plans of the window frame, sill, outdoor pergola leading us to the very back fence feature wall. The pot plants in the foreground keep us inside while our eye is drawn by the perspective lines of the watertank, bbq, table and pool to that very end of the garden. This was a very tricky image to draw, so much going on here, but Silke has considered all the angles well to create a lovely drawing that draws you into her backyard through the window. Great work!

Silke's Kitchen window view

I really enjoy looking at your works - if you haven't done one yet, don't despair but sit down today and sketch for an hour in your kitchen. Send it to me by this evening and I will try and post tomorrow. Don't forget there will be a new prompt on Monday!

And don't forget to comment below and tell the artists your thoughts.

Drawing Prompt #1 - Jill

Kitchen Window

Jill has used Faber Castell graphite pencils 2H, HB, 2B & 4B to create this drawing of her view out the kitchen window in her Windsor Newton  A4 200gsm journal. She has done some pretty cool things in this work - first is her attention to perspective, the lines of the window sill and the outside lattice fence all receeding and meeting on the distant vanishing point. The two angles from both sides of the window (left and right) meet on that same horizon plane. That is tricky to do, so fantastic work Jill, all those persepective lessons last year show up here!  Another wonderful thing is her observation of details, from the curly window latch, to the shining teapot reflection - and I totally love the planter chicken! Even that chicken is in perspective. This is a great study Jill, well done.

Kitchen Window by Jill D.

Drawing Prompt #1 - Tina

 Tina's Tea

Tina has taken on the challenge and has done a lovely drawing  in tea stains and suporting mediums! Tina is one of our hero teachers, and in between running online classes, home schooling her own children and running a house she has found the time to create this lovely drawing. She says:

'I painted with teas (cranberry/pomegranate, earl grey, green and blueberry), then coloured pencil. I’ve also added a rubbing from an Indian block stamp. On Bockingford sample paper, 425gsm cold press. (In hindsight, should have just left it as a tea painting.) I think this may make a nice series.....in the future - tea cups painted with tea! (Cup, saucer and plate are French Limoges c1920 which we’re a gift for my 21st from my aunt!)

Limoges teacup by Tina R.

My comment: This is lovely work Tina. I especially love the dainty lace doily you have included.  The floral work in coloured pencils sets it off nicely. You have managed the tricky ovals very well - and I looked very closely and couldn't see  any pencil lines, so full marks for doing this free hand, and with a brush. And even the shadow of the handle falling across the saucer! That shadow gives it a real 3D feel.
I also really like how you have taken the brief and run with it - expanding and adding to it to create a very nice piece. And yes, a series would be great!

Please feel free to comment below and let Tina know what you think.

Drawing Prompt: Week 1

Prompt Theme: Kitchen Kapers

Welcome to the first week of my Term 2 Drawing Prompt series! I will post a new prompt by each Monday and I hope you will all join in and draw along with me during the week and create works to the theme suggested.

I will be using a A5 Windsor Newton 200gsm Watercolour diary for demostration works. Remember, this is a drawing series, but anything that can make a mark and take a line for a walk can be used over the nine weeks. I will make suggestions but feel free to experiment and try different mediums, paper, and techniques.

If you would like to show your works here, email me with your image and avatar name and I will put it up here with my comments. Followers of this blog are also encoraged to comment on the works. Please make sure the images you send comply with the rules. Any images should be sent by Friday, May 1. You are welcome to send earlier and I will post progressively.
There are two challenges this week - do one, do both, or combine the two! Just have fun.

Challenge 1: Looking out my kitchen window

Well, I am sure during this lock down a lot of time is being spent in the kitchen!  So lets do some drawing focused around that comforting part of the home. The first challenge is to draw the view you see from your kitchen window. I have drawn in graphite pencil with some graphite wash, but if you wish to try it in charcoal/pastel/ink or even digital format please do so.

From my kitchen window: Graphite and water soluble graphite wash. About 1 hour. I am lucky to be visited by a pair of Grey Butcherbirds every morning. They sit on the window sill and look in, sometimes tappity-tapping on the glass until I give them a feed. This drawing was done from life and a reference shot taken of the birds' visit yesterday morning.

Challenge 2: Tea Time
This one is a little trickier. You will need a brush with a fine point - I used a Dagger style brush - a teabag, preferably black tea,  a yellow ochre colour pencil and a china/pottery mug or teacup.

1. Prep: Begin by steeping the tea bag in a glass of hot water, about 4cm deep or so. Leave the bag in the glass as the stain will get progressively darker as you work. Place the cup on a white sheet of paper and get prepared to 'draw' with the brush.

Step 1: Prep

2. Draw: Dip the brush into the tea wash and start to draw the basic shape and block forms of the cup. Do not draw with a pencil first, only draw with the brush. As this is a very light wash any pencil will show through. Also, it doesn't matter if your shape isn't perfect, you can refine it as you go.

Step 2: Draw

3. Let the first dry throughly. Then draw again with the brush and wash, darkening and refining the shapes. Look for lights and darks. Ignore any pattern on the cup for the moment, concentrate only on the shape and form created by the tones.

Step 3: increase tone and refine

4. Dry again. If you need to, dry with a hair dryer but be careful not to bake the paper! Again draw with the brush and wash refining shape and tones.

Step 4

5. And now, dry completely again. With a yellow ocher pencil that is similar in hue to the tea stain, draw and refine the shapes using line, hatching and tone. If your cup has a printed pattern now lightly indicate that pattern with the pencil. I used a Staedler Karat #16 pencil.

Step 5: Pencil detail. This drawing took around 45 minutes not counting the drying time.

Well, I hope you had a bit of fun! Show me your work!

Drawing Challenge

Hello Art Friend!

Once you have weeded the garden, cooked too many cakes, cleaned everything possible, binged watched Netflix until your eyes swim, run out of new books to read... you need to get back to the drawing board! With all my classes cancelled for the foreseeable future I am sure some of you are scratching your head wondering how to keep up your drawing enthusiasm and momentum.  I have decided to run a 'Drawing Prompt' series during Term 2 through my blog and I invite you to join in and draw along.

Each Monday, starting on April 27, I will post on this blog a prompt, an idea, word or phrase that will inspire you to create a drawing in a journal. If you wish, you may send me an image of your drawing and I will post it the following week - all art should be sent by Friday of that weeks' Prompt. 

Rules

1. Please become a follower of this blog to fully participate. However, if you wish to use the prompts and not show your work that is totally fine.
2. A new prompt will be posted as a Term 2 project each Monday for 8 weeks. April 27 to June 22 (or until such time as I decide to end it).
3.  I MAY suggest types of media that you perhaps should try for each prompt, but you are not compelled to use such.
4. If you wish your artwork to be displayed on my blog, please contact me via the email button on right for further instructions.
5. Any art should be sent to me by the Friday of that weeks Prompt.
6. Artwork must be labelled as follows: YourName_WeekNumber
7. Artwork must be jpeg and not larger than 2mg, rgb format, 72ppi. Artwork that is too large or wrong format will not be used. Please understand I cannot correct your photos and have limited disk space so wrong sized images will not be shown.
8. All artwork will be deleted from my system after posting. I will not keep copies so ensure that you do so.
9. Please include any information regarding media and paper in your email.
10. Anything I deem offensive will not be posted. 
11. Respect copyright laws. Anything I feel infringes copyright will not be posted.
12. You are encouraged to comment on the works posted on the blog - you must become a follower to do so.
13. Show  your journal for all to see! Bring to your class once it resumes (if you attend one) or show your family and friends. If you have used a quality journal your works may even be suitable to be framed for an exhibition!

Medium/format:

• It is recommended, but not compusory,  that art be created in a journal. This can be a visual art diary, a watercolour book, etc. I suggest no smaller than A5 and no larger than A3. I am using a Winsdor Newton Visual Diary A5 size, 200gsm. 
• If you get inspired and want to work larger after doing an initial journal entry, and create a more finished work go for it! These prompts are open ended
• Any medium can be used, however, this is a drawing class so mediums that create line are favoured. Some mediums may be suggested but are not compulsory.

Hints and Tips:

• If you can, set up a dedicated space for your art practice. It doesn't have to be a large area, but it should be somewhere you can leave set up. You will be more inclined to work if you don't have to pack and unpack each time you think of drawing.
• Ask your family to respect this area. Especially children. Really, kids are pencil thieves. This is your space.
• Try to set a schedule if you can. I work everyday for a minimum of 4 hours. But even if you just allocate the once a week 2 hour time-frame when you would usually be in a class that would be great.
• Art supply stores will deliver! Look at your local Art Store website for what is available. You don't have to leave home to get your materials.

Hope you all stay well (and sane) during this time and will join me in drawing!
x

Another spoon

Nemesia Spoon by Rodd

This is now number 15 in the series for the Medallion Exhibition begining Wednesday 5 August - with luck. Whew!

Demitasse spoon – Rodd Australia, EPNS ‘A1’ Nemesia pattern

This spoon dates from 1950 - 1970 and is another Rodd favourite of the period. This design ‘Nemesia’ is an identical match to the original and very popular sterling pattern ‘Candlelight’ by Towle. Towle is one of the oldest and most revered silver makers in the USA. The Towle Company (now Lifetime Brands) is a direct descendent of Moulton, the first silver operation set up in New Hampshire in 1637. William Moulton II was the founder and his business thrived through five successive generations. Towle was an apprentice of William Moulton IV the sixth, the last Moulton and in 1857 he handed the business over to Towle. Since the 1880’s Towle has produce dozens of unique silverware patterns. Unmatched in quality and visually appealing they have been imitated by manufacturers around the world. ‘Candlelight’ with its dainty brocade carving down the length of the handle culminating in a flower shape debuted in 1934 to wild popularity. Rival companies were challenged to come up with imitations and Rodd of Melbourne produced this version in the 1950’s until the mid-1970’s. Rebranded ‘Nemesia’ after the popular bedding plant, it fast became one of the company’s best-selling cutlery designs.

The symbol ‘A1’ on silverware is a marking used to indicate the number of ounces of pure silver used in the plating process. Generally speaking, A1 indicated the thickest and best quality of silver plate.

Don't forget the upcoming drawing challenge beginning April 27!

Medallion Exhibition 2020 key dates

Exhibition:  starts on Wed 5^th August until Sunday 23^rd August

Opening Sunday 9^th August 2pm (TBC)

Exhibition Planning

AGRA Medallion Exhibition 2020

Last year I was surprized to be named runner-up in the Australian Artists of Excellence at AGRA, winning the Terry Collins Award. Part of the prize was a chance to participate in the annual Medallion Exhibition in late August of  2020.
In spite of Covid-19, I am still hoping this exhibition will proceed so have been working towards a body of work. Self-isolation has certainly helped concentrate the mind on drawing! I have chosen the theme of  'spoons' and have planned to do 20 works on A4 Land Bristol smoooth paper to be framed up to approximately A3 size.
Each spoon drawing incorporates the spoon and an image that relates to that spoon in a supportive composition. Accompanying the drawing will be a 'history' paragraph about the spoon. This paragraph will be a little story either based on truth or entirely imaginative. Hopefully I can arrange printing of a small A4 book/catalogue of the complete set and pars.
I have now completed 12 of the 20 spoons planned. This Sweet Spoon was lent to me by my good friend Meredith - and the story that accompanies it is based on some things she told me as well as my research into that particular spoon design.

Oh, btw, watch this space for my upcoming drawing challenge beginning April 27!

Medallion Exhibition 2020 key dates

Exhibition:  starts on Wed 5^th August until Sunday 23^rd August

Opening Sunday 9^th August 2pm (TBC)

Deep Bowl Sweet Spoon – Rodd Australia EPNS pattern ‘Jasmine’ 1960s

If you were married, engaged or had an anniversary during the 1960’s in Australia, it is almost a certainty that you would have received at least one set of Rodd ‘Jasmine’ sweet spoons. Rodd’s Silverware had become a household name when prize products of ‘Jasmine’ spoons and canteens of silverware were given away on Bob Dyer’s popular TV game show ‘Pick a Box’. The pattern was so popular that in 1961 Rodd was commissioned to create a set of gold Jasmine spoons and forks as a wedding present to the then Duke and Duchess of York.

But the design had a very deep bowl and was not comfortable in the mouth. Small children especially found the spoon difficult and they would often grasp the handle and lick the interior of the spoon like an icy-pole. This, of course, would result in admonishments by parents to ‘mind your manners and not eat like a savage’. Children hated using the spoons. They came out for every special holiday and the mothers loved them, believing them to be a mark of a higher class of person. Because, well, they were used by royalty, weren’t they!

Charcoal

Paperbark Tree

I like using different mediums, taking a break from graphite now and then. Still, I prefer the 'drawing' mediums to oils or watercolour. Charcoal is fun, I tend to get a bit messy but it is a good way to break my thoughts away from the intensive detail of my graphite work.

This was a demonstration peice for my final Wednesday class of this term. Sadly, all classes have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. I hope to post here regularly and hope my students will follow along.

Last week the class went outside and sketched plein air some of the lovely trees around the art center studio (actually, its a Scout hall). Most of the students chose a large, lollipop shaped paperbark tree, so I drew it as well. We took photos of the tree as well as sketching it. This week we returned inside to the studio to work up our drawing using the sketches and photos as reference.

Well... actually, only one student showed up. Due to the Covid19 scare most had stayed away. 

So I did a demonstration work with Monica - and we had a good time together!

The work is on A3 Art Spectrum Colourfix 'Rose Grey'. I began by laying down broad areas of tone using a piece of vine charcoal then smudging and working it up with a tortillion. Next came more detailed work with charcoal pencils. Pencils used were Derwent Charcoal pencils, Light, Medium and Dark grades with highlights in white charcoal. Time spent was about 1.5 hours or so.

Paperbark tree for Monica

Sepia Ink

California Blue Oak

Using both Staedler Mars and Adel sepia coloured pens on 250gsm Lana Bristol smooth paper, I created this work as a demonstration piece for my Thursday night class.

Unfortunately, due to the Corvid 19 crisis all classes have been cancelled until further notice. However, I finished the work today and am posting it here for viewing.

I used the Adel sepia pen first, creating crosshatch build up that I then washed with water to create the toned background and clumps of the tree. I did this in two stages so I achieved two depths of tonal wash. The linework in the tree was then done as hatching and squiggles the Staedler pen to create depth and detail. The Staedler pen is just a touch darker and slightly more red. Not obvioulsy so, but I felt it made a difference. The linework in the sky, hills and shadow foreground was with the Adel pen, which is very slightly finer and browner tone.

I deliberately cropped the right side of the drawing as shown here as I felt it was a bit more interesting that way. Cropped size is 35 x 24cm. I used combined references - sketches I did in California of trees, photos and internet images. So it is not any one particular tree, but a generic California Blue Oak.  This oak Quercus doglasii is endemich to the hills, coastal ranges and foothills of the Sierra Nevada.