We tried something a little bit different this week by using pen and old paperback books as a background.  It was good practise for your cross hatching techniques and the text provided an interesting surface to work on.  It was great to see you build up these little sketchbooks with your lovely drawings and I hope it will inspire you to think about what other surfaces you could be working on too.  Next week is the last lesson of the course but don’t worry because the new dates for the September courses have finally been announced.  Go to the Courses for 2015  page for further information and call 07788 871286 or email leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk if you’d like to book a place.

Wendy

You exceeded all my expectations this week.  Not only did I give you glass to draw, you also had water to contend with and all the challenges of reflections and distortions that come with it.  As always we broke up the task into different steps to make it simpler, giving us some fantastic results.  I’d be very happy to display any of todays drawings in the exhibition, so I hope you’re all going to be brave and submit some work.

Just email me if you need more information about the exhibition (Costellos Bakery, Headingley, 14th & 15th August 2015).

See you all soon.

Wendy

Welcome back to everyone after our half term break.  We kicked off the second half of the course by trying something a bit different.  Using fineliner pens instead of pencils we created different tones by using cross hatching techniques.  We had to work out how to show where the light falls on the objects and the shadows this creates whilst also using cross hatching  to show differences in the colours of the objects.  Not an easy task but I knew you could handle it.

It’s time to start believing in your own abilities now.  You’ve all improved so much since lesson one that you should now have more confidence in your work.  With that in mind I’m very pleased to announce that Leeds Art Group will be holding it’s first ever Summer Exhibition at Costellos Bakery, 61 Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds, LS6 3AB on 14th & 15th August 2015.  A bakery may seem like an odd place for an exhibition but rest assured that Costellos have a big room upstairs where we can display our masterpieces and as most of you already know, Costellos also offer 10% off all food and drinks to Leeds Art Group members (just show your card at the till).  So that’s two very good reasons for visiting Costellos!

If you would like to submit a piece of work for the exhibition please email me at leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk (or use the contact page) and I will send you all the details.  It’s free to submit and it’s open to anyone who has ever taken part in a Leeds Art Group course.  So don’t be shy, let’s show everyone what we can do!

I’ll look forward to seeing all your works of art!

Wendy

This week we looked at learning how to draw with the right side of the brain and used a series of exercises to explore how this can help us to draw exactly what we can see.  We then looked at negative space and how it can help us to get everything else in the right proportions.  There were some difficult concepts to get your head around this week and although it may have seemed difficult at first, I’m really pleased with how well you all understood it by the end of the lesson, well done!

Don’t forget, there is no class next week.  The next lesson will be Monday 20th July.  So enjoy the break and keep practising!

Wendy

Well done everyone!  I gave you a pretty difficult task this week and you all tackled it head on.  We made some observation drawings of pine cones and looked at how you can take a complex object and break it down into simpler shapes, then build it up gradually.  I know it was a tough exercise and you all did amazingly well.  If you are producing this level of work and it’s only week three, just think how good you’ll be by week 8!  Next week we’ll be trying something a bit different.

See you soon.

Wendy

This week we continued to build on our basic drawing skills and perfect our shading technique.  We made observation drawings from a photograph and concentrated (really hard) on making sure everything was accurate.  You all worked so well this week and I could see that many of you were ironing out any problems that can occur with shading.  Next week we’re going to develop your observation skills even further.

See you all next week

Wendy

Welcome back everyone!

The start of the new summer term and it’s great to see everyone so enthusiastic and eager to learn.  We went back to basics for the first lesson and looked at how to construct simple shapes.  We then used those shapes to build up a picture and used shading to make the objects appear 3 dimensional.  You all did really well in your first lesson, I hope you enjoyed it.  Next week we’ll be building on those skills and practising shading techniques.  Don’t forget to look on our Membership Discounts page to see what offers you can get with your Leeds Art Group membership card.  Remember, if you’d like to get automatic updates every time a new post is added to this website, just click on the “Follow” tab in the bottom right corner of the screen and enter your email address.

See you all next week.

Wendy

Hi folks!

The response to the Beginners Drawing Course has been overwhelming and this course is now full.  For those of you who missed out this time, new Leeds Art Group courses will be starting again in September and I hope you’ll be able to join us then.  Further details of the new courses will be posted on this website from July/August.

See you soon.

Wendy

Sadly, this was the last week of classes for this term and you all finished with a great finale!  Our life model Ellie came in to pose for us which meant the Watercolour class got the chance to build on the figure painting techniques they practised last week but this time with the real thing.  Working from photographs is great for practise but you always get much better results with a real model infront of you.  The Drawing class looked mainly at 2 key elements of figure drawing – proportion and shape.  The Pastel class were also able to practise controlling their colour accuracy for hair and flesh tones.

You’ve all come so far since week one and I am extremely proud of you all and the progress you’ve made.  I hope you will all now be able to carry on with your art work at home.  I’ll be seeing some of you again at the Beginners Drawing Course 2 starting June 15th 2015 (See the Courses For 2015 page for further details) but for those of you that can’t make it then please look out for the new September courses being advertised from July/August.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed these past few weeks as much as I have and I hope to see you at Leeds Art Group events in the future.

Have a lovely summer!

Wendy

This week the Drawing and Pastel classes worked on self-portraits and wow – what fantastic results!  You all started with the same basic guidelines and then made alterations to turn them into your own individual portraits.  A lot of people are a little apprehensive about self-portraits at first but by the end of the lesson you really got it and I think for many of you this was your best work yet.  The Watercolour class used this weeks lesson to try out some figure painting techniques and did some 5 minute paintings to explore a much freer, sketchy way of working.  You all did some great paintings and this will be good practise for next week when all 3 classes have a life model coming in to pose for us.  I can’t wait to see what you’re all going to produce next week.

Sadly next week is the last lesson for all the courses.  The next Leeds Art Group course will be the daytime Beginners Drawing Course 2 starting on June 15th.  For those of you who have previously attended the Beginners Drawing Course please note that the June course is a completely new course with different lessons and content.  However, you don’t need to have completed the original drawing course in order to attend this new course, it is a “stand alone” course.  See the Courses For 2015 page for further details.  Unfortunately there will be no further evening classes until September 2015.

See you all next week.

Wendy