So we finally made it to the last lesson of the course, well done to you all!  I hope you can see how your work has improved over the last 8 weeks.  To get us in the festive spirit we drew some Christmas decorations to help practise drawing reflective objects.  A big thank you to Sally who made this amazing “Leeds Art Group” cake for us.  I think you can see from the photo that we all enjoyed it and we’re all hoping that Sally will come back for the next class in February 2014 (if anyone wants to order a cake from Sally, let me know and I’ll pass on your details). 

The Beginners Drawing Course will be running again in February along with a new Beginners Pastel Drawing Course.  Watch this space for details!

Thank you for joining Leeds Art Group this year.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have and a Merry Christmas to you all. 

Wendy  x

This week we did some timed drawings.  Using the same composition, we added objects to it and reduced the time allowed for each drawing.  This was to train our eyes and brains into making quicker judgments on key shapes, lines and proportions in a drawing.  It was hard work but hopefully you found that it helped when you came to make the final drawing.

Last lesson we tried our hand at life drawing, concentrating on the proportions of the human figure.  It’s really important to get the proportions right before you start adding the detail and shading.  As most of you discovered, using your pencil to measure proportions can be a real help.  Well done to all of you for tackling the tricky bits – hands and feet.  Just keep practising and it will get easier, I promise!

Week 5 was self-portraits and you all produced some great drawings.  We looked at using guidelines for portrait proportions and then making alterations to those to create your own unique likeness.

Halfway through the course already!  So here are the photos of our lesson on enlarging using a grid.  Some people found this helped and some found it easier to work without the grid but it’s always good to try out different techniques and see what works best for you.

Last lesson we tried some different media – charcoal and chalk, and we looked at scale.  It’s always difficult at first when you try new things but by the end of the lesson you were flying with it.  I hope some of you will continue to work in charcoal/chalk in the future, you achieved some great effects.

Thanks to everyone for coming to the class last night, especially on such a wet, dismal evening.  I think it was worth it as you did some lovely drawings and you are all clearly thinking about the points we’ve covered so far.  Well done!  Here are some of your drawings.

Well done to everyone who came along on Wednesday, it was great to finally put faces to names.  I was so impressed by how hard you all worked and by the beautiful drawings you produced.  Here are some of the works of art you created.  I can’t wait to see what you produce next week.

In this course you will learn about  the basic aspects of drawing including, proportion, shading and composition.  You will work from a range of different subjects, both natural and manmade.  You will learn how to draw from both two dimensional images and three dimensional objects.  The course aims to provide you with a broad and varied experience and ultimately at the end of the course you will have acquired skills which you can continue to develop.  This course is designed for beginners and is perfect for anyone who has always wanted to have a go at drawing but didn’t know where to start.  Enrolment includes free membership to Leeds Art Group which entitles you to a 10% discount at Dinsdales art supplies shop in Headingley:  www.dinsdales.com.

The course will be taught by Leeds based artist Wendy Atton B A (Hons).  Wendy specialises in animal portraiture but please note that the course will not be based on animal portraiture although there may be an option to incorporate this at some point in the course if you wish.  If you would like to view Wendy’s work please visit her website at http://www.wendyatton.co.uk.

Course duration: 8 weeks

Course price:  £56 (this includes all materials)

Course starts:  25th September 2013

Time: Wednesdays 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Location:  Headingley Parish Hall, St Michaels Rd, Leeds, LS6 3AW

Tea and biscuits will be provided and occasionally cake if you’re lucky!

Places will be limited so please apply early.  Tel:  07788 871286 or email artist@wendyatton.co.uk