Leeds Art Group

Hi everyone

This week the Animal course painted some watercolour giraffes using only 5 colours to create the whole thing.  The Watercolour course practised their colour mixing skills and created some really vivid skies.  The Portraiture course made some pencil sketches of noses and then moved on to soft pastel – just using black and white and the colour of the paper to create tone.  Great work everyone.  Hope you’re all enjoying the course.  I am loving seeing all the wonderful pictures you’re producing each week.  Keep up the good work!

See you soon.

Wendy

Hi Folks

In week 2 we developed our skills further.  The Animal Portraiture course used pastel and charcoal to create some really expressive drawings of elephants.  The Watercolour course built on the techniques they learned last week and added an extra challenge of painting shadows on white objects – with some great results.  The Portraiture course started to look at the individual features of a portrait, starting with mouths and using a cross-hatching technique to create tone.  Well done everyone.  The photos show how well you are all doing and it’s only week 2!  You’re showing some real potential already.  Let’s see what you can do next week.

See you soon.

Wendy

Hi Everyone

It’s good to be back after our summer break.  We kicked off the new term with some great pencil drawings of dogs in the Beginners Animal Portraiture Course, exploring tone and shading.  The Beginners Watercolour Painting Course experimented with mark making and colour mixing and then used these skills to create a painting of an apple.  In the Beginners Portraiture Course we focused on shape and proportion and how important it is to get these right before moving onto the next steps.  A great first week and always nice to see so much enthusiasm and good “Have a go” attitudes.  Looking forward to what the rest of the term will bring.

See you all next week.

Wendy

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Not long until the new term starts now but there is still time to book a place if you haven’t already.  All the information on the courses is on the “Courses for 2016” page but if you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.  Call the course tutor Wendy on tel:  07788 871286 or email: leedsartgroup@yahoo.co.uk.

Hi folks

Our last lesson of the course and you did not disappoint.  We had 3 life models to pose for us which gave us the chance to show how much we’ve learned in this course.  We looked a lot at getting the proportions just right before adding detail.  It was great to see the progress you’ve all made since the start of the course, I hope you are all proud of how much you’ve achieved.  Thanks to our 3 fabulous models – Grace, Nicoletta and Allyson for doing a great job.  Thanks also to Malcolm for constantly supplying biscuits and cakes for us and thanks also to Margaret for the delicious homemade scones!

The courses for next term are now starting to fill up so remember to book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.  Go to the Courses for 2016 page for full details of all the courses available and please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to book a place.

Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone and I’ll see you next term!

Wendy

Hi everyone

This week we had a go at drawing children and looked at how facial proportions change as a person grows older.  This was the first week that we have been able to piece all the features together and you did it brilliantly.  I was good to see you remembering all the things you have learned so far about how to draw mouths, noses, eyes, ears etc. and putting it all together in a complete drawing.  Next week we will be able to work from the real thing as we have some life models coming in to pose for us.

Next week is also, sadly, the last lesson of the course but don’t worry! – You won’t have long to wait until the next term starts at the end of September.  Go to the Courses for 2016 page for full details of all the courses available and please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to book a place.

See you next week.

Wendy

Hi folks

Just the last couple of pieces to add to our jigsaw this week.  We started off with some pencil studies of ears.  Ears tend to be something that gets overlooked a bit in portraits but, after this weeks lesson, we now know that there’s a lot going on in there that deserves to be observed.  You all got to grips with all the weird and wonderful curves and shapes within the ear and it was great practise for your shading skills.  Then we moved on to sketches of different hairstyles and looked at the importance of identifying all those light and dark areas.  You did great work this week even when you realised that ears and hair aren’t quite as easy as they look.  Next week we’ll start to piece everything together.

See you soon.

Wendy

Welcome back everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed our little break.  Just the rest we needed before attempting to tackle “eyes”.  This was probably our biggest challenge so far in the course.  The eyes involve so much detail and are probably the most important part of any portrait.  Well done for rising to the challenge.  You are all really looking carefully at the subjects you are drawing and producing some superbly accurate pictures.  Just a couple more things to cover next week before we can start putting all these bits and pieces together.  Keep up the good work everyone!

See you next week

Wendy

Hi folks

This week we all got a bit nosey!  We made some pencil and pastel drawings of noses from various different angles and you all surpassed my expectations once again.  This time we used a selection of different pencils to help us create a wider range of tones.  Then we used just white and black pastels to create a tonal sketch and used the paper itself as our mid-tone.  You all worked really hard to observe all the subtle changes in tone and I’m so pleased with how well you are all doing so far.  Time for a little break now as there will be no lesson next week (11th July) but we will be back in class on Monday 18th July when we will be looking at eyes.

See you all soon.

Wendy

Hi Everyone

This week we started looking at the individual features of the face.  Mouths seemed like a good place to start and I was blown away by the standard of drawings you all produced.  You did some incredible work!  We started with just using an HB pencil and a few “mouth guidelines” to get started.  Then varying the amount of pressure used to create a range of tones.  Then we used pen and cross hatching technique to create different tones whilst drawing mouths in different positions and from a variety of angles.  Finally we experimented with ink wash by brushing water over certain areas of pen to create a more intense tone.  Next week we’ll be looking at noses and trying out another new technique.

Looking forward to it!  See you soon.

Wendy