More Workshops

This weekend I wheeled my mobile studio/suitcase off to Timespan to spend a day with ink and lovely ladies from the East Sutherland Art Society. The workshop was based around my technique for working with Indian Ink pen and wash which is probably greatly influenced by the disciplines I have learnt as a landscape architect. As a tonalist with an eye for detail, I am most comfortable working without colour and building up an image from the basis of an initial drawing. So we started off with a drawing exercise to demonstrate each step of my approach:

1. a pencil sketch
2. a simplified line drawing with no shading
3. a two-tone image to represent areas of light and dark with no line
4. a drawing in marks and hatches to represent form and tone

However, most of my students were happiest working with colour, rarely did any drawing and were wondering why we weren’t working in ink straight away. I think all became clear when we started to combine all these steps. Sometimes it seems there is too much to cover in a day’s workshop – it can be bit like teaching someone synchronised swimming before they have learnt how to float. But I really enjoy holding workshops – it’s good to see people grasp what they initially thought daunting and there are always lots of smiling faces and heart felt “thank you’s” at the end. So I am delighted to announce that I have recently secured some grant funding to hold a series of 10 subsidised workshops between November and May – more details coming soon!

Joyce the sheep - in steps 1,2,3 & 4

lots of inspiration to choose from....

A demo of Joyce in Indian Ink wash and pen

Despite a variety of inspirational images - sheep ruled the day!