Artistic Explorations: Figurative Study (4)

The figurative study course is now almost coming to an end. Next week a selection of drawings, paintings, prints, jewellery, photography and fashion made by participants will be exhibited at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.

Invitation exhibition Gray's School of Art

Apart from a few prints, which I will write about in a different post, these drawings will also be shown. I'm actually really pleased with them and I look forward hearing the comments from the visitors during the opening of the exhibition!

"Patched up", drawing in soft pastel on collage
©Fenfolio2016

"Radiance", drawing in soft pastel on Slate Murano paper
©Fenfolio2016

I also made many sketches in my sketchbook during the course but as this won't be exhibited I just share some here. These are Quink ink studies I created in a few minutes. I just love the way the ink reacts when diluted with water. The black colour suddenly reveals many other colours like blue and brown! Ink is also a great medium to work in quickly. It feels as if the brush dances on the paper and that's so liberating.

Sketch 1 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 2 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 3 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 4 in Quink ink ©Fenfolio2016

The sketches below were also made in a few minutes and were done in soft pastel pencils, a completely different medium. What I really like about it is the way you can create depth in a drawing by focussing on the tones. Using the darker colour of paper as a midtone and adding white for the highlights and dark gray or black for the dark tones is really effective!

Sketch 1 in soft pastel ©Fenfolio2016

Sketch 2 in soft pastel ©Fenfolio2016

Artistic Explorations: Figurative study (1)

In October last year I signed up for my first ever figure drawing class at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen. Drawing human bodies was something I was never really interested in but I thought it would be good to develop my skills in this area. The first few weeks I was really struggling and not enjoying it all. I found it hard to get things in proportion (which is the most important part) and although I learned to use my pencil to measure every part of the body and translate that to my paper, I felt so constrained when I was doing that!

When my dad came to visit me for a couple of days to do a mixed media painting workshop with me in my new studio, I had a good chat with him about my progress in life drawing. He is a very skilled artist himself and I think his paintings and drawings of people are his best. Here are a few of his drawings which have been published in his book "G-Kunst" I received a few years ago. A wonderful source of inspiration.

Figure drawing sketches by Gerrit Wolters

Figure drawing sketches by Gerrit Wolters

Figure drawing sketches by Gerrit Wolters

Figure drawing sketches by Gerrit Wolters

He encouraged me not to focus too much on the details and try to capture the essence of the posture. Quick sketches are ideal exercises for that. The last few weeks I've had lots of practice with quick sketches and I feel I'm more in the flow. Actually, I think I'm starting to enjoy figure drawing! Instead of seeing the whole person I'm now observing various shapes and tones of the different parts of the body. I'm able to draw more freely and more in an abstract way. For the first time I'm quite pleased with the results. The teacher gave me positive feedback on my portfolio and she encouraged me to do more in pen and/or Indian ink and collage (more of that in my next post).

2 min sketches in coloured charcoal (Cretacolour Art Chunky) and pencil

2 min sketches in Indian ink

2 min sketches in Indian ink

2 min sketches in Indian ink

5 min sketch done with left (!) hand to really challenge myself

Artistic explorations: Swirls (1)

A few months ago I was playing with my new airbrush and watching how air would move ink on paper. Although I had already collected many digital images of vector art, I didn't have an end result in my mind. Shapes just developed (see examples here). Below are a few free stock images I downloaded to form my idea:

stock image 1

stock image 2

After my attempt with the airbrush, I tried to create swirls with traditional mediums like pen, crayons and ink.

For this one below I first created the background with Caran D'Ache crayons NeoColor II (watersoluble) and then painted a design in black ink on top.

Swirl Mixed Media ©Fenfolio2011

These are some other free stock images but then in black and white:

Stock image 3

Stock image 4

Stock image 5

I then drew some swirly doodles with pen on sketching paper and had lots of fun!

Swirl Doodle 1 ©Fenfolio2011

Swirl Doodle 2 ©Fenfolio2011

Swirl Doodle 3 ©Fenfolio2011

Preparations for my first exhibition

The last few weeks I have been very busy preparing a portfolio of work to submit for the Deeside Art Exhibition in the Milton Art Gallery which will take place from 29 October until 14 November. It will be the first where my paintings (instead of photos) will be displayed so I'm quite curious how it will be received by the public.

Before I started, I first experimented a lot to get the right concept. It included playing with the airbrush which I got for my birthday recently. I have always been inspired by digital artwork and I used vector designs as sketch. Then acrylic ink was applied on yupo paper (synthetic). With air from the airbrush extra shapes were created on top of the basic design. All four prints have been mounted (16" x 12").

Swirly Plant 1

Swirly Abstract 1

Swirly Flowers 1

Forest Abstract