The Drawing and Painting Diploma course was a comprehensive one, covering all aspects of drawing and media – from drawing exercises such as the line drawing of the kitchen interior and life studies to exercises and compositions with various media. It is a course of discovery if the student is prepared to do everything that is given as all the exercises are invaluable.
For the charcoal drawings I used willow charcoal and also used eraser, cotton buds (paper ones) and also tried cotton wool and small make-up sponges for effects. I tried pencil charcoal which can be useful to define detail but overall I preferred the willow.
For the various pen and ink submissions, I used a traditional dip pen with reservoir for the window view; for the life studies we were asked to use a homemade implement and, after experimenting with various ideas, these submissions were done with a reed fashioned into a nib at both ends, giving a choice of thick and thin nibs.
I used both tubes and pans for the watercolour submissions and found that I was usimg a limited amount of brushes each time – mainly a suitableS flat for background wash, then a small brush for fine detail, a medium round brush, a ¼” flat and a medium rigger. I also was using a limited palette of colours and mixing my colours from those. I did not use masking fluid but found other ways of lifting off, mainly with a brush – particularly for the Savoy cabbage to create the “veins” – as well as cotton wool, and cotton bud. I firstly outlined the cabbage using a fine brush and a thin pale green watercolour, then gave the background a warm coloured wash before proceeding to paint the cabbage in detail, using various techniques to create the desired effect. The reclining man in watercolour was drawn from life; I tried to convey the glow coming from the television onto the face, so the highlights are very subtle. The image was drawn first in graphite very lightly then I used watercolour in thin layers to build up the image. As the exercise was to emphasise the pose I only lightly suggested the sofa to give some background to avoid the person seeming to float in space!
Something I had never used before was gouache (the black labrador) and so opted to use this instead of the alternative choice of acrylic, either of which would have given the depth of colour for this painting, which was also in a style I was not used to.
I would thoroughly recommend the LAC courses – this is the second one I have done. The tutor for this course, Paul Weaver, has always been ready to answer queries at any time and his constructive feedbacks have always been encouraging. Also, the weekly student blogs are a good way to get extra practice and stimulate ideas, so it is worthwhile to join in.
Rosalind.
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