WORKSHOP, SUNDAY 26TH JANUARY 2024 - Working in small sketch books.

Sketching in small sketch books, workshop, Pimperne, Sunday 26th January, 10am – 4pm.

You’ll need a large variety of media – pencils&colour pencils, pens, pastels, white chalk/soft pastel, white paint (gouache or white emulsion – I’ll have white emulsion), scraps of white/black paper, newspaper, glue stick, scissors etc. I shall provide each of you with a small sketch book.

I'm giving you several tasks to complete in your sketch books which will take you through some experiences with 'negotiations'. From these you'll move on to a more finished piece having been lead through your various tasks.

I'm currently in sunny South Africa and a little sorry to miss the snow for a second time this year!! I'll be back just in time for the workshop - and I may by then have added to some of the tasks listed here!

You’ll find that as you work through the tasks, your way of seeing becomes more and more ‘disrupted’ (and therefore more interesting to work with!!)

First...

· Set up two or three of your still life objects in front of you and on the first page of your sketch books and using a soft pencil & eraser, make a drawing using line and hatching. Place the uppermost part of your main subject at the top of your page. Now add in any extraneous objects that you can see in relation to your main subject.

· Next page – using your wrong hand, make a loose drawing of the same subject. Note the shapes of the in-between spaces! Add pen and watercolour to give tone to your drawing. The paper will not stand up to too much watercolour – this is all about making sketches and not worrying about whether the page reacts well!

· Make a rapid watercolour sketch of your subject on the next page. Let it dry and add line with either pen or pencil. Add in any of the surrounding objects that you can see within the boundaries of your page, i.e. what do you notice when you take your eye away from the main subject?

· Swap one or two objects with your neighbour! Set your new still life up with interesting in-between spaces and begin your drawing, using soft pencil, by finding the in-between shapes first. Build the rest of your drawing around the in-between spaces.

· Make a ‘take a dog for a walk’ drawing where your hand (with pen or pencil) travels around your page as your eye looks at your subject. Try not to look at your drawing as you make it. Try and spend at last three minutes on this drawing.

· Again, take one item out of your subject and hand it to your neighbour. Keep the rest as they are but replace your missing item with an item from your neighbour. Take a piece of newspaper/scrap-paper of any shape and stick it on your page – your choice as to where and what shape. Start your drawing with soft pencil, scribble and cross-hatching and then negotiate with white emulsion (I’ll have lots with me). Work with both white paint and pencil.

· Using some wax resist (I’ll have bits of candle wax), make some ‘invisible’ but relevant marks on your page and wash a bit of mid to strong colour across (not too wet as you don’t want to destroy your paper!) so that your resist marks become visible. As this dries, work with water soluble pencil. If you paper breaks down, try drying it with the hairdryer and sticking a new scrap over the top – correcting or negotiating with collage! (I’ll have some glue sticks with me).

· Gradually, you’re discovering that unusual compositions come from putting your focus in a different place (in-between shapes) and that images, drawings, studies can be negotiated in unusual and delightful ways using a good mix of media (collage, paint, various pencils/pens/colour pencils etc.). You’re gong to choose one of your sketch book images and work it up into a bigger piece on good cartridge paper or watercolour paper.

· Taking one of your compositions OR creating a new one, begin your new piece of work on your larger sheet (at least A4). Think about how your more interesting compositions came about. Start by disrupting your page with some simple collage. Use line to continue and then add hatching, watercolour, white paint, soft pastels etc to continue the negotiation! If you have some black paper you use for collage you can work with white paint, chalk or pastel on it.