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Silhouette Christmas Card.

Usually when we make Christmas cards, I provide a box of glittery sumptuous bits. This year we are meeting on Zoom so that wasn’t going to happen.

I set out to use recycled materials this time. A piece of newspaper.

I folded this piece of paper, drew half a Christmas tree .

I used scissors to cut out the tree very carefully.

I then had two images to make two cards.

Put the open silhouette on top of a coloured background. I had been quilting so my example is a scrap of quilting.

I used a piece of card from an old chocolate box behind.

The inner tree goes on a separate card and I decorated it with Sharpie pens.

Simple but effective Christmas cards for very little cost. You can glam them up if you have extra bits. I will add ribbons to mine.

November 13, 2020 0

From photograph to Oil painting.

I started with a walk in lockdown. Along the valley facing my home.

The photograph is grided to help with placement and proportions for sketching.

My sketch to get tones, shapes and proportions .

Using a thinned down Wedgwood blue plot the shapes and tones onto a canvas.

Starting with sky and stream begin to match the tones of blues.

Add the darkest areas, in this one dark greens.

Start to fill in the foreground, with blocks of colour, faintly to start with, building up areas letting them dry between sessions.

Continue to build areas of colour, knowing that more will be added on top, so whilst it looks vivid it will disappear partly under the next layer.

Continue to add layers, this photograph shows how a bold colour becomes a background, still there and adding depth.

The river has been widened at the bottom of this one. Rocks in the river have begun to come into view as has the shale beach along the bank. The darkest areas have been toned down to blend into the painting.

The rocks and stones have gained more detail, the banks of the river have again been slightly altered with regard to the original photograph.

September 2, 2020 0

Capel Bethel Chapel, Cwm Rheidol

Still sketching on a Wednesday evening with Ponterwyd Art Club. This week the topic was a local chapel, I took this photograph last year on a walk from this village. It used to belong to friends of mine.

August 15, 2020 0

Sheep photo grided. Ready for sketching

Use shapes to draw sheep, start with head.

July 27, 2020 0

Sheep and lambs. Ready to sketch.

This is the picture we will be sketching on Wednesday.

Divide into 3rds for placement and proportions.

July 24, 2020 0

Sketching from a photograph.

Last night we looked at a photograph I had taken from Aberystwyth promenade. It shows part of the rocks, the sea wall, the castle grounds and the war memorial

It easily fits into thirds. Horizontally and vertically. The bottom third gave us the opportunity to use interesting mark making.

Some people found it useful to draw the same grid on the photograph. This helps get the proportions of each area relatively balanced.

Lightly sketch in the main features until you are happy using a H pencil. Then start boldening the work with a 2 B pencil. Add hatching, cross hatching, stippling and scumbling until you have the image needed. Rubbers were a useful tool.

This was my work at the end of the session.

July 16, 2020 0

Last night I set up a still life for Ponterwyd Art Club to sketch on Zoom. Well should have been an easy task to put some things together. We had been practising with cups and saucers so sensible to continue that theme, add a few tiny cream jugs a glass bottle and some flowers. Except what would have looked great in a normal class now had to look good through a camera on to a computer screen. Obviously I balanced my tablet on its special cushion- absolutely not going to work. So then boxes get put on a chair a small art stand to balance the phone, turn the camera, hide some of my clutter with a sheet over an easel. Discover what looks good to the eye isn’t so good through a camera. Move everything about 5 times.Here is the picture we worked from in the end.

This was my attempt whilst talking about pencils H or HB to draw. Start with a light almost broken line, make the line bolder as you are happy. Then put in shadows with 2B or 3B use the Mark’s we practiced last week. Contour hatching was my favourite for this. I didn’t do to well on initial placement. I didn’t leave room for the flowers.

At the end of the session I took a photograph so everyone could either improve or like me have another go. Much happier with my second attempt. Lesson learned next time set up day before and forward the photo, making it easier for everyone.

Still life from photograph.
Try it yourself.

Pencil skills and mark making.

I hosted the Ponterwyd Art Club evening last night. Using sketching pencils we discussed their respective qualities, uses and had fun making the following library of marks.