37. Summer School Colour Studies

 

Watercolour, A3

Sennelier Oil Pastels on Clairefontaine Pastelmat, 7" x 9.5"

 

On the last day, we worked up some of our studies back in the studio.  The oil pastel study was just something I did on a whim, with no intention of showing it, but I actually like its looseness so I've posted it here with the others.

 

36. Summer School Sketches

On the first day of summer school, we practised drawing and painting reflections as that would be the theme throughout.  On day 2, we drove down to the canal-side at Ware and sketched and painted there.  The weather was superb so it was a lovely day all round.

35. St James's Park Workshop - Sketchbook

 

5B pencil, A5

Watercolour, A3

After lunch, we crossed the road to St James's Park and did quite a few sketches there.  The couple in the foreground appeared to enjoy being the focus of our attention.  They put on various poses and actually held them for a while!  The girl had either one or other foot in the air at any one time - they both looked very comfortable.

34. Green Park Workshop - Sketchbook

 

Watercolour, A3

 

 

 

I attended an excellent one-day workshop run by Paul Banning at the Mall Galleries.  I had met Paul before at an RI exhibition so was delighted to be able to attend his workshop.  He is an excellent draughtsman who agrees that you need to be able to draw to give your image a good structure, even if you paint loosely under or over it.

We walked down to Green Park and set up in front of Buckingham Palace.  I walked about a bit and found these sculptures at Canada Gate.  I had to get used to using watercolour again in its pure form but it's the medium I first learned with so it felt natural after a while.    (I painted in the building and foliage later on.)

33. The Coast on Coasters

 

Seascapes, acrylic, 4" x 4"

This is a set of coasters that I painted for a good friend's birthday as he never has anywhere to put his coffee mug!  :)

The images (clockwise) are: Bluefields, Frenchman's Cove in Portland, the view from the restaurant at Idlers' Beach Hotel in Parrottee (that's my nephew down on the beach).

32. Stable Surrounds

These images from my sketchbooks are some of the artwork we did at our July workshop.  They are all views looking in various directions while standing at the door of the studio.  The colour study is of an old greenhouse in the distance.

31. Painting of a Man

Acrylic paint on acrylic primed paper, 20" x 16".

 

A painting from a resource photo in Paul Strand's book (which was loaned to our workshop).  I have made the gentleman look a bit cantankerous so will be softening his eyebrow area!  I also need to finish his beard.

Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire

 

This is the lovely Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire - just itching to be painted!



30. GD Typography

 

Pen and ink on A4 paper

 

When we addressed typography, our task was to put a single word onto an A4 sheet and choose  the appropriate font, colours, etc, to further define the word.  Every time our tutor repeated the word "word", I realised that that particular word meant a lot of things to me so I used the word "word" as my 'word'!  After messing around with it for a few days, I chose Baskerville (which I heard somewhere used to be seen as a font that indicated reliability).  I also chose simple black and white and then decorated the initial letter with a sort of zentangle that included a few of the definitions set out in the remaining three letters.  Again, I really enjoyed this task. 

 

My sketchbook now contains numerous patterns and designs. :)

29. GD Concepts

 

 

Pen and ink, 3" x 3"

Our next task was to design 50 concepts based on one theme (here are 48 of them).  Just at the point that I thought I would not be able to think of anything suitable, I came up with the idea of 50 years of Jamaican independence (celebrated in 2012).  There can be a fair bit of negative publicity but there has been so much more to celebrate over the past 50 years and there are many positive role models who deserve to be remembered and acknowledged, as well as the very popular names like Bob Marley and Usain Bolt. 

Those who weren't confident drawing were told they could describe their images in words but I'm happy drawing so most of my concepts are images.  Once I found this theme, it was a thoroughly enjoyable task. 

If anyone is interested, I will happily post a brief description of each image.

28. GD Logo

 

Pen and ink on paper

 

This week, we had to design a logo either for graphic design as the 'product' or the 'process'.  The logo had to serve as a letterhead too.  This is my design.  Below are two pages from my A3 sketchbook showing a couple of my brainstorm sketches leading up to the final image.

 

 

27. GD Warm-up

Pen and ink, A3

I've been doing a graphic design short course.  As a warm-up, we were asked to illustrate the title beneath the square in the space above.  My fellow students were from many different countries so it was so interesting to see the different interpretations of the phrases; for instance, the 'country house' could be anything from my stately home to a little cottage with a fire, etc.