Life Drawing Session at CABAS April 2016

Continuous line

A few years ago I taught a Life Drawing session for Carlisle and Border Art Society. It was an interesting experience, with some of the participants keen to try new things and others less so! We also had a lot of people crammed into a very small room which made it very hard to get around. I was recently invited back to run another session which I was a little nervous about but also excited.

Working multiple sketches on a page

Working multiple sketches on a page

Working multiple sketches on a page

It was a much smaller group this time which made things a lot easier and everyone was willing to have a try at the exercises I suggested. I focused my session around the way I draw and the things that I think are important in life drawing; capturing the essence or 'spirit' of a pose or model, spontaneity and relaxation. As the group are all artists and some of them are excellent draughtspeople I didn't want to focus on the technical aspects of drawing the human body as this is not something I am particularly skilled in or knowledgeable about.

Drawing with my non dominant hand

Drawing with my non dominant hand

Drawing with my non dominant hand

I think my strengths lie in capturing what is in front of me by observing and recording quickly the shapes and forms of the model. I aim to capture the idea of the pose and hopefully something of the model themselves rather than to render an exact likeness. Drawing is a primal means of expression and a great way of making you properly look at things and those are for me the important elements of Life Drawing.

Blind Drawing

Blind Drawing

With this in mind I focused the session around lots of short poses. Working on shorter poses frees people up and takes off a lot of the pressure. There is physically only so much you can do in 2 or even 5 minutes so the pressure of producing a 'good' finished drawing is removed. The focus is on capturing the basics, which is of course always the best place to start!

Continuous line

Continuous line

Continuous line

I also asked the participants to challenge themselves to draw in different ways, including working without looking at the page (I call this blind drawing,) working with a continuous line and working with the non dominant hand. All of these exercises are designed to free people's drawing up, to take away the pressure of producing something 'perfect' and accurate (because who can do that with their non dominant hand or without looking?) and to to allow them to just draw and really look at what they're drawing. The focus shifts onto observation and allows us to bypass that nagging voice inside our heads that says "that's not right, that's rubbish, you can't draw." I found it was really interesting that several of the participants found they preferred their drawings done with their non dominant hand, the drawings were more free and gave a better idea of the pose even if they were less technically accurate.

Left handed drawings

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Continuous line

I really enjoyed the session, I am a lot more confident in my own work and in running sessions than I was last time I ran a session for this group. That helped me run a better session and hopefully gave people something to take away and develop in their own practices. Credit is also due to my model who had really thought about which poses would be good and created some interesting and challenging poses for us to work from.

Continuous line

Continuous line

Continuous line

Continuous line

Banner Making Workshop

One of my sample pieces for the workshop

This weekend I ran another textile workshop at Tullie House. This one was entitled 'Textile Banners, and it was a really lovely session. Most of the participants had done one or more of my workshops in the past which was great because it meant I already knew a little bit about most of them so could more easily offer suggestions suited to them and it also is a very nice confidence boost; I must be doing something right if people want to come back for more!

Choosing fabrics

Choosing fabrics

Choosing fabrics

I love running workshops, I find them a really satisfying and enjoyable part of my work. I get to do something I love and to share my interest and skills with other people. I think my favourite thing about running workshops is when I'm able to inspire people and help them achieve those mini eureka moments, whether it's mastering a certain stitch, completing something or finding the perfect technique or material for a piece. I was very gratified today as one of the participants bought a beautiful owl piece in she'd made inspired by my 'Embellishing Printed Textiles' workshop, I was also pleased to hear that other participants from that workshop had been really inspired to keep working with some of the techniques I'd shown them.

Adding stitch and developing designs

Adding stitch and developing designs

Adding stitch and developing designs

I sometimes (often) worry that I  don't 'do' enough during some of my workshops but with certain things, particularly hand stitch, I think it's really important to just have time to work on things without being constantly bombarded with information. I try to strike a balance between showing new techniques and giving people the opportunity, time and space to be creative and find their own path. I'm sure I don't always get it spot on but I think in our busy lives it's important to take time to work slowly, with our hands and to just try things and see what happens. As one of my participants today said "I'm just here to play, I'm too old to take it too seriously." Whilst I contest the too old part I think the part about not taking it too seriously and allowing ourselves to play is very important.

Adding stitch and developing designs

Adding stitch and developing designs

Adding stitch and developing designs

With this in mind I worked on a mini banner of my own today which I used for demonstrating techniques but also as an opportunity to play. I used fabrics and threads that I might not use in my 'proper' work but one of the things I am learning is that everything is connected. So, whilst I might not count this as a 'proper' piece of work there will be something in it that will feed into another piece. Often these play pieces allow me to make discoveries, sometimes big sometimes small, that will allow me to take my practice forward. They also offer me an opportunity to do something I love and that in itself, I believe, is very important.

Adding stitch and developing designs

My example/play piece

Shadow Work Workshop

Samples and materials ready for the workshop

In February I delivered a Shadow Work workshop for the Cumberland Branch of the Embroiderers Guild. I was really nervous about this workshop as some of the embroiderers have been stitching longer than I've been alive! I wanted to create a workshop that focused not so much on traditional ways of doing things (as I knew many of the participants would be far better at it than me anyway) but on ways of taking the traditional techniques and using them in a more personal way.

Selecting and transferring designs

Selecting and transferring designs

Selecting and transferring designs

This workshop also inspired a piece of work, called In the Shadows, which I really enjoyed making. It was also good to have a big piece of work to show the participants as traditionally shadow work is worked on quite a small scale. I had also combined several techniques to show that we don't need to be limited to working with just one method at a time.

Tacking fabrics ready to stitch

Tacking fabrics ready to stitch

Stitching

One of the things that I often find when running workshops is that people are very nervous about implementing their own ideas and have little confidence in their own creativity. They are often worried about getting it 'wrong' and making sure they do things the 'right' way. Personally I find this an odd approach as for me it is a natural thing to want to experiment and try new things but I do understand why people feel that way. I hope in my workshops that I can give people the confidence and freedom to try something different and not worry too much about getting it 'right.'

Experimenting with fabrics

Pin Stitch

Stitch and tea...

To help limit people's worry about design and creating something I did provide several designs for people and encouraged participants to use these as a starting point to try out their own ideas. Because they were my designs they did of course largely feature birds so a lot of bird samples were produced during the workshop!

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

I really enjoyed the workshop, it was great seeing people playing around with fabrics and trying things out especially things that they might not normally have tried. For most the session everyone was very quiet, deep in concentration working on their stitching. This kind of silence in a workshop is very satisfying, knowing that you've shown people something they want to spend time learning. I always find I learn something new too when I run a workshop, whether it's a new artist to look at, a technique to try out or using something in a different way.

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

Arts Award Skills Session

Creative approaches to paint application

I had a fantastic time at Fir Ends School on Friday where I ran a skills session in preparation for a workshop at The Hut in Brampton. I was working with Year 6 students from three different schools (including Fir Ends) plus the Year 5 students from Fir Ends. The workshop I'm doing is going towards the students Arts Award and the Arts Award project is being done in conjunction with William Howard School (the local secondary school) as a transition project to help the students move from primary to secondary school. I think that anything that can help students through this difficult time is a good thing and having just done my Arts Award Advisor training I was really pleased to get involved with an Arts Award project.

Colour theory

The students were looking at artist Gillian Ayres, an abstract painter who works with vibrant colours and bold shapes. For the skills session we looked at some basic colour theory and then at ways of creating texture using paint, pastels and other media. I wasn't familiar with Ayres work before and I very much enjoyed researching her life and work, it is always good to be introduced to new artists and although my work is very different to hers it is always interesting to learn about different artists approaches and thoughts.

Colour mixing

Colour mixing

To help demonstrate colour mixing and show how secondary colours are made I used jars of water with food colouring in. I asked them what would happen when we mixed pairs of primary colours (red and blue, blue and yellow etc.) and then we tried it. I then asked the students to make their own colour wheels and to mix the secondary colours themselves using either pastels or paint. They picked it up really quickly and it was great seeing them experiment.

Adding sand to paint

As the work of Gillian Ayres is very textural the second part of the skills session focused on looking at how to apply media and how to mix materials to create different effects. I'd brought lots of different things for them to experiment with and it was great watching them get stuck in and try things out. I was really keen to get them to think about different ways of using familiar materials, so rather than applying paint with a brush getting them to try applying it with a knife, for example. I think this approach makes art a lot less scary as it removes some of the fear of getting it 'wrong' and it also makes it fun. I believe that taking a creative and experimental approach is not only good in art classes but helps students think creatively and become better problem solvers in other areas too.

Using different tools

Using different tools

As always there was a wide range of approaches taken by the students but it was great to see them grow in confidence through the session and start to really experiment. I love it when they find something they like and come over to tell me about it, one of the things I talked about was the importance of finding your own personal approach to art and to see them take that on board and put it into practice is incredibly rewarding.

Using different tools

Using different tools

I was also asked to give a small presentation about my own work and what it is like being an artist. I was quite nervous about doing this but it was actually quite a useful exercise as it gave me an opportunity to look at my work and think about how it has progressed and developed. I was also happy to be able to talk to the students about 'real life' as an artist; at school I loved art but didn't think you could do it as a job, hopefully seeing that people can make a living from art may help one or two of the students further down the line.

Experiments

Different approaches

Different approaches

I'm really looking forward to the workshop, I had such a good time at the school working with the students. Sessions like this are so inspiring as you never know what new idea or way of doing something the students will come up with and it's great being able to share my skills and see the students all fired up and enjoying themselves. I love my work!