Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to
my Skillshare course. Thank you very much for
joining me on this. I'm Cally, a landscape
artist based in Cumbria, which is in the
northwest of England. In this course today, we're going to be looking
at two things. The first thing is to
look at how we can loosen up and relax with
our drawing and sketching. And the second
thing is to look at developing our own art style. We're going to do this by having fun and experimenting
with materials, using just one image
and using repetition. This way, we relax
into the drawing and the painting and
develop our style. To begin with,
you're going to need somewhere nice and
quiet to work. Perhaps you want to
put some music on, get yourself a brew and gather all your
materials together. Anything that you've
got, we don't want to be going out buying new things,
especially for this. You can use some old bits of paper and things that
you've got lying around that you haven't
used and look at the materials that you've
got that you've never used. As artists, we're
very tempted when we're going to art
shops and we see lots of lowly things that
we can buy and we perhaps buy things and never really get
around to using them. We've probably got colors that we've never used
in various sets. So get all that kind of thing together because
that's what we're going to be working with on
this little project today.
2. Let's Begin: To begin with, you need
to choose one image. I've chosen a lily. I'll put some pictures in the reference section of various flowers for you to choose, but it does not have
to be a flower. It could be anything, but
something relatively simple to draw one single item rather than a complex
drawing of a full scene. So a single flower is actually something that's quite
easy to work with. Like I said, you
choose your own. You don't have to
do the same as me, but just make sure that you use the same one for all of your
drawings and paintings. Once you've got the image
that you want to work from, then you need to get
your materials together. So I used all sorts
of different things, and I will list those in
the description below, and I'll also talk through those a little bit
with you in a moment. But don't go and
get anything new. As I said just previously, you want to be using things that you've perhaps
never used before. So regardless of what
image you're doing, colors today don't
really matter. We're not worrying about colors. We're not really even
worrying about tone. We're just worrying about
relaxing and having fun because that's the only
way that you're going to progress and develop
is by repetition, by playing, and by
practicing that drawing. And by doing that,
you're exercising both your eye and your hand and learning that muscle memory. If you sit down
to paint and draw every time with the sole aim of creating something fabulous that you may be going to sell or that you're maybe going to exhibit or that you can be
incredibly proud of, that's going to be perfect, that's not going to
anything wrong with it, you're going to end up getting disappointed because
you're putting so much pressure on yourself. Whereas, if you just sit down
with the aim of thinking, I'm going to have
a really fun hour. I'm going to play
with these materials. I'm going to see what
I can do with them. I'm going to push them, I'm
going to play with them. I'm going to just chuck
some color at the page. And have some fun. So the word today is fun
and is relaxing as well. You really, really
want to embrace this and not worry
about wasting paper, about getting it perfect, about showing it to somebody, excuse me, I've just
clunked my light. It doesn't have to
be shown to anybody. These can be just
in your sketchbook. They can be dated and you
can look back at them. You might do something
lovely that you want to use afterwards.
You might not. You might want to
put it in the bin. It really, really
doesn't matter. If you're worried about
wasting materials, you're never going to progress. So use materials that you've
perhaps never used before, use ones that you rarely use and use those colors that
we've all got them. Get your watercolor tin out
now and have a look at it. You'll have some
colors there that you've hardly ever touched. Use those because you're not wasting them,
you're just learning, you're learning
and you're getting familiar with your materials. So the more you're familiar you are with a
particular material, the better you'll
get at using it. The idea about this isn't
that we're going to go on for the next few weeks using every
single material we've got. It's that at the end
of this session, you're going to decide
which one you like the best and which one you
want to carry on with. You might already
have a favorite, but doing others is going to help you with that
loosening up process. So it's not just about finding your style, it's
about loosening up. So everything I've done
today has been very quick, very free, and very easy. I haven't sat down for hours
doing a detailed drawing, which I could have
done and which I do like doing on occasion. But for this occasion,
we're not doing that. We're doing very quick, sketchy drawings and paintings. So have a good root around
through your drawers, where you keep
your art supplies. I'm sure you've
all got cupboards and rooms where you
have your craft and art supplies and pull together anything that you might want
to use for this project. Then gather together
what you want to use the first time for the first drawing and get your image there ready and
get yourself comfortable.
3. Techniques: I did five different things, and I'll start at the beginning, and the first one I
did was the worst. And that's because it was
first thing in the morning. I hadn't done anything,
obviously, since the day before. I'm a little bit
rusty, I'm warming up. So this is again why we
need to repeat and we need to keep going because
first thing in the morning, you sit down, you want
to do something great, and it turns out not so great. The first one wasn't brilliant. None of them are brilliant. They're not supposed to be, but the first one was the
worst drawing, really. The first one I used
Dent intense blocks, something I use a
lot for sketching. They are really very vibrant
and they're very immediate. If you've got them, have a
go with your Durent blocks. If you haven't got them,
I'm sure you've got crayons and felt tips,
whatever, anything. My first one was
with doing blocks, and I'll just took you through
my techniques with those. I use lots of
different techniques. I use them dry onto dry paper, dry onto wet paper. I use the sides of them. I use the tips of
them for drawing, and I also apply
them with my brush. Sometimes once I've
already applied them, then I apply clear
water to them. So there's so many
ways of using those. So that was the first one. Second one I did, let me
remember was the ink. So I used an acrylic ink, and I used that on
a mixed media pad. That's just a pad I
use for sketching, and I used the dropper bottle of the ink bottle
to do the drawing. You could use a stick. You could use any other tool. You could use a brush, or you could use pens. But have a go doing something monochromatic with some
ink if you want to. These are just ideas. You're going to be
doing your own thing using your materials
that you found. So the ink one is particularly free with the
drawing when you're using the stopper because you've
got a lot less control. So the less control you have, the more free you're going to be getting with your
drawing and painting. The third one I did
was acrylic paint, and I did the acrylic paint just using three or four colors. I think two reds are
green and a white, and I did that on a colored
paper, quite a thick paper. So that I had given that
I've got a stack of um, not on expensive paper at all. So these are all on
things that I've got readily lying around that need using and that
I haven't used for ages. So that's not a problem.
So that was three. So number four was watercolor,
not brilliant again. It doesn't matter.
I have not used watercolor for quite a while. So just painting wet on wet, did a quick drawing first with the brush and then
dabbed some colors in. So yeah, so just reds and
greens I use for that one. So don't worry
about your colours. Use whatever colors,
it doesn't matter. And if it's not the same color as the flower, that's
not a problem. You know, if you want to draw a flower in a color that it
would never be available in, it's really not a problem. It's just that, you know,
you're creating art. This is the other
thing I wanted to say, you're not taking a photograph,
you're creating art. So it doesn't want to
look like a photograph. It wants to look like it's
got a bit of movement and a bit of fun and a bit
of energy about it. So you can see, as I go
along from the first one, I've got more energy
as I wake up. So the last one that I
did, I did on black paper, and I've had this
black pad for ages, and I'm sure you've got
things like this again, like I said before
that you've had lying around that you've perhaps never used or used occasionally, and then you've got
half a pad left. So it's just a
black drawing pad. I did the white outlines
using a conte crayon, and then I just
used some ordinary bog standard ordinary
colored crayons for coloring, adding
some color to that. And you could really
build this up. I quite like working
on this black paper, actually. It's quite different. And you could see how if you did something a bit more controlled
and a tighter drawing, that could be quite nice
on the black paper. So it might be something
that you think, Oh, I've not used that for ages, but I might use that tomorrow. I might start and do
something with that. So yeah, so those are
the five that I did. And of the five, I probably
like the acrylic one best, but acrylic is my medium.
That's what I work in. That's what I work in every day when I'm working for myself. So you know, we land on
something after time. So what I want you to do now, you've got all those
things together is get going with
your first one, and we'll talk about your
project in a moment.
4. Keep it Loose: Before we do go on
to your project, I just want to talk about
keeping things loose. This is a question I'm asked
a lot when you're teaching. How can I loosen up my
drawing and painting? How can I be less tight?
There are several things. One thing, if you can, I know not everybody can, but if you can,
standing up to draw. So I have a countertop that's a similar height to
a kitchen worktop, something that's an easy
height for you to work at or at an easel, of course. If you're standing up,
you can move more. You can have your music
on, you can be dancing. That's going to move into
your drawing and painting. If you're sat down
at a table and be conscious of this if
you're not able to stand, when you're sitting at a table, you tend to end up doing your
drawing and painting quite tightly because you're
moving from the wrist. So imagine sitting
down writing a letter. You've got your pen
in your hand and you're moving from your wrist. Your shoulder and your elbow aren't moving just
quite so much. When you stand up, you can work with your
brush or your pencil, whatever you're
working with from your shoulder, move more. So get that arm moving more
and work with the whole arm, not just with your wrist. And your wrist gets
tired, actually. But that's when you're
moving with your wrist is your drawing becomes
tight and detailed. When you're moving
from your shoulder, it's much more expressive, especially if you
chuck those tunes on and get dancing
about a little bit. So that was the first thing. The second thing is
work big, if you can. So if you've got some
big pieces of cardboard, it could be the back of a cereal packet, it doesn't matter. Anything nice and big
that you can work on and use a big
brush or a big pen. I've actually got some
extra large doings. I've got extra large charcoals, and I've got some
extra chunky pens. I've not used any
of those today. But if you've got
anything like that, use that because to loosen up, if you use something bigger, it's going to look more loose. You cannot get stuck in that detail when you've
got an enormous brush. If you have a tiny
teen a little brush, you know, you're going to be tempted to go into
all that detail. So if you look at the
acrylic lily that I did, I did that all
with a flat brush. Now, when I'm working every day, I work with a flat brush, and I work with quite
a decent sized one. I occasionally come
in at the end and put a little bit of detail on some highlights and things
with a smaller brush, but that's right at the very
end, very little amount. Most of it is done
with a big brush. So to keep loose, move that arm, get dancing around a little bit, warm up and use big
brushes, big pens, yeah. So that's how you
want to get loose and that repetition
and that sense of playfulness and not telling yourself that you need
to be perfect because you're not going to be
perfect and you're not going to get that energy because you want to get some
energy into it, and we're not always
feeling energetic, but it helps lift your mood, as well if you can dance
about a bit and get some energy into what
you're producing.
5. Your Project: Okay, so your project
today is very simple. I want you to do at least three. I did five. You could do seven. You could do 12, whatever. It doesn't matter.
But I want you to do at least three different
mediums with the same subject. And one thing I didn't mention earlier is that by
doing the same subject, your eye gets really
into that subject, and you know, you're almost remembering
it by the fifth one. So your drawing becomes
more confident. So if you've got
something that you've enjoyed doing and it's not
worked out quite so well, perhaps you've got something
from a few weeks ago. Revisit it. You know, use the same
reference photograph again and have another go at it because your eye
has had that much longer looking at it and
getting familiar with it. So that's always a good
thing is to revisit your reference
photos and do it in a different way in different colors with different mediums. So yeah, so do at least three, using whatever you want to use. And if you upload those for
us to all have a look at, it's not just for me
to have a look at it. It's for everybody else as well, because it's nice to
share and compare. And I, of course, will
get back to you and let me know let you
know what I think. But it is not a competition and it doesn't have to be great. It can be one heck of a mess. It's just the fact
that I can see that you've had fun with it and you've had a
good play with it. So like I said, you don't
have to choose a lily. I like the way the lies petals go out and you get
those curves and curls, but there's so
many other flowers you could choose doing that. You could choose something
like a butterfly, a bee anything, one simple
thing, one simple object. And I'll have a good
look around and get some nice photographs
to put for you in the section where you can get
those here on Skillshare. Okay, so those three projects, like I said, minimum three, do more if you want to do more. Have fun with it. Set
aside that bit of time. Let's hopefully get the house
to yourself or whatever, get a brew, get that music
on if you like music. I'm saying that everybody
not everybody wants that. Some of you might work
better with peace and quiet. Some of us need
the other side of our brain occupying. Okay.
6. Conclusion: So to conclude, I really
hope that giving you this little project will help you both loosen up
and find your style. So the finding the style
part of it comes into this because that kind of naturally comes once you play with things, play with the different mediums
and the different styles, you settle on one that
you like the more, and the more you repeat
that particular one, then that becomes you'll
find what you like. You really will, and you
won't do it unless you're sketching every day or not you don't have to it every day, but I
do it every day. But the more you do and get sketchbooks and things and things that
you don't need to, like I said, be a
finished piece. It can just be a little
quick sketch, and that way, your style's going to come by doing more, by working more. So yeah, basically, I should
have mentioned that earlier. So really, to conclude, I do hope you it's helped you. Let me know what
you think. Let me know if you've got
any questions. I can answer those
here on Skillshare. You can also contact me via
Instagram if you want to. I'll pop on my website. I've got my contacts
and things on there as well if there's
any questions. I really look forward to seeing what materials you
decide to use. They could be completely
different to mine. Conclude with mine, like I said, the drawing is very
similar in all of them, actually, once I've
done the first one. But I do really particularly like the acrylic one
better than the others. You can see how
you could develop that and put more detail on it if you wanted to and
change the colors. Obviously, that green is not the right color, but
that doesn't matter. Like I said, you could
do them any color. You know, you could take a
simple picture of an elephant, which is quite a simple shape
because it's, you know, once you've done one, and you could do in pink,
green, blue, whatever. So it doesn't have
to be a flower. So to conclude, I think
that's, you know, a good way to loosen up to have fun and to develop
your own style. So yeah, like I said, let me know what you think
if you enjoyed that. I'll be back again
soon, hopefully. I know I've not done
too many Skillshare or YouTube classes recently. It's just I haven't had
time to be honest with you, but I will try and
get back and do some more Skillshare courses
with you again soon. So do let me know
if there's anything specific that you want to learn. I'm always happy to
hear of your ideas. Okay, so thank you very
much for joining us all, and I look forward to
seeing all your creations. Bye bye for now.
Cally Lawson, “Paint like no one is watching"
