This project is aimed at people who struggle of maintain a productive art practice or never seem to find enough time to create artworks.

By practicing drawing and painting everyday, this class aims to help you to be inspired to create, maintain a working practice that is suited to you and learn lots of tips on how to successfully fill your sketch book. Your collection of sketches can be the stepping stone to creating larger pieces of finished artworks, or just be a beautiful journal that you can keep and refer to.

The class will contain a 7 day drawing/painting challenge. Although I will mainly be using watercolour, it is possible to use a medium that is more suited to your art practice.

It is suitable for beginners with some drawing experience as well as more experienced artists.

PROJECT OUTLINE

CLASS DESCRIPTION

By practicing drawing and painting everyday, this class aims to help you to be inspired to create, maintain a working practice that is suited to you and learn lots of tips on how to successfully fill your sketchbook. Your collection of sketches can be the stepping stone to creating larger pieces of finished artworks, or just be a beautiful journal that you can keep and refer to.

This project is aimed at people who struggle to maintain a productive art practice or never seem to find enough time to get creative.

The class will contain a 7 day drawing/painting challenge. Although I will mainly be using watercolour, it is possible to use a medium that is more suited to your art practice.

It is suitable for beginners with some drawing experience as well as more experienced artists.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

I will be encouraging students to join me in my sketchbook journey using a variety of techniques and offering tips. These can then be applied to their own ideas using their own source material. Each section will include a different subject and method.

I will include a 7 day challenge where students will be encouraged to fill 7 pages of their sketchbook (one per day) using a range of the tips I will show in the videos.

I will post my own 7 day challenge results and will ask students to post images of their completed pages. I hope that by sharing these images, it will be inspiration for how these different methods of working can be applied to each individual’s tastes and reference material.

INTRODUCTION - 1 MIN TALKING HEAD AND IMAGES

Introduce myself, outline the purpose of the class as mentioned above. Outline briefly what will be learned and the topics covered.

This class is aimed at people who struggle to find time to create artworks. It is recommended to beginners with some drawing experience and more experienced artists who for one reason or another are struggling to be productive. This class teaches students where to find inspiration and help to build momentum.

CLASS PROJECT - 3 MIN WITH TALKING HEAD, BULLET POINTS AND IMAGES

Outline in more detail the tips and methods I will be using (bullet points) along with a description of the supplies and equipment that I will be using (included as list).

Introduce the class project.

MAKING A SKETCHBOOK (OPTIONAL) - 5 MIN VIDEO WITH LIST OF MATERIALS

Detail how to make your own project sketchbook for the purpose of this class.

This section is optional as the student may be happy to use a sketchbook that they already have or to buy one for the project.

STARTING WITH PEN - 8-10 MIN DEMO

First, show a list of the materials used.

In this section I will demonstrate how starting with pen helps to get the important details down on paper quickly without getting bogged down with detail. Watercolour can then be added to give show form and make a colorful page.

STARTING WITH PAINT (BLOCKING IN SHAPES) - 8-10 MIN DEMO

Show a list of materials used.

This is another technique for getting a sketch down quickly on paper. I will be using a wet in wet technique as well as avoiding colour bleed.

This can take longer than the first method as you will have to allow the paint to dry before adding detail with pen, however it is also a successful way to produce quick sketches.

GLUEING IN PAPER - 8-10 MIN DEMO

List materials used.

Glueing paper into your sketchbook not only creates instant colour but makes it less daunting when dealing with a complicated subject as it takes place of making your first mark on the paper. It can be used along with watercolour or on its own with pen.

RESTRICTED PALETTE - 8-10 MIN DEMO

List materials used.

This is a great way to focus on shapes and tone rather than colour. It can be restricted to as little as one, two or three colours which you can choose to mix together or as they are in a more stylistic approach.

CONTINUOUS LINE DRAWING - 6-8 MIN DEMO

List materials used.

Continuous line approach is probably one of the quickest ways to draw and is particularly good when dealing with complicated subject matter. It is therefore great for sketching people on location where they will be in motion.

List materials used.

USING TEXT - 8-10 MIN DEMO

Text is all around us so it makes sense to allow it to find its way into our sketchbooks.

This can be by way of sticking it into our pages, tracing or by writing notes. It also helps to fill up blank areas.

THE WONDERS OF SURFACE DESIGN - 8-10 MIN DEMO

List of materials used.

I have shown how surface patterns can be copied, traced and created from scratch using the 2 fold repeat method.

You can also create your own surface design ideas by simplifying shapes and overlapping them. This works well with plants and flowers.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I will show how all of these techniques can be merged together and encourage students to try to mix the ideas up for the remaining 7 days.

This way of working is great for exploring one particular topic or place. Eg holiday destinations (architecture, people, culture, foods, alternative language text), local interest (reconnect with your environment - can be in nature), cooking and recipes (packaging of ingredients, fruits and vegetables, cooking utensils, patterns on plates and crockery), cycling (the bicycle, the working parts such as spools and breaks, cycle maps and routes, signs on routes and scenes, log of food consumed and times achieved, weather conditions) etc.

Alison Whyte

Painter and Printmaker

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