Week forty-one involved creating a face with a continous line and watching the movement of the pencil/pen/brush and ink. We didn't need to worry about proportions or realistic faces, just concentrate on the movement. Using a brush and ink was a new technique to me and one I really enjoyed.
Then we used watercolours for week forty-two and my heart sank just a little bit as I watched the demo. (The image came about as the teacher usually went travelling around the world, but was not able to during the pandemic, so had to travel in her studio, using items around her.) I am not confident with watercolours and have never been all that successful. However, this class was really interesting and gave me lots of advice such as: use a watersoluble pencil to draw the outlines; don't try to colour everything in - it is not a colouring book; use mid tones to start adding the shading; don't be afraid of really dark shadows. I was really pleased with the finished picture.
I used a new medium during week forty-three, which was slow drying medium or retarder. This is mixed into the acrylic paint and extends the drying time, meaning you can work with the paint for longer. In this instance, we had to create skies on blended ombre backgrounds. I had plenty of photos of skies to work from and really enjoyed making the blended backgrounds.
Week forty-four was about moving the eye around the page, using images, collage and marks. I really enjoyed making the background using watercolours and acrylic paint, with stencilling on top.
The course is drawing to an end with the final theme, which is 'Fables'.
