D+P Studio News
Here is a wee bit of news from the D+P Studio!
Looking through the other side of the binoculars
12 October 2017
At the Ruchill Community Centre group the young people drew in their sketchbooks and did some crafty cutting and sticking. One simple way for the children to draw the quirky brushes was to draw around them first then work on the shapes inside, this was a good way to start and become familiar with the proportions before then trying to draw the brush directly.
The binoculars were a fun way to show the children a fresh perspective on the drawings, looking through the ‘wrong’ side of them so that things would appear much smaller and so easier to see whole (this is a painter’s technique), as well as have some fun looking at things around them! There was time for the young folk to draw all sorts of other shapes, such as love hearts, people, stars and space rockets…
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art
Imagining Autumn
8 October 2017
After last time at Maryhiill Art Group where we worked individually drawing from leaves and autumn shapes, this time we went straight on to a large piece together. About four metres wide, it was looking like quite a challenge to work in just over an hour with any pre planned composition. No pressure!
We quickly got going though with some autumn leafy shapes and textures before adding more whimsical shapes, earthy textures, and dreamy sky blue spaces. Not worrying about the outcome, we experimented with different colours of pens and tried to bring the interspersed shapes together. We chatted also about which areas were not quite working, and found some creative spontaneous solutions 🙂
After some effort we managed to put the long mural like abstract autumnal vista on the wall so we could stand back and enjoy our night’s artwork together.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group
This Is My Brain!
5 October 2017
At Ruchill NUC after school Primary group we doodled to begin with in the sketchbooks, then had a look at some autumnal leaves gathered outside, mainly sycamore and oak leaves.
One of the boys made a rubbing from a leaf using pastel, while other children drew the leaves and we looked at the colours together and the changing shades of tone within a single leaf.
Then there was freedom to sketch – followed by ‘What should I draw?’, then ‘What kind of thing would you like to draw?’, and the boy’s reply ‘I want to draw my brain’. So a really nicely done graphic piece was made after this with the text drawn round the shape – ‘THis is MY BRAiN’. Love the composition, well done!
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art
Autumn leaves, apples, word art and freedom to explore
1 October 2017
Inspired by the Kelvin River area and leaves collected nearby, as well as it being national poetry day, we began with some doodling and writing words in different colours, finding inspiration from our experience and finding ways to bring writing and drawing together.
We used coloured inks, beautiful transparent silky colours, to capture some of the autumnal green and golden brown hues as well as the shapes of the leaves.
Then we used palette knives and rollers to play around with the materials, bringing in some contrasting oil pastel textures, and just try out some different marks and let things flow 🙂 The apples from the community garden we took home and made into jam!
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group, Poetry and creative writing
Patterns, colours and lines as leaves fall and moon glows..
25 September 2017
The combinations of deep hued colours, from crimson to viridian green, and textures was really enjoyable to look at. We also read some short Haiku poems too about the autumn leaves and moon.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group
Autumn theme at the Maryhill Art Group
25 September 2017
We collected leaves and other autumnal objects near the Kelvin River for our drawing inspiration as we returned to the Maryhill Hub for more creativity.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group
Experimenting with water based paints and mark making
25 September 2017
Tree study (Copyright Blair Thomson)
Recently I was asked by a student about this image and how it was painted. It was made during an outdoors art session – working from memory of being in the landscape and trees.
We used shirtcard (plastic coated paper) with three colours of acrylic paints – titanium white, burnt sienna and ivory black. We didn’t use any brushes or palette at all! Instead we went for a very direct and fun approach – using the paint from tubs with a single piece of A5 card to scoop the paint on and make marks directly on the paper.
I placed two pieces of A2 paper next to each other (taped on the back) and worked initially portrait format, inspired by the memory of a pine tree I had drawn earlier that day, looking up to towards the sky. We dipped the card into water or poured water on the piece also to dilute the paint and get some drippy energetic effects. We experimented with capturing the variety of textures of the tree and forest and spaces, contrasting wet and dry marks.
Working flat on the ground we could move around our pieces painting freely – changing the composition or which way we wanted to work on the piece. We painted for about 45 minutes.
The idea was to capture the essence and mood of being in the landscape – so using a really limited palette of three colours and one painting tool (the bit of card) was really helpful to speed up and get into the process and mess about with mark making.
Category: Art Groups
Rock and wood rubbings with lead and pastel
17 August 2017
Rumbling Bridge rubbing edit 2 from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.
Graphite sticks and oil pastels are ideal for doing the rubbings (more eloquently termed frottage!), picking up all the fine textures, some like a half hidden language in the rock and bark. Feeling the pressure points as you draw helps bring out the edges and shapes.
Rumbling Bridge Rubbing 3 Edit 2 from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.
Rumbling Bridge Rubbing 2 Edit 2 from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.
Category: Art Walks Tags: Environment
Art Walk in the depths of Birnam Forest
17 August 2017
We walked in the big tree country from Dunkeld and Birnam train station, gradually moving up by the Hermitage and its towering tree garden to the really Rumbling Bridge over the River Braan. Then we headed along the open hillside and back through dense and peaceful Tomgarrow Wood to Dunkeld.
Inspired by the magnificent larches, firs and exposed rocks, we made rubbings in our sketchbooks and small drawing studies, engaging simply but deeply with the environment.
Some of the tree and wild life that we stopped to contemplate –
noble fir
douglas fir
grand fir
european larch
scots pine
yew
oriental spruce
norway spruce
silver birch
red kite
red squirrel
dipper
peacock butterfly
Category: Art Walks Tags: Environment
Preparation – making simple stencils
12 August 2017
When making some stencils in advance for workshops the Olfa rotary cutter was ideal for the job, sketching out lightly with pencil first and cutting shapes smoothly with the Olfa into paper and cardboard.
Category: Art Groups