Masterclass-Drawing

Last Wednesday, I took Daniel to a drawing masterclass at the Millennium galleries.  This workshop seemed to go so quickly.  The artist, Shelly, who took the class, kept it moving and made it an enjoyable afternoon. 
The first task was a warm up, three minutes to draw the person next to you.  Now, I'm not someone that draws, and I went purely for Daniel, so I was a bit apprehensive.

Actually, I was quite pleased with the result, it might not look like Daniel, but at least it looks like a face!  Daniel went in with a thing about faces, he doesn't like drawing them, so after three minutes, all he had was some hair, the rest was a last minute addition!

The next task was observational drawing.  This is where I could go back to reading my book and letting Daniel get on with it.

All the objects had texture, most being pieces of wood with bark, although not all.  Once they did this with their eyes open, they had to repeat it blindfolded.

The next bit of the afternoon was when Daniel struggled.  It was using charcoal and he really can't stand the feel of it.  He did try, but then went back to the kohl pencil.  The next task was to touch items in the bag, not try to guess what they were, and to draw what they felt.

Then it was back to the faces.  Rather than trying to draw what they could see, they were encouraged to draw what they felt, so a form of self portrait.

 The next was to try and draw with charcoal dust, Daniel tried, but just couldn't take the feel of it, but those that did, the results were very effective.

 The last one should have been done in chalk pastels, but Daniel used oil instead.

This is his masterpiece.  We've had to move it to somewhere where it's not on view all the time, as the secondary face around the nose, keeps staring at me!  I don't think he could of got that effect if he'd tried.





Yorkshire Wildlife Park-April 6th

I was kicking myself that I had forgotten to take my camera, it was a fantastic day out.  The highlights were the birds of prey flights and for Daniel, getting close to the Wallabies and their babies.  I love the meerkats and it was great watching them at feeding time, along with their neighbours, the yellow mongoose.  A group of mongoose is called a band.

The lions are even lazier than our cats, though it was a lovely sunny day, so who could blame them for sun bathing.

I think we would all love another opportunity to visit

April's Art Workshop-Mosaics

Yesterday was a great workshop.  We did some mosaics, most done using recycled products.  Some of the children incorporated air drying clay.  Some pictures of the workshop can be seen here.

As our masterpieces were still wet when it was time to leave, they've been left in the office for safe keeping until next month,   Pictures will be taken when they finally come home.

Can't wait to see what the theme will be for next month.