Posts Tagged ‘art classes’
Some Words on Drawing Crash Course Part One
Draw on
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine that you are really good at drawing! Now sharpen your pencils( HB,2B,3B,4B,5B,6B)! Make sure your rubber is clean and you have some paper taped down so it does not move about while you are trying to draw on it! If you are drawing from life it is much easier to draw if the paper is on a tilted board, easel or wall rather than flat on a table. If you are working on a wall it feels nicer if you put a couple of layers of paper on top of each other, unless you are going for the look you get when you draw over a hard or slightly rough surface.
Draw outwardly
Hands are one of the hardest things to draw, I think, so why not practice by drawing your other hand. Years ago Kathy Prendergast did an amazing hand drawing that was like a map, it was huge, and blue. I love the way our hands look like maps. Feet can be good to draw too. When I was in collage in Crawford in Cork I did a series of drawings of my face drawing by touch. Some of them I built up layers of card, paper, material and netting they all had a map like quality and felt like landscapes almost. So no excuses we always have something we can draw! We are surrounded by things we can draw. After a while you may find it boring just to draw for the sake of drawing and need to draw whatever you are really interested in, confused by, obsessed by! It could be folds of material or it could be space travel ! It might be very illusive but every so often you get a glimpse of it’s tail and it leads you somewhere interesting and you want to keep following it!
Draw inwardly
It can also be really interesting to start to draw but not allow ourselves to draw anything recognisable, just to kind of doodle and keep going with it to see how it develops. Make marks and experiment with what you can do, and have fun!( I remember we all did this for weeks maybe months in college, and our own personal work developed out of it; over time our real interests were revealed.) Draw with your eyes closed, draw with the hand you don’t usually draw with, draw really quickly, draw really slowly, see how inventive you can be. Tune into how you feel and see how your line and instinctive marks change as your moods do. I like to draw as if the pencil or whatever I am drawing or painting with is an extension of me. Bold as I am bold, subtle as I am subtle. Sometimes I let the pencil lead the way as if it has a complete mind of it’s own; I guess this is when my subconscious mind taking over!
A word of advice, don’t throw away anything. It is great to look back over drawings, they often look different after a little hibernation! Not everything is meant to be a ‘finished’ piece some pieces are just stepping stones, but just as worth while as the ‘finished’ ones. One day they might look even better! Soon I will be giving some free drawing and art classes at the Secret Gallery. So if you are in the Doolin area you are welcome to join the Art Classes.
Great Value and a perfect Day!- Part one
My Family Cooking mussels on the beach at Fanore
Mine might start in a tent. We have a slight addiction to buying tents, the best value one was £12 from Argos in London. I would wake up in a beautiful place on some common land beside the sea. I’d brew some coffee in a Mocha pot and enjoy it far more then when I wake up in the comfort of my own home, and having coffee. Ever since walking the Caminos (we walked the Camino de Santiago three times in total with James), morning coffees while camping have been a lovely ritual. Though Jasmine tea, hot chocolate or whatever you love to drink in the morning is a great start to the day. Next I would go for a swim or walk or do a little bit of yoga, Reiki or meditation, it is amazing they are all free! Remember to breathe and drink some natural spring water.
For breakfast for best value for me it has to be porridge or if you catch your your own mackerel that is even better, fried in a dusting of flour on the camping gas, or on an open fire make with driftwood. With some flour a pinch of salt and some water, mix into a dough for flat breads to accompany the mackerel. You could go out on the rocks when the tide is out and pick some mussels for lunch too!
The postal service is one of the best value things these is, in my opinion. Emails are great but here is nothing like getting real physical letter. I would spend the rest of the morning writing a couple of letters. Another thing that is great value, well in fact it is free is to video call on Skype to other people who use Skype. I would love to have a distant gathering of friends who cant get to see each other often enough. Or reading a library book book for hours would be good too, libraries are brilliant!
Do some land art on the beach and the rocks. Find out how to make a Camera Obscura out of a shoe box so you can take photographs without buying a camera. They have a very different quality to a normal photograph, I think they look amazing. Remember to bring a shoe box or two with you. I have not made one for years so I am a bit rusty.
Another possibility is to go kayaking, either in the sea or on a river, or like we did along the canal. Maybe go for a walk and look for a veggie garden and offer to buy some or do some barter, such as I will let you borrow our kayak for a couple of hours in return for a dinners worth of fresh vegetables! Or give an art class on the beach to them or their children, tell a story, sing a song or help them in some way. You could also travel with some of your wares such as hand make jewellery, poetry, mounted photographs, or whatever you make so that you can offer something that is often worth more then money.
There will be free art classes happening soon in the Secret Gallery, all welcome!
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