More playing in my college sketchbook!

Well, I've been playing lots while on half term holiday!


First of all, I was taken on a little visit to the astounding Glencoe on Sunday last week by my arty buddy at college along with her husband! Had a real hoot too as we are all mostly on the same 'wavelength'!

I took lots of photos but managed to sneak a couple with buildings in so I could use them in my sketchbook! It's themed on the 'built up environment' !

Here's the results of that little reconnaissance mission!

This piece is done in pastels and was basically a colour matching exercise, did not too bad with what I had in my box and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out!

This one below took two attempts because it's a perspective challenge, we haven't covered that part yet so i was a bit unsure as to how to go about it, but I sussed it out and I'm really pleased with it! Again it's done using pastels, I really do like these, and will certainly be using them more often!

Now this piece below...well...I just HAD to lol.....I'll get away with it because there's still a building and a practice session so there won't be a problem! I hope!!

That church is actually a photo of The Tron in Edinburgh, which for any Scots reading this will know is situated in the Royal Mile and looks nothing like that!!

I printed off the photo in grey scale then over painted it with some Gouache, set it aside to dry while getting to work on the background.

It's all done using Gouache paints with some household items used for a textured feel, did the grass on the left with cling wrap lift off! This paint is great because you can go back and reactivate it to do something else to it, hence I managed to get all the lovely smudging effects for the grass!

The tree and wee Raven birdie are drawn by me, the moon was done by using an old book page and drawing round a CD, I just painted over it and used a stippling effect with the brush to give the moon 'dimples' !! The big Raven is a clip art image I downloaded and cut out, as are the grave stones on the opposite page. I just found a suitable quote and wrote that on an old book page which was coloured using an orange promarker!

I am thrilled with the way this has turned out! And, I seriously hope that the lecturers will think the same.


So thanks for reading my update on the sketchbook project,

Take care everyone

Jackie xx

Update on the college course!

Many apologies for the lack of blogging, but I've just been so wrapped up in this course, Got loads to do and masses of homework involving lots of research and also lots of experimenting!

anyway, I just wanted to show a few of the results I've been getting by using some products for the very first time! Quite pleased with some of them to be honest.

This was my first attempt at using Willow charcoals! Great stuff but really REALLY messy!! Absolutely thrilled with the way it turned out. didn't think i could draw like that!  The object of the exercise was to concentrate on the shading , hence the big metal pot!

This next piece was done using Pastels....now everyone in the class had a total blast with these. Our lecturer asked us to bring in 'clothing' and we rigged up a washing line and hung up our clothes! lol....everything from wooly socks to t-shirts to funky scarves and hats! Everyone's results were amazing and the whole lot of the 'drawings' are now on the wall of the classroom! As you can see by the image I brought in a little denim waistcoat, Jane (my lecturer) LOVED this and thought I had captured everything beautifully! Was I chuffed with what she said or what! :)

These next projects were a little more tricky...they involved 'blown up thumbnails'! .... taking a photo, framing part of it off, drawing the framed off part them blowing the whole thing up to fit the page! Quite difficult but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad. We basically had to experiment with different mediums.... I framed off part of the former Scotsman newspaper building in Edinburgh and 'destroyed' that three times lol !!

The first one is done using acrylics! I HATE this piece! It turned out looking like camouflage!! EEKS.... but we only had to use the three primary colours we had to mix those to get the secondary colour we wanted! ..... I may 'do something' else with this later on because i really loathe it!

The same piece again only this time using Gouache paints and I went for a green tone this time...

and finally yet another piece only this time we were allowed to use a full colour palette and watercolours! Quite like the way this turned out despite the fact that i am not really very comfortable using watercolours.

we were allowed to experiment with these first and tried out lots of different things to give different effects, table salt, sea salt, masking fluid, cling film, paper towels, wet on wet, wet on dry etc.....

I must admit to enjoying these little 'practice sessions because I think they give you a feel for the paint and let you know what you can and can't do with them, which gives you just a little more confidence when the time comes to actually use them 'properly'.

There is one final piece I am going to show because I do LOVE this piece and it is so far one of my favourites, (the denim waistcoat come a very close second).....it was another experiment using Gouache paints! I painted over a photo of the Tron Church in Edinburgh and it has turned out suitably 'retro spooky' !! Ewan my  colour theory lecturer also loves this.... the smudge ability factor with these paints is just great, be good for rainy day or fog or even reflections on water...

Am I enjoying this course?... well yes!! I have learnt so much in the short time I've been there so can't wait to see what everything will be like once the course is finished!

Thank you for dropping by and let me ramble on about my college experiences, I do appreciate it.

Take care

Jackie x