Last month Simon Manfield, an artist from Todmorden, ran a ‘Drawing from Observation’ workshop. We were invited to bring an item that held some importance and to draw it using charcoal, graphite and dark coloured pencils. Simon gave lots of encouragement and advice.
Last Friday our member Lynne Hickins gave us a session once again, this time in working ‘Fast and Loose’ on large papers. Too often people are working tightly with small movement. Now we learned to stand up, stretch our arms and grab the charcoal or big graphite from above. Then we even changed to the left hand . Many of us found it very liberating and judged that work as better! After the tea/coffee break we had many pictures to choose from and created a final piece of work.
On Friday 4th February, members of the Halifax Art Society were guided by artist Carol Pope to create a painting of a landscape or a portrait with graphite dust. We were stunned how a piece of kneadable putty could be used for slightly erasing but not fully erasing the paper we had covered with graphite dust. Also known as putty rubber it resembles putty or gum. The eraser absorbs graphite and charcoal particles.
Last Friday Mark Burgum demonstrated to the Halifax Art Society how to create a misty effect using graphite with a cloth, before drawing trees with a soft pencil.
After the coffee break we tried out what we had learned earlier. In the end we used a rubber to do ‘negative drawing ‘ for highlights on the snow or the top of walls.
On the 5th April Julia Ogden will lead a workshop ‘Seascape in Acrylics’ and attendees should bring a canvas/board and paints.
‘Drawing with Dust’ was the title of the Halifax Art Society’s workshop on Friday 20th July 2018, led by talented member, Carol Pope. This was a fascinating technique – you rub powdered graphite onto your paper, and use a putty rubber to get the highlights!
Halifax Art Society 