This unique two-day watercolour painting workshop will use insects specimens, microscopes, magnifying glasses and macro photos to explore the hidden, beautiful, magic and unseen world of insects – To find out how insects use their vast range of colour and patterns to help make them the largest and most successful group of animals on Earth.
Students will then pay homage to what they learn by painting an intricate and beautiful watercolour study.
Using woolen fibres and specialist felting needles, you will sculpt your choice of whale or fish.
Starting with simple shapes, then making fins and tails we will join all the parts smoothly adding colour and character with our felt needles.
Learning how to fashion and join parts will enable you to go on your own felting journey making other creatures after today.
We will use commercial and hand dyed wool fibres for our sculpting. This dry felting technique uses a specialist felting needle held rather like a pencil tapping dots on a page.
Wildflower meadows look complicated and difficult to paint. My aim in this course is to show an easy way to construct a meadow, making it look natural, through layering the different grasses and flowers. The painting should achieve spacial depth, energy and variety of species.
Design a unique printed wrap scarf and learn print techniques which can be applied to fabric and paper projects.
- Use natural objects as inspiration for a printed design
- Learn to make a variety of printing blocks and how to print a continuous repeat design
- Make print blocks which you will be able to keep
- Print with your blocks using bright and metallic print media onto a pashmina-type wrap
- Embellish the printed wrap with stitch, beads and sequins
A workshop to introduce the ancient and mysterious art of drawing with metal wire – it was how masters such as Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael drew before the pencil arrived. Metal won’t make a mark on paper unless the surface is suitably prepared so we will trial a range of easily obtained grounds as well as a variety of metals like copper, silver, brass and aluminium. The effects are fairly monotone, but give incredibly sensitive and atmospheric results – something utterly different to graphite. All tools and materials will be provided but bring along any small metal objects to try – a silver spoon, gold earring, brass badge, but no rusty nails please! This is not a how-to-draw course – it is a day to learn how to use metals to draw with.
Light, colour and reflections of the sun can change the landscape dramatically. Working with lots of coloured organza’s to give light and colour to the picture, metallic fabrics to give the sparkle to the water. With a few hand dyed fabrics, bought fabric and fusible web for the appliqué you will create the spectacular vivid colours of the setting sun, making the sky and sea look as if they are on fire. The stark contrast of the dark reflections and foreground. Gold metallic fabric is used for the golden glow of the sun. Hand stitching and free machine embroidery will be used to further enhance your picture.
This is a two day course that will show you how to sketch landscapes and architecture with waterproof black ink pen and watercolour wash. Using photos supplied by the tutor you will be shown how to use the pen with watercolour paint both before and after painting. Techniques taught will include colour mixing, brush technique, light and dark, drawing with a pen and how to loosen up to achieve expressive sketches. By the end of the course you will have produced a few sketches to take home with you. Suitable for beginners and students with some knowledge of the medium.
On this 2-day course you will learn all about working with graphite pencil from experienced artist Jamie Boots.
Graphite pencil can be used to produce so much more than just a sketch.
Jamie will show participants that. whether or not you are using a pencil that is blunt or sharp, pressing lightly or hard, or using a variety of tones, the realistic texture of skin, fur and the glassy look of an eye can be achieved.
Add impact to your paintings with this acrylics course that focuses on the big and the bold. Imagine the piercing stare of a Golden Eagle: how much more powerful would it be on a giant scale? Or channel your inner O’Keefe with flowers that command attention. We will concentrate on a single part of an animal, bird or plant, working much larger than life size in most cases. Learn about scaling up a drawing, texture, composition, balance, colour and adjusting for scale. Discover the fun and freedom that comes from working on a larger scale. Suitable for anyone wanting to discover acrylics, or existing acrylics fans wanting to add to their skills.
Inspired by the decorative works of the golden age of illustration and the Arts and Crafts movement, this course will show you how to include gold-leaf with your paintings. It can be used very versatile, either to highlight small areas of your paintings, or bring glow to the complete background. Gold-leaf is a stunning and decorative way to bring a surprising new element and shine to your work.
This course is suitable for absolute beginners as well as advanced participants, but please be aware that working with gold leaf, which comes in thin, fragile sheets, is painstakingly fiddly: you need to bring patience!!
