Cathy Johnson’s Mini-class // Quick Sketching 1 - Lesson 1

 

I have been meaning to try out one of Cathy Johnson’s art workshops since I discovered her work a few years ago, but never really found the right time for it. Then a few months back I found myself going through her online art classes and getting more and more excited at the thought of signing up for one. I talked about it for a good couple of months and finally on March 31^st I signed up.

The format of these mini-classes is quite simple. Each class costs $30 (which is less than £20) and consists of 4 weekly lessons. Once you’ve signed up, an email containing a link to the lesson (in pdf format) is sent to your address every 7 days. It is up to you to do the rest; the reading, the exercises, the more practicing.

I have been a bit geeky about this mini course and, although I have been sketching for years now, I decided to sign up for the first of the online mini-classes: Quick Sketching 1.

The first lesson included some very basic info and tips, and my first thought was that maybe I should have enrolled for a more advanced class. Much to my surprise I found the lesson very useful to help me get into the idea of what really a quick sketch should be about and also to re-discover some of my old tools.

Here is my sketchbook after week one.

More info about Cathy Johnson’s online classes can be found here.

Trying something new

I had the chance to come across some new materials I haven’t used before. To be honest, I’m not the type of person that likes to experiment with either materials or techniques. I know it sounds really bad, but not having much time to draw and paint I prefer stick to what I know it gives me some kind of comfort. However, once in a while, I get some free samples of some new products; this is when I don’t really have an excuse for not to trying them out.

A while back, Cass Art opened a new branch in Kingston upon Thames and to celebrate its launch they gave away a very generous goody bag with all sorts of materials.

Amongst some more familiar stuff, like paints and pencils, there were some sketching crayons (Conté Carrés Esquisse) and some watersoluble wax bars (Derwent Artbars), which caught my attention.

I decided to give them a try and these are the results.

I also received a sample of the Derwent XL graphite block and the Derwent XL charcoal block this week. Finding myself in this experimenting mood, I thought I should try these as well. I did not realise at first that one block was graphite and the other one was charcoal so I used them in the same way, in the same drawing…the graphite block did feel harder and less messy than the charcoal one, but not being very familiar with any of the two, I thought it was normal!

I’m no expert in using these media, so I can’t really give a proper review as I’ve got nothing to compare them against. However, I did enjoy trying them out and if I have to pick a favourite that would be the sketching crayons from Conté. They were relatively easy to use, messy, but not too much. I could get some pretty sharp lines and, at the same time, fill in a big area quite quickly. Also, I love sanguine colours!

Second favourite were the Derwent artbars. I loved their smooth lines, the results of overlapping colours and the fact that they are watersoluble. Bit of advice, as they are wax bars, they tend to actually melt in your hands while holding them; the solution is to be quick and make a lot of breaks to avoid heating them too much.

Least favourites are the blocks. The ones I used were samples, so not the actual size and a bit difficult to hold. They were very messy, and not really appropriate for small size drawings, as the XL in the name suggests! Very good for filling in big areas and do some bold and quick sketches, probably excellent for doing some big scale live drawings.

While baby sleeps

I love it when my baby girl falls asleep in the car and I can't do anything else but to sketch the surroundings. We went to a softplay place last Monday, called Piglets in Hersham. She had a play date, but the car journey made her fall asleep. So while waiting for her to wake up, I managed to do a quick sketch of the entrance. The watercolours were added later on at home, as she didn't give me much time to do it there.

From my living room window

 

It is still cold and grey here, and outdoor sketching has been out of question. But my hands were starting to itch, so I sat next to my living room window and started to sketch. The gated area is the Athelstan School car park, which was completely empty being the saturday before Easter. I used a Stabilo point 88 to draw the poles, as I didn't have a flat surface to rest my arm and it would have been difficult to paint straight and fine lines.

I found the winter poplars a bit difficult to draw/paint. I did some online search before painting them, but didn't find much. I just added some additional branches with my pencil after painting them, to make them look a bit better. 

Up in the snowy mountains

Aschi Alto - Abruzzo, Italy

We went visiting my in-laws back in February this year. They live in central Italy, up on the mountains and it snows a lot during winter. This sketch was done on location, during one of our afternoon car trips. We pulled the car over the side of the road (we only saw one car driving on the same road that afternoon!). It was cold outside, so I stayed in the car. Shame about the electricity lines, which I love in general; they came out too big, but I didn't really have a flat surface to keep my sketchbook steady.

30 drawings in 30 days - Last set

#21/30 - Parco archeologico Scolacium, Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#22/30 - Pen & Wash exercise, from Cathy Johnson Art Tips  

#23/30 - Golfo di Squillace, Italy

#24/30 - Anthurium

#25/30 - Hosta

#26/30 - Torre Cavallara, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#27/30 - Sedia di vimini, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#28/30 - Athelstan Recreation Ground, Kingston upon Thames, UK

#29/30 - Summer Trees

#30/30 - Il porto, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

The last 10 drawings have been a completely different story. Say that the motivation begun to fade away, say that we came back home, say that I went back to work, say that the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the time to complete...I finished the last drawing this month! Shame, I know. I managed to do drawing #29 at the end of October, but really lost any motivation to do drawing #30 until the new year. But I finally did it and along with a new scanner I was able to put an end to this torture (this is what does to me any unfinished project!). Overall I'm glad I did it, even if it took more than 30 days. I will do something similar again, but maybe joining some group projects this time to keep things more interesting.

You can find the previous two sets of drawings here and here.

30 drawings in 30 days - Part 2

#11/30 - La Capanna - Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#12/30 - Spiaggia - Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#13-14-15/30 - Doodles

#16/30 - La Terrazza - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#17/30 - Living Room - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#18/30 - Hibiscus - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#19/30 - Wet-on-wet excercise

#20/30 - Golfo di Squillace, afternoon mist - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

I was hoping to get a new scanner soon, after my old one broke down a long while ago. But since that hasn't happen yet, I got my drawing scanned at work. Here is my second set of drawings which were done back in August. I loved the challenge of finding the time everyday to do a little sketch. I must confess we were on holiday back then visiting my parents, and it was not much of a time issue, more like getting the inspiration going...trying to fight the apathy that comes with doing (almost!) nothing all day and a 40degC average temperature! But I stuck to it and I'm glad I did.

These were mostly on the spot sketches, with the exception of #18 which was done from a photo I took in my granddad's garden and #19 which was an example exercise from one of Cathy Johnsson mini classes. And the doodles of course are pure imagination...

30 drawings in 30 days - first 10 drawings

#1/30 - Municipio - Pescina, Italy

#2/30 - Various plants from the garden - Pescina, Italy

#3/30 - Pescina (old town), Italy

#4-5-6/30 - Various subjects - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#7/30 - La Tonnina - Catanzaro Lido, Italy
#8/30 - Pineta - Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#9/30 - Strada per Pescina, Italy (from photo)

#10/30 - Colline sopra Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

And the first 10 drawings are done, almost as planned! I have been using my Moleskine watercolour notebook (21 x 13cm) as I'm planning to complete all the sketchbooks I have lying around the house by the end of the year. I have used different page layouts, so far: portrait, landscape, landscape with 4 horizontal inserts and landscape with 3 vertical inserts.
The first batch contains different type of sketches, some of them were done on the spot, some others were done using photos I had taken with my phone. I managed to do one drawing a day, except for drawings number 4, 5 and 6 that were done on the same day...you can tell by the size of the drawings and the lack of details.....

Note: In the UK the hash # isn't printed on the Apple Mac computer keyboard, so just press "alt"+3.

Back to the roots

It has been a while since I shared my thoughts on here. Although my head has been busy with ideas, projects and various topics I seemed to never find the right time to write about it. It's the lazy part of me that prevailed over the past few months (two, three?? Has it been that long?). Maybe, or it's just that all those things didn't excite me enough to find the time to actually do them/write about them. So after two days of ups and downs, lots of reading and lots of talking to G, I figure out that sometimes you need to go back to what made you start in the first place. It all begun (or better said resurfaced) back in 2005, about a year after moving to London when I enrolled in an evening art class at the local education centre. My childhood memories resurfaced and I rediscovered that sensation of fulfilment that I had lost along the way. Back then it was just a way of relaxing the brain from my daily job, but it soon became a necessity, something I would miss if I wasn't doing it. And after 7 years it's still the same...when I'm not painting or drawing I'm thinking about it. So here it comes, a new challenge for the rest of the summer: 30 drawings in 30 days! There are plenty of groups around the blog world that are taking up similar challenges; I might join some of them, just in case my motivation runs low along the way. But I will be doing it just for me, to make sure I do find the time every day to escape into my personal space if only just for a few minutes. Depending on the time available, I'm aiming to post three batches of ten drawings, hopefully with some accompanying text. And all starts today!

Out and about

I've started to do things on the move...I had to! With a little one your time is not yours anymore. It took me time to realise it. I was fighting it at first, trying to do things as I used to, trying to fit her needs into mine. Well, after four and half months I finally gave in, and you know what, it got better, much better! I learned how to make the most of my time when baby O is asleep and getting organised so I can do staff easily. I started to take photos with my phone, so I can send them to friends and family or post them online straight away...there is no more time for downloading pics on my laptop, do the editing, creating folders, etc; this is now a monthly task! I put together a very small sketching set, easy to carry around and ready for whenever...if I want to post a sketch I just take a pic of it...no more time for scanning! And now the blogging task. I was hoping to increase the number of posts on the blog, but that didn't happened either... so now I'm posting on the go using an app on my phone. Fine, the results are not the same, I admit, the app has a lot of limitations (a lot!!), but while waiting for google to make it better, I'd rather post as it allows rather than not posting at all.