Back at Balmoral - Sketching Class October Week 1

October 11, 2013 | Leave your thoughts

SO good to get back to my weekly class this morning. Back at Balmoral for another 4 weeks but this time on a Friday.

After the 37C day yesterday it was hard to believe how cold it was sitting on the steps of the rotunda for my usual introduction and talk. When I noticed everyone shivering we decided to move inside (upstairs room of the cafe across the road) have a coffee and see what the weather would do. Then it turned sunny and we were outside again.

Today, being the beginning of a new 4 week series I wanted to go start at the foundation again and look at setup – how do we start to sketch, how do we improve of seeing, how do we simplify a complex scene and how do we determine a focus and place in on a page. I asked everyone to use the rotunda as their subject, walk around and then do a number of thumbnails to explore different concepts and arrangements. Amazing how much variety we had and how many typical sketching challenges come up in the course of 7 people doing the same exercise! SO inspiring and so much fun!

I also gave them my tips for what I believe to be a healthy attitude to accuracy – to be committed to improving your accuracy but not to take it that seriously so it takes away your joy and spontaneity … the big secret – sketch A LOT!?!  (you kinda expected me to say something like that didn’t you?)

Can’t wait for next week!

 

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