Member’s Art

Below we have featured some extracts from the Art Page which featured in various editions of our Newsletter.

We hope you enjoy them.

QUARTERly ISSUE 20

Sketchbooks

A sketchbook is an important tool for an artist. It can record the progress a person makes on their artistic journey, as they practice and develop techniques for working, gathering together ideas and images that will inspire future works of art. It does not have to be an expensive book, in fact many budget buy sketchbooks, can be very good quality. You may wish to carry a small jotter in your pocket to make marks and notes, as you are inspired by subjects and scenes, on your daily travels. Later on, you can refer to these images and ideas for paintings and projects.

The weight of cartridge paper varies and you can experiment, with either thin or heavier pages, depending on the techniques and materials you wish to employ. You could even buy textures paper if you want to try other mediums. If you purchase a sketchbook with a hard cover, then you can draw with a support, thus making it easier to sketch on the hoof!

Sketchbooks can be used for drawing in graphite, pen and ink, pastel and watercolour. Any portable materials can be adapted for sketching and drawing.

Sketchbooks are excellent for practicing drawing in graphite, pen and ink, pastel and watercolour. Any portable materials can be adapted for sketching and drawing,

Sketchbooks are excellent for practicing drawing techniques and ideas. By collecting these books over months and years, they contain valuable information. You create a wonderful reference library, to dip into at anytime. The progress you will have made as an artist will be evident, as you master your own style of drawing and painting, that sets you apart from other artists.

QUARTERly ISSUE 19

Whenever you get stuck for ideas, do not despair! There are millions of things that you can draw or paint. Just look around you. Even objects on a table, pieces of crockery, colourful drapes and fabrics, the light coming through a window….the list is endless. But what do you do if you want to experiment? Then try something totally different…look at colour and shape, compose a picture from your imagination, go abstract! You will be surprised and often delighted with what you can produce, from simplest shapes to complex patterns…bring in lots of colour and more than anything else…enjoy yourself!

Would you like to join the growing band of artists, via the 25% ME Group? You can see what other members have been getting up to, see their work and exchange ideas. As a member, you will receive 2 magazines per year… all you have to do is send £3.00 worth of postage stamps and 2x A4 envelopes. That is all that is required for your yearly subscription… it helps to pay a bit towards printing. (I don’t receive any funding for this…I do it as an art lover!)

So go on give it a whirl!

QUARTERly ISSUE 18

Churches can look really scary to draw because of their complicated

shapes and perspectives but if you approach the drawing as a series

of simple shapes blocked together it becomes a lot simpler.

The body and tower of the church are usually rectangular boxes

while the roofs are like pieces of Toblerone chocolate placed on the top.

Even if the spire is eight-sided it is still a simple cone shape which can

be shaded from one side to the other depending on the light. You can

now add the exterior details.

 James McMichael

Also featured here, is one of James' own paintings entitled "Rick"

(You can also click on the button above "James Gallery" to view

a few more paintings by James.)

QUARTERly ISSUE 17

Art Club AD

Do you enjoy drawing and painting? Are you an art lover? Then the Art Club is for you. 

Link up with others and share your passion for all things artistic.  Be inspired and in turn inspire others.  Whether you like to doodle on scraps of paper or throw paint on walls – join us!

Illustrations by Patricia Campbell

A big thank you to Lynda Poole for starting up the art club for 25% M.E. Group members.  I have now taken over to carry on her good work, so I hope you will continue to support us. The June issue of our art ‘Mail Out’ offers members a chance to win an exciting prize in our art quiz.

Patricia Campbell

QUARTERly ISSUE 16

TOP TIPS FROM ART GROUP MEMBER PATRICIA CAMPBELL

“Artist’s block” can take many forms, from not being able to get to grips with the work, to

being uninspired by potential subject matter.  Although illness can mean you cannot paint

or draw for long periods it doesn’t mean you should stagnate - see it as a time to come up

with ideas for future pieces of work.  You may get ideas from magazines or TV or even

other artists’ work.  Keep a collection of photographs handy of images that you like.  Make

a list of themes for paintings.  Recently I wrote a long list of projects to attempt and after

a bad spell am now working my way through them.  Tackle subjects you haven’t done

before and try different media; even drawing can be varied if you use inks, charcoal, pastel

and crayons.  Keep materials close by, just in case you feel inspired, even for a

few minutes; it’s amazing what you can achieve in a short time.                                                                                              Illustration by Patricia Campbell

QUARTERly ISSUE 15

More than one viewpoint

The rules of perspective only work within certain limitations – looking straightforward, not moving your head, and (strictly speaking) closing one eye. If you widen the view, move your head, or compare the slightly different views seen with either eye, the rules start to break down.

For example, if you draw something sitting or standing close to you, you might look straight ahead, or even up, to draw their face, but have to look down to draw their feet.  Or for a street scene, you could join the straight ahead view, to adjacent views looking down the street to your left and right.

 In both case, because you’re using more than one viewpoint for the whole picture, the rules of perspective break down, and your work will show some degree of distortion. But it’s an effect that can help engage the viewer, making them feel they are up close, and in the middle of things too.

 For example, in the drawing featured here, there are certain clues that tell us we must be standing close to the figure. Firstly, we’re looking straight ahead at the face, but down onto the clipboard, and downwards at an even greater angle towards the feet. Also, the upper half of the body, closest to us, looks bigger than the lower half. The drawing shows some distortion, but it’s true to the experience of what was actually seen, and so it communicates that experience to the viewer. Lynda Poole

Illustration by Lynda Poole                       

QUARTERly ISSUE 14

 NEGATIVE SPACE DRAWINGS                                                                        Illustration by Lynda Poole

Another exercise that can change the way you observe and draw the world around you is

negative space drawing.  Negative spaces are the “shapes” BETWEEN objects…. for

example, the shape between a cup and its handle, the shapes between the legs of a chair,

the shapes between the branches of a tree.  Negative shapes are, therefore, very often the

glimpses of background that we see, in between our chosen foreground subjects.   If you

draw those background shapes – those odd shapes between the positive shapes of your

subject – and shade them in, you’ll be left with a kind of silhouette of your actual subject.

The real advantage of negative shape drawing comes when you return to your usual

drawing methods – you’ll find that you’re more able to see, and draw, and use those

negative background shapes to help you establish the positive shapes of your subject. 

(In the same way that pure contour drawing practice can help you set down the lines and outlines of your

subject in a more flowing and expressive way in your normal drawings.)  The drawing below                            

shows how looking first at the negative shapes (shaded in black) helped me establish the

positive shapes and relative positions of the dancing figures.  Lynda Poole

QUARTERly ISSUE 13

Draw your own Picasso

Due to popular demand, here’s another look at pure contour drawing. Also know as blind contour drawing, this is where you look only at the subject while you’re drawing, not at your paper. (Angle your body and head around so that you can’t see the marks you’re making with your pen or pencil. Or hold another sheet of paper with the hand you don’t draw with, to block your view of your work till it’s complete.) Trace the outlines, or contours, of your subject with your eyes, a bit at a time, and recreate those curves and lines on your paper, slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully.

What marvellous miracle will this mysterious drawing process produce when you’re finished, and you finally take a look?

Well, nine times out of ten, the results look like a squashed spider hidden under an old shoelace. But, every now and again, you’ll produce something really rather wonderful. Either way, the process itself is an incredibly useful drawing exercise, because it trains you to focus totally on the subject. It teaches you how to see, in the way that an artist needs to see.

What makes a good subject for pure contour drawing? Anything, really – last time, we looked at ordinary household objects, like telephones and shoes. But why not have a go with people? If you work from magazine or newspaper photographs for practise, you can use the magazine or newspaper photographs itself to block your view of your work – hold it between you and your drawing while you’re working.

Issue 8 of the 25% ME Group Art Mail Out will feature more on pure contour drawing, among other wonderful things of course. In the meantime, just to keep you going, here’s a Picasso, oops, no, I mean a pure contour drawing, I did earlier.