I am currently taking the Coloured Pencil Drawing Course. Both of these drawings have been done using Luminance and Polychromous. The tree in the Lake District took about 50 hours and the exam preparation took about 35 hours. The tree is done on Acquerello Artistico Fabriano Hot pressed 300gsm 23 x 30.5 cm and exam one is done on Bristol Vellum 500 series 30x24cm.
I am only half way through the course, but here are some of the valuable lessons I have learned so far as a beginner artist(?!)
(1) In both of these drawings I have felt very disappointed with my efforts somewhere during the doing of the drawing that I came close to giving up and choosing a simpler composition/reference. However, in pushing through and completing these drawings I learned that even though there are aspects I can improve on, there are also aspects I am very proud of. i.e. I captured the atmospheric conditions well for the tree in the Lake District of an overcast morning and I am proud of the exam preparation composition and its vibrant colours. If I gave up on these drawings, I would have robbed myself of the aspects I am proud of and it would have been a completely negative experience. In completing these, they are now very positive experiences, with some opportunities for improvement and growth.
(2) A valuable lesson I have learned from my tutor Monika is that capturing reality exactly is not as important as capturing the essence of a scene. i.e. increasing the contrast of the crumpled paper, it will capture its essence more concretely. This is a lesson I will make sure to remember!
(3) The subjects in the assignments are not what I would have gravitated to by myself. But doing these assignments taught me that I enjoy these subjects way more than I expected. Moreover, by pushing myself outside my comfort zone, it forced me to learn aspects I would not have learned otherwise. i.e. doing compositions myself is not something I have ever done. But I thoroughly enjoyed setting up composition for the exam drawing and I have learned much in doing that.
Coloured Pencil Drawing Course
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