This week was an “open week”. I wanted to keep one week available to add a sudden idea for a project or a surprise. I had asked the students if there was something they would be interested in doing in particular... A few mentioned that they like to finish up older pieces from previous weeks, but none of them actually brought anything along when Tuesday came along. I had a feeling this would happen, so I prepared a Still Life class, using color pencils combined with water color.I have noticed that they like working with Still Life - they enjoy having an object/arrangement to look at, rather than making something up. I think that is great; they have to look and observe - great for bettering their drawing skills, as well as their focus.
I made a very traditional set up with a bowl of fruit and one of my personal treasures: a Royal Copenhagen Jug. I gave them a sheet of water color paper and they started drawing the arrangement. When the drawing was done, they added a bit of color with the color pencils and as the last step, they put water color on top. This created an interesting effect. We talked about how the two materials affected each other, how the pencils were great for shadow and the watercolor worked wall for the lighter part of the painting.
As always the results were very different, they each approached the subject as well as the materials very differently.
We only have one week left of the entire semester. Next week is a painting on a stretched canvas. After Thanksgiving I am having two make up classes.
