Spalding Arts & Crafts Society News

Demonstration 3^rd March 2020 – David Lewry, coloured pencils

Report by Maggie Goodsell

David was a mine of information which he freely imparted during the evening – from the origins of pigments to the fact that the male mandarin duck is fairly drab for most of the year !!

An excellent demo by David. His camera/projector set up gave a far better picture than ours – but then it probably cost a lot more !!

Tips

David gave us a huge amount of tips and information of which a few are below.

Work on a good paper otherwise you won’t be able to get the amount of layers you want.

To get a really intense colour use similar colours

Always put another colour under black

A pencil blender is just a pencil without pigment.

Coloured pencil solvent or Johnsons Baby Oil will dissolve the pencil – good for backgrounds.

Pencils don’t mix well so you need a good range of colours. Aim for a minimum of 24 but the more you have the better the results.

Demonstration 2nd
July 2019 – Debbie Mitchell – Animal Portraits in Pastel

by Maggie Goodsell

Debbie gave us an
excellent, fast paced demo in her usual irreverent quirky style –
four paintings in under 2 hours !!

Debbie did the first
of her characters in soft pastel on a black sandpaper.

Debbie kindly
donated this jaunty painting of a cockerel to the society for a
future raffle

Working on velour
this time, Debbie then created an alpaca.

A useful torchon
for blending pastel made from a piece of rolled up paper. I tried this & it works
very well.

Working on a green
acrylic background Debbie then did a quirky Donkey using oil pastels

Debbie hard at work – the picture shows the set up at our demonstrations

With just 10 minutes
to go an Ostrich appeared with a few simple lines of oil pastel

Many thanks to
Debbie for yet another excellent demonstration, we look forward to
seeing you again.

If you are
interested in finding out more about Debbie & her workshops she
runs from her studio in Frieston her website is
www.debbiemitchell.co.uk

Debbie’s words of
wisdom!

Don’t be tempted to
use ‘wet&dry’ sandpaper !! Debbie said she had tried using it &
the whole painting fell off when she tapped it to shake off the
excess. It needs to be a special pastel paper.

Always use the right
support for the type of pastel you are using.

Always do your
drawing in pastel as pastels don’t adhere to graphite.

With pastels
generally the thinner the stick the harder it is.

Only take as much
paper off a pastel stick as you need & make sure to remove any
glue. Hard paper edges or finger nails can damage surfaces.

Use purple as a
shadow on red

A bit of blue at the
bottom of the eye or in a nostril gives depth

When spray fixing
lay your picture on the floor & spray from waist height to get an
even spread.

June 2019
Demonstration – Keith Hornblower – Street Scene in watercolour

by Maggie Goodsell

Keith stepped in at
the last minute as the advertised demonstrator cancelled due to
illness.

Photo of street
scene in Stamford – looking down towards the George Hotel

Working on
Bockingford paper Keith started with a rough drawing – nice to see
this stage as, for speed, many demonstrators come with one already
prepared.

Keith then loosely
blocked in colours, avoiding the highlights.He said to keep the
sky light & don’t over work it.

He then continued
with the painting adding colour & depth, wetting & removing
colour where he felt it had got too dark.

The painting at the
end of the demo.

Keith worked on it
further & sent us a photo of the finished painting.

Some of Keith’s
paintings from other demonstrations.

Thanks for an
excellent demo Keith & all the information you gave us during the
evening, it hopefully inspired people to be a bit looser with their
paints. Sorry to hear you had a longer journey home than planned
thanks to overnight road closures.

Demo report for 7th May 2019 – Linda Matthews, French inspired oils
by Maggie Goodsell

Linda Matthews came
all the way from France (via her mum’s in Norfolk) to give us an
excellent demonstration this evening. Working on Arches oil paper
Linda took us through the stages of preparation & painting a
French inspired scene. She said she wasn’t happy with the lady artist
and that the painting needed more work but would look at it with
fresh eyes another day.

Linda created an
excellent painting with all the light & colour you would expect
from a sunny day in France.

Demo 5th
March 2019 – Phil Biggs, Pen & Wash

by Maggie Goodsell

Phil kindly stepped
in at short notice when the booked demonstrator had to cancel due to
illness. He did a pen & wash to keep to the advertised media. The
subject was Dale Head in Cumbria.

Phil also found time
to show how he added colour to one of his sketch books.

An excellent demo
from Phil as usual.