Judy Alexander

Caroline’s session today was a talk about how the use tonal values affect a painting, followed by a demonstration of how to build up tone in a pencil drawing. First Caroline showed us examples of the use of light and shade and colour in paintings by Norman Rockwell. He was an American artist who depicted … Read more

Caroline gave a helpful talk on preparing your painting for the annual show. It’s a good idea to finish off the back of the painting using gum tape and parcel paper to cover up all the fixings and make your painting look more professional   Please note that all pictures ( apart from canvasses) should … Read more

Using watercolour, this week Caroline presented a demonstration of a treescape. Firstly, putting a sky wash on she advised using a big brush, to avoid “picky” marks, she looked at the composition, noting the shafts of light and some nice dots of yellow. When looking at a watercolour landscape, look at the layers: sky, faded … Read more

Caroline began with a description of the various brands and associated thinning agents: Jacksons Aquaduo are very thick and expensive Cobra is like System 3 acrylic, that is with less pigment Lukas thinner is specifically for water based oils. Cleaner: White Spirit When using acrylics, it is often necessary to build with up to six … Read more

  Caroline started the session by explaining some of the qualities of acrylic paints. Acrylic is different from other mediums as the pigments are mixed with polymer resin and this enables the paint to dry much faster than oils.  On the tubes of paint you may see a number 1 to 4. This indicates the … Read more

Reflections Demo  30th May Today Caroline is using watercolours and working from light to dark. To mask the highlights on the ball, she would normally use masking fluid, but as that takes hours to dry, candle wax is preferred for speed. A yellow wash was put on the top half of the ball. Caroline stressed … Read more

Rest Areas:  Caroline explained that in a busy painting, rest areas are needed for the eye to process the picture. Rest areas are often part of the background or could be a road or a lane in a landscape. Pets If painting from a photo it is essential to find a good picture with relevant … Read more

Today we enjoyed a demonstration by Caroline of painting a sky at sunset. To begin with, Caroline under painted the board with a sympathetic colour, in this case a Yellow Ochre. She started with the grey clouds mixing the darker tones of deep purple and brown. We should look for the shapes and, using a … Read more

  Caroline demonstrated the art of Collage today, showing how to build up an image using paper, including magazines and papers in a good variety of colours. Torn Mosaic First she drew a line drawing of a face and then cut out pieces of coloured paper from fashion magazines, which give a good variety of … Read more