This course is designed for people who think they can’t draw; who want to explore different ways of drawing; who want to improve their drawing skills, and who want to understand what drawing can do for painting.

Drawing is the most important and first step in making visual art - whether you are drawing form, structure or light. You may draw with anything from a pencil to a decorators paint brush to anything else that makes a mark. By drawing you immediately define one object or area in relationship to another, and this is how a work of visual art is composed.

Drawing is exciting, it helps you to understand what you see and it enables you to illustrate ideas that others cannot see. It is an excellent way to get to know a new landscape, how a building is constructed or how a body moves. Most of all how you can invigorate a two dimensional empty space

In this 4 day course we will explore analytical and expressive drawing methods, including perspective, line, form, tone, colour, negative space, light and dark, texture, composition. We will use pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, coloured crayons and pastels, large brushes, water colour and acrylic paint in sketch books and large sheets of paper. All materials plus sketching easels, stools and drawing boards will be provided.

We will work in the studio and out on location. Individual exercises will take anything between one minute and an hour or more.

During the course we will study drawings from cave paintings, Leonardo, Goya, Picasso, Van Gogh, Cristo, John Virtue, Norman Ackroyd.

At the end of each day we will review our work and on the last evening we will take a look back over the course and discuss what we have learned. Most of all we will have fun and prove that everyone can draw.

This course runs from Thursday – day of arrival, to Tuesday – day of departure, a stay of 5 nights with Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday dedicated to working. Groups are kept to a maximum of 6 to enable one to one tuition.

Dates for 2012 Course 1:

3^rd – 8^th May

4^th – 9^th October

“I feel that I have rediscovered the joys of drawing from observation and will certainly continue this practice” Lynne

“Only 4 days but such a well prepared and carefully structured course that I feel I thoroughly moved on in the pleasures of observation and drawing.” Sue

“Ti ringrazio per l’entusiasmo e la capacita con cui spieghi le varie techniche – un bellissima esperienza” Lia

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