Katherine is working on a pencil drawing of a horse. To begin, she taped her reference photo beside a blank sheet of paper of the same size to her drawing board. Next, she taped a sheet of transparent plastic over her photo and using a pastel crayon, drew a vertical line down the middle and two horizontal lines across the upper and lower sections of the picture. She then replicated this simple grid on her drawing paper, using pencil and keeping her lines light so they could be erased later. Having set herself up with some general guidelines, Katherine completed the lovely outline above quite quickly. As we can see, she has an excellent eye for proportion, shape and detail --- Marking in areas of light and dark will come next. We're looking forward to watching this drawing unfold! 
Ria decided to paint a flower. After lightly sketching her outline, she used a broad brush to wet the entire background area with water. She then applied a generous amount of wet colour, letting it flow around her flower. When the background was dry, she began working on the flower. Notice how her choice of complimentary colours makes the yellow lily appear to "pop out" from it's violet surroundings. This painting is nearly finished; Ria did want to add more stripes to the vertical petal second from the left, but quickly realised she could not achieve the clear, crisp lines she wanted while her paper was damp, and so wisely decided to wait. We'll see her final touches next time! Very nice work, Ria!
Here are two lovely florals done by one of our younger students, Keili. Note her use of line in the water lily pastel drawing (bottom left) where her loose, gestural strokes of varying intensity convey the delicacy and colour variation of petals. I also really like her floral group (bottom right) with it's eye grabbing colour, and attention to both postitive and negative shapes. Great work Keili!
Nicole frequently uses photos for reference information, but that doesn't stop her from creating her own compositions. Before beginning a picture, she enjoys planning where her center of interest will go and what elements she'll add or leave out. In the case of this simplified but accurate depiction of a chipmunk, she decided on a bright green background and the addition of a sprinkling twigs and flowers for interest. Doesn't this picture look like something you might encounter in a gallery of modern art! I also like her delicate mixed media water lily!
Here we see Evane at work, as well as a close up of one of her paintings. Love the luscious, deep colours of this flower!
Julia has developed a great deal of skill with watercolours and is now also experimenting with oil pastels. Great work Julia --- I especially love the one on the left ---- great colour contrasts!
