Crescent Art Centre: Drawing and Painting for Teenagers

Over 12 weeks a group of 8 teenagers will be improving their drawing and painting skills. 

They will use a broad range of materials such as graphite pencils, putty rubbers, willow charcoal, compressed charcoal, chalk pastels, oil pastels, pen and ink, watercolour and acrylic paint. 

They will practice and improve their knowledge of proportions, space, composition, tonal values, complementary and clashing colours. 

Experimentation is encouraged when using new materials and styles of paper. 

Charcoal studies focusing on just 3 tones; light, mid and dark

Graphite pencil studies focusing on hatching and cross hatching to describe tonal values

Chalk pastel studies on sugar paper; Describing three clear tones using colour

This week the group were studying large conical sea shells. These shells are really interesting from all angles and have subtle mixes of creams, yellow ochres, umbers and pinks.

To help distinguish between dark colours and dark tones, I asked the group to make a black and white study focusing on tones. Once they identified the light and dark areas, they worked on their paintings using colour.

Painting using thin washes and layers of acrylic.

There are many ways acrylic paint can be used. So far the group have been mastering thin layers and washes of paint. This week they did the opposite: The aim was to paste the acrylic onto paper as thick as possible and play around with textures.

Studying the harbour from photographs allows the group to experience drawing and painting from still images and understand it's benefits and drawbacks. They focused on creating a finished painting. These photos have lots of interesting imagery: boat styles, distorted water reflections, water ripples and patterns and lots of colour. The group used their preferred method of applying acrylic paint : Smooth thin washes or thickly applied using textured affects.