Week 9: amazing pictures

It is our ninth week, so only one more week to go until end of the spring term. Gulp!
Fabulous work with everyone trying to stretch themselves further with new approaches.
Well-done all and apologies if I have missed anyone's work here!

Andy

Andy

Andy

Caroline

Ella

Graeme

Graeme 

Rebecca

Yvonne

Week 8: Colour, colour, colour!

A curious night: some missing, some injured, some pulling their hair out and some rocking on regardless! But everyone is doing their utter best to produce work/face challenge that ensures they learn. My hat is "off to you all".

Andy 

Andy

Caroline

Catherine

Claire

Dot

Ella

Graeme

Graeme

Jeff

Rebecca

Yvonne

A stunning combination to experience

At the Royal Academy now showing a curious and rewarding show, click on the image for information:

Dorothea Tanning at Tate Modern

A real treat and so rare to see her astounding work assembled on this scale. And only £14 to get in (£12 with a concession)! Click the image to watch a short trailer.

Make your vote count and support adult education in Gateshead!

It is time to vote for learners, tutors, or groups learning in Gateshead who have done well, overcome. barriers or challenges, changed someone's life, or are of high quality. Here is the link to the page on Gateshead Council's website:

Click the picture above to go to the webpage

Week 7: on we go!

A great evening's work in class tonight. Lots of colour!

Andy

Caroline

Graeme

Jeff

Jeff

Rebecca

Waseem

Yvonne

Week 6: 7 March 2019

A great evening, everyone seems to be enjoying their projects now they are getting into them with more clarity and purpose.

Andy: lovely bold start with the strong diagonal device being developed again - good to see consistency. Also great to see the red background being such a bold tone right at the start. 

Caroline: a terrific tone drawing in graphite with beautiful attention to edges of leaves. A very good achievement which should set you up well for your next idea. Even if you go for colour the learning about tone you have gained in this drawing will be of enormous help when trying to understand tone in colours. 

Catherine: this is developing so well. Beautiful darl background with a good colour accent rather than in deadpan black. Keep adding a base white layer to the leaves/petals to help lift the colours when you add them again. 

Dot: super start with bold simple shapes and design (composition). Adding the final leaves to create your surface pattern design will be fun. Be bold and strong with your colours. Enjoy exploring how to create so many greens and shapes.

Graeme: teriffic start with lots of interest coming from all the motifs you are adding around the figure. Think about how they interlink and perhaps how the colours can add feeling and meaning.

Jeff: Stunning start. Be brave and learn by making more and more lines to create a more dense and rich pattern. Do lines in many colours - like the artist you are following does in his work.

Waseem: this is developing really well. Very good dark tones and much better now you are getting them darker. Continue making the background leaves even darker greens and blue greens before you add the light colours to the flower. 

Yvonne: this is starting to become really interesting to look at now you are adding the extra shapes. Be playful in how you add the rest and be bold in how you add tone and line. Remember it is the whole picture within the frame that matters in the end not just the actual plants. This way you turn it into a work of art rather the a photo copy.

Week 5: 21 February 2019

Another great evening of hard work and just reward. We are now more focused on our individual aims and projects. The wide dynamic range of ideas and compositions is inspiring.

Andy: excellent composition (e.g. strong diagonal) and closely coloured palette with good tone contrast.  

Catherine: very good start with all the tones getting to the correct darkness. This will enable to light blue edges to shine. Keep working the lightest blues and greens into the petals.

Caroline: excellently observed and executed study. 

Ella: beautifully captured tone with the right type of soft edges to shapes where the light turns. Be patient and stay focused like this as it will reward you immeasurably.

Graeme: wonderful composition. that creates a strength that seems appropriate to the musician. Like the use of diagonals - helped by the cut of the guitar - but used well in your design.

Jed: a terrific completion of this deceptively quiet study. Well observed subtle tone shifts and nicely controlled techique give the feather the right feel of weightlessness 

Jeff: a terrific painting with clever subtle coloured tones. This is a great step forward in achievement. 

Waseem: really good start to the painting. Great dark tones in the green background which will help the brightly coloured flower to stand out really well in contrast. 

Yvonne: fabulously bold design and a deceptively simple palette of the strongest of complementary colours.  You must continue along this line again sometime (size, scale, simple, bold colour).

Yvonne: a lovely "quiet" study that looks like it could be the start of a really good painting or drawing. Be interesting to see how you use the background. Be bold and brave.