Drawing with Ink Workshop

I had two very successful ink drawing classes over the month of June. Unfortunately when a class is only 2 sessions long, and each one presents a new project, it's impossible for me to "borrow" participant work for me to scan or photograph and display samples on this blog for the world to see. The only way to document work is to either photograph during class, or trust that when participants complete their projects on their own time, that they will indeed email me! If any of you are reading this, please please email me! :-)

I really enjoyed this class. The first session there were five participants, but only three for the second as two couldn't make both days. Luckily each day included a separate project. On the first day we explored the properties of ink drawing - it's either black, or not. So how does one get "gray" and show depth? We discussed and tried out as a class the basic tested-and-true methods of stippling, hatching, and cross-hatching. The project for the day was tracing over a photocopied black and white landscape and incorporating these techniques. I could tell people were apprehensive about tracing (because isn't that cheating?), but once they started, they warmed to the idea and understood that this was a way of practicing technique whilst practically guaranteeing positive results aesthetically. And each of the five participants and my own demo version turned over completely different interpretations - six unique artistic pieces traced from the same original piece. Wild!

On the second day, participants took their confidence in drawing a lovely landscape (they were kind enough to bring their completed projects back the second day to show me!) to the next level in drawing their next big project. Me being a huge fan of the texture drawings, decided to show them how its done so they can create their own interpretation. They had the choice of bringing their own image in for inspiration, but nobody did. So instead, each chose an image from what I provided: a set of flowers, an old-fashioned car, or a portrait of an elderly lady. The results were very very positive, everybody was happy with their work, I was super excited (and still am excited). I hope that they email me the results or choose to come to another class I hold in order to share the completed works with me.

Here's the picture I worked on whilst the participants worked on theirs. I thought I might as well keep working after already using a page for the demo. I intend on finishing this project tonight as soon as I've had my supper because I'm pleased with the results so far:


So yes, I will be holding more workshops at Riley Park in the fall. These classes were a pilot run through and were successful! So even though I've now relocated to North Vancouver and would like to set up artistic connections here (am currently seeking opportunities), I believe strongly in honouring commitments and taking further what I've begun at Riley Park. Future workshops will have more sessions in order to enable more in-depth exploration of media and completion of projects.