Drawing Development Classes - St Ives School of Painting

The Elements + Art of Drawing

Drawing / Mixed Media - Materials included

We haven’t scheduled this course yet. Please email us to register your interest for future availability.

Register Interest

Course details

Why learn to draw? Drawing can both underpin and free-up your painting practice, and drawing doesn’t need to be ‘correct’ to be fun or creative! 

Hilary Jean-Gibson

‘What do drawings mean to me? I really don’t know. The activity absorbs me. I forget everything else in a way that I don’t think happens with any other activity.’ John Berger

‘I go out each morning and draw. I can’t really start a painting in the morning until I’ve done a drawing.’ Frank Auerbach

Build confidence and acquire a life enhancing skill that will help you access your visual creativity. On this four day course led by Hilary Jean Gibson and Jill Eisele, explore various approaches to this fundamental way of working. See how different methods and techniques can awaken your senses, allowing you to work in a freer, more intuitive way. Develop a sketchbook practice and build a concertina sketchbook to record your daily scribbles and doodles. Draw with more authority and confidence as Jill and Hilary teach you how to use perspective, line and shading to underpin your painting practice.

Covering techniques including continuous line drawing, selection, weight of line, hatching and graduation, we look to artists including Albrecht Durer, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Barbara Hepworth, Stanley Spencer and David Hockney to draw inspiration from their approaches and methods. Asking why, where and how to draw, this course illuminates and demystifies the most important questions about this essential technique.

Jill Eisele

Day to day plan

This is a rough indication of what to expect over the course. However sometimes the structure of the days may alter depending on the nature of the group.

Day 1

On day one, explore different techniques including linear work, hatching, cross hatching, and tonal drawings using graduation. Draw using a variety of implements to experiment with mark-making. Learn about symbolism and the use of negative space, as well as chiaroscuro. Look at the work of other artists and start to think about your own visual vocabulary.

Day 2

Develop one of your drawings on the first day using pen and wash. See how drawing with chalks, conte and coloured pastel papers can develop your drawing practice further.

Day 3

After learning various techniques on day one and two, free up your practice and build confidence on this third day. Build your own visual language by starting with a series of short exercises: drawing upside down, cross contour, multiple line, doodles, scribbling, using memory and the recognition of tonal values in colour.

Day 4

On the final day, look at ways to move forward with your drawings. Working with charcoal, charcoal pencils, oil bars and other mediums, find ways to select and enlarge elements of a picture, add collage or abstract your drawings. End the course feeling confident in ways to move forward with your drawing practice.

What will I learn?

  1. An engagement with drawing as an essential underpinning to your painting practice.
  2. A new visual language and vocabulary which will help build confidence in the way you approach painting.
  3. Various approaches, skills and techniques in drawing.
  4. How to create a concertina sketchbook.
  5. How to work up sketches using various processes.

Who would this course suit?

This course would suit artists at any stage in their creative journey; whether you have an established practice or are just starting out. Ideal if you are looking for ways to increase skills, experience and attitude as well as interests.

The Elements and Art of Drawing

Drawing / Mixed Media – Materials included

We haven’t scheduled this course yet. Please email us to register your interest for future availability.

Register Interest

Taught by

Jill
Eisele

View Jill’s Work

My practice begins with drawing, often taking me to wild and wonderful parts of Cornwall, capturing fleeting moments where light and colour create atmosphere and expression. These underpin my largely figurative paintings, which convey a sense of incompleteness; of place and mystery.

Hilary
Jean
Gibson

View Hilary Jean Gibson’s Work

In 1995 I became a tutor at the St Ives School of Painting. Offering inspiration through my passion for drawing, water-based media and art history, I strive to liberate a creative vision by teaching skills and techniques through direct observation and en plein air.

What to Bring

Our studios are fully equipped and we provide you with all the materials you need for your course. However, if you have a favourite set of brushes or any specialist materials that you would prefer to use, please bring them with you.

Timings and Breaks

The first day starts at 10am and finishes at 4.30pm, please aim to arrive ten to fifteen minutes before the start time.

All course days after that start at 9.30am and finish at 4pm and there will be an hour for lunch. There are plenty of nearby places to eat and we will serve tea and coffee at break times during the day.

FAQs

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