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Lessons at Home for Returners

Sketch - Tiki Hut

We have another trip around the world today, and from ‘Tiki Huts to Temples’, this lesson focuses on the use of marks to create tonal values and textures in your drawings. You can choose between pencil or ink liners to create your rendition, or even a bit of both – there are no rules.

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  1. Secure your paper to the board and lightly sketch out our composition onto white A4 cartridge paper, using simple lines. Add the horizon line and draw out your Tiki hut adding outlines of signs, people, beach parasols, trees, surf boards etc.

  2. Start to fill in your drawing, remember to put a piece of paper under your hand and work from left to right to avoid smudging. Add tone and shading to your Tiki hut picture carefully looking at the picture you are using. Use plenty of mark making including stippling, hatching and cross-hatching.

  3. Decide which direction the light is coming from, keeping it lighter on one side and darker on the other side of the hut, trees and furniture. Shade your !gure on one side. Add plenty of signage on your Tiki hut; advertising drinks etc.

  4. Finally add darker shading and shadows to the whole drawing, where you think necessary.

  5. Draw in plenty of palm trees over-hanging the Tiki hut. Now your Tiki hut is complete.

Oil Pastels - Mayan Carving

This week we are looking at sgraffito and how we can use thick layers of pigment,

and then scratch through to reveal the underneath colours, to achieve fine and

beautiful detail with oil pastels. We have chosen an interesting Mayan mask since

we are over that side of the world (virtually anyway), but you will have many other

images to choose from such as the ‘Day of the Dead’ masks or other ethnic creations from that part of the world.

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  1. Map out your Mayan mask with a grey or brown oil pastel, adding all the features, tongue, headdress and carving. Cover the features and headdress with a thick, white oil pastel. Add another layer of pink over the eyelids and around the head.

  2. At this stage, add green oil pastel to the tongue. Apply turquoise oil pastel to the headdress. Add further details and outlines to the face, and the headdress, using a dark-grey or black oil pastel.

  3. For the surrounding carved design, apply white, grey and ochre to create the patterning around the head. Use sgraffito techniques to increase the range of textures on this work, which ties in and enhances the carving of the Mayan mask. Sgraffito is the technique of scratching through into one layer to reveal another underneath. You can use more than one fairly thick colour underneath, so you have enough colour and tonal contrast when you overlay with turquoise, pink and white. Then use sgraffito to make an effective piece of artwork. Finish the patterning around the head using ochre, grey and black and scratch through in some places. Your Mayan mask is now finished.

Watercolour - Toucan

A slightly more challenging piece today, not only the toucan but the winding wooden branch he is perched on. This piece will certainly put your techniques into practice, whether you choose to paint a naïve version or aim for something more realistic. It’s all about careful timing and careful placement of pigment, so this might need a little more concentration.

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  1. Draw out your toucan, and twisting branch, onto watercolour paper. To retain the lighter areas, use the side of a candle on the branch as a resist. You can also spatter a little masking fluid to create texture. Mix up lots of colours separately – bright yellow and red for the beak, strong browns and blues for the branch and lots of blue/black for the body.

  2. Use a medium-size rounded brush to paint the toucan’s body and tail, painting a strong mix of black and blue, then let this dry. For the twisting branch, add a little strong burnt sienna, blue and burnt umber, from your palette to the branch, adding a little salt into the wet paint.

  3. Keep the colours unmixed and let them touch on the paper whilst they are still wet. For dark textures on the branch use the end of a brush, or a chopstick dipped into strong, neat dark brown paint. Twist the stick or end of the brush to create texture on the branch - practice this technique "rst in your sketch pad.

  4. For the beak, add bright yellow with touches of blue, then let this dry. Once the "rst layer is dry, add more red and blue colours and markings to the beak.

  5. To finish the toucan, add more dark blue paint to the wings, using a brush loaded with paint. Carefully paint in the eye detail with black paint, plus a blue outline. Add a pale blue/grey shadow across the toucan’s white neck on right side.

Acrylics - Galloping Horses

A dramatic scene filled with movement, lots of dust catching the light, and stunning horses in motion as they thunder across the sandy prairie.

We will teach you about how to construct the horse, how to simplify the scene fora painting, and how to separate each horse from the rest of the herd.

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  1. Draw the image onto acrylic paper with pencil or charcoal and use circles and ovals for the horse’s body shape. Draw two circles for the torso of each horse, then place the legs and neck, and add an oval shape for the horse’s head. Draw the slanted hind legs of the galloping horses to convey movement. Practice drawing the horses first in your sketch book.

  2. Add the body colours to the horse’s body, face and mane - colours used are raw umber, burnt sienna and a little ochre with small touches of ultramarine mixed with some of the brown colours for the darkest tones. Block in a little background colour and add thick white paint around the lighter areas below the horses.

  3. Initially, for the background paint in blue/grey shadows where needed and add some white and grey tones using a large brush.

  4. The success of this painting is about what you leave out. The painting has been simplified to concentrate on the important aspects of light and dark tones to create a dynamic painting of galloping horses. Next, mix a glaze by watering down some blue, white and grey adding a thin glaze across the background and horses and leave to dry. Separate each horse from the rest of the herd using a dry brush to give a feathered effect on the mane, body and tail using white and ochre. This will help you blend your colours together and get rid of a definite line.

  5. For the background, use some cool grey, blue and white strokes to create movement. Mix a light blue/grey for the cast shadows below the horses. To create the illusion of dust catching the light, mix white with a little ochre and use your !nger to apply the paint using a rolling motion around the horses’ hooves. Next a gentle spattering of white acrylic paint over the horses’ legs enhances the sense of energy and speed of galloping wild horses. Half close your eyes and add any detail necessary to pull the work together and your dramatic painting of galloping horses is now finished!

Enrolments are open. 

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Book your spot today!

Many classes to choose from:

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  • Tuesday mornings: 9:30am - 12:30pm

  • Tuesday afternoons: 1pm - 4pm

  • Sundays: 10am - 1pm

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Venue: North Shore Squash Club, Shea Tce, Takapuna

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