Exciting holiday at summer school

Shirley and I are on holiday for a fortnight.  We went to Durham for a week for some tourism in an ancient city, and are now staying with Aunt Joan for a week's life class at Great Missenden.

I woke this morning horrendously over-excited about class.  Monday we were drawing in charcoal, considering proportions.  Tuesday we were considering movement.  Our class has a wide variety of drawing styles and experience, and this is what has given me a ligtbulb moment.  I think I might have had my money's worth from the course already because of this.  Two people in particular are using the media in a different way to what I have seen before.  One lady, Sheila, is using water soluble crayons to outline the drawing then working into it with brish and water, then redrawing with crayons and/or water soluble media.  The effect she gets has wonderful, joyful colour movement - which would work really well with digital print, thereby combining the qualities of hand drawing with digital media!  How ace is that!  I have recently thrown away a small set of water soluble crayons that I had had for c30 years because I had never been shown how to use them well/appropriately/artistically!  Art Van Go are at Missenden this morning so I am hoping to get some more (the old ones were likely time-expired anyway).

Another chap, Philip, is absolutely brilliant at simplifying his images.  He can define a body with just a few stunningly beautiful lines, with brilliant colour choices, sometimes combined with fantastic use of simple use of graphite stick.  If I could master this (a big "if"!) it would work well with screen print, and maybe with combined digital and screen print.

I am also thinking about how the drawing style and media matches or actively portrays the energy of the imagery, and/or the artist.  Philip is very quiet, his work is incredibly talented, and words associated with him, for me, are Considered, and Thoughtful.  The word for Sheila's drawings is Joyful.  Another lady's work is Sensitive and Delicate.  My work is Bold and Gutsy.

I could chew the fat and write for ages this morning, but need to get on and go to class. Life is just so exciting!