So onto the August meeting!  As Janet Aldis had been unable to make the meeting due to a shoulder injury Paul Gadenne stepped in at the last minute.  He was to demonstrate and give us an Acrylic Workshop.  He decided to make this a useful exercise and so for those of us who don’t usually work to a grid method he explained how this was done.

 

First of all he had some slides showing that as far back as Albrech Durer in the 16th century this method had been used when doing portraits.  Throughout the ages many other famous artists happily used it too and found it invaluable for getting the proportions right when copying.  Now you can get an App for your tablet or iPad which Paul suggested could also be extremely useful.

 

So the method is to mark up your picture or lay a transparent grid over it and to use the same proportions (scaled up or down according to your needs) on the paper or canvas you aim to use.  So for example an A4 picture with a grid of four squares across and six squares up could be used         Paul Gadenne demonstrates the Grid System   for an A3 painting.  Just divide the space up in the same way on the larger paper/canvas with four across and six up and you’re good to go!

 

The technique with this sort of painting – using acrylics, Paul told us, is to lay on the big blocks of colour first of all.  So outline those large areas only in pencil first and then start laying down the big shapes looking at the original picture square by square.  In this case we were all working a picture of a tug on Faversham Creek.

 

So after outlining in paint or pencil our first painting included the major lines of the hull of the boat and then the coach-roof.  Paul suggested that if we were at all worried about drawing circles (for the buoys) we should find a coin to draw around!  Looking at where things appeared in the squares was a new concept to many of us but already boats were appearing all around the room.

 

The details were added in and in no time at all Paul’s picture looked complete.  One of the last touches was to add the mooring lines and for this he used a rigger brush explaining that that was why it was given this name – a really useful tool for lines like these or the rigging of boats!

 

Because he was using acrylics there was no problem adding detail over the main slabs of colour but of course for clean lines checking the underneath was dry first was essential.

 

Wonderful work Paul and wonderful work all around the room!  Thank you so much for stepping in and hopefully at least one of these pictures will find its way into the next exhibition!