Art Practical: Art and About - Sketching and Watercolour in London Parks

Meeting at Queen Elizabeth’s Rose Garden or the café if raining; the first session is in the inner circle in Regents Park; sketch on location with techniques shown on how to draw people and link them into their surroundings you will also develop composition skills and layering colour with chalk pastel. Ways to create rhythm to lead the eye around your drawing and painting sketches will be shown. The sketching sessions will help you capture the mood and atmosphere of the gardens using tonal contrast to show light and shadow in charcoal, chalk pastel or fine liner pen.

Session Two will be in St James Park; meet at the café next to the lake. We will develop drawing with watercolour techniques; how to mix colour and use colour contrasts for light and shadow on foliage picking out colours of the surroundings. How to sketch or add an outline in fine-liner and build up watercolours from quick initial sketches. Ways to proportion and draw things in scale and where to start; ways of capturing the main shapes of the composition and then building up with transparent layers of glazes will be shown. You need to bring your own art materials, a small folding seat or plastic bag to sit on a bench, sketch book A4 or A3 of sugar paper for pastels, pencils HB, 2B , 5B, charcoal and a putty rubber, or a charcoal pencil, artists chalk pastels. sugar or pastel paper, tissue for cleaning, fixative or hairspray. Watercolour Equipment and a pen fine liner for Session 2 and 300gm paper.