Techniques & Processes

If you’re an art teacher like me, you’ve probably found yourself explaining the difference between observational drawing and direct observation more than once. While the terms sound similar—and they often overlap—they aren’t quite the same thing. Observational drawing is a broad term. It simply means drawing something by looking at it rather than relying on […]

One of the most challenging parts of working with clay is needing a controlled environment to keep projects workable.  In a classroom setting, this is not always possible. One long weekend, a project not wrapped properly, or a hole in the plastic can easily result in a project being too dry to work on.  Having […]

The artworks below are created by the students of talented art teacher Rachel Steffan. She used the download you can see here, but I was delighted to see how she differentiated the task for her students and allowed them to push it further, make individual choices and using experimental surfaces. She told me: “I had […]

Art teacher and artist Dionne Adkison has generously shared the following mixed media process with me. I am certain the process could be applied to numerous sorts of objects and artifacts but I feel the textural nature of the process lends itself to natural forms and perhaps aged artefacts. See what you think. Materials: Star Anise, […]

I don’t know about you, but I love ballpoint pen drawings. They can include precision, cross hatching and expressive qualities that many artists such as Andrea Joseph, Oscar Ukonu and Jonathan Brechignac have exploited to full effect. Ballpoint pen has the added bonus of being permanent and therefore waterproof, which is useful too. But, and […]

Below are Rob Le Grice’s adaptation of the wax-resist technique that Henry Moore famously used in his series ‘Shelter Drawings’. Henry Moore was a renowned British sculptor known for his monumental and abstract works, characterized by organic forms and a deep exploration of the human figure. Henry Moore’s “Shelter Drawings” are a series of sketches […]