Park Life – London 2019 – PYSB Workshop

London Parks are the lungs of the city, trees are powerful and beautiful and people enjoy the views and environment where to play and enjoy nature. Join us to focus on drawing the natural environment in a busy city and give your greens some power.

What will we cover

ISABEL CARMONA

In this workshop we will first look at the city from the distance, from a vantage point, looking at panoramic views and how to focus the view on what interests us, bringing it closer to us while highlighting key landmarks. We will work with watercolours which is well suited to give us layers that dissolve in the distance.

The sky is an important part of our views, creating the mood of every scene, and we will seek to find elements close to us to give it scale and proximity.

We will continue exploring this sky/ground relationship at various locations on the park, playing with transparencies, to see through trees and feel the air and space in our sketches.

In the second part of the workshop, the trees and woods will create the frame and direct focus our views.

We will practice mixing greens and enjoying the diversity marks that suit each of the park spaces, sometimes looking for masses of green, sometimes for layered textures, looking for a personal expression on our work.

CELIA BURGOS

In my sessions will seek:

• To enjoy nature’s organic forms/ shapes and rhythms and draw them with different materials and resources.
• To create atmosphere and contrast while using textured lines and watercolour.
• To create a dialogue between the foreground and the background.
• To create a visual path with some elements.
• To create a composition focusing on rhythm
• To practice a focus on some areas of the drawing.
• To create composition and rhythm while playing with lights and shadows.
• To build space and depth with colour and textures thinking about the atmosphere.

The main goal of this workshop is to be able to feel the strength and vitality of nature and to make the most of the richness of its shapes, rhythms, textures and atmosphere.

The amazing locations will allow us to enjoy a big open space and to work from different points of view, from a panoramic view to medium or close-up shots. It will also allow us to deal with contrasting proposals, from general shapes to intimate details.

We are going to try and capture the landscape´s temperature and atmosphere, to build the space while playing with lights and shadows. We will be able to practise with colour and texture to acquire depth and play with the contrasted but balanced relationship between the foreground and the background.

We are going to use all these resources to create different compositions attending to several rhythms, therefore we will work with different structures to focus our attention in order to create some visual paths through movement and emotions.

Furthermore, one of our goals is to establish a dialogue between nature and architecture using watercolour and coloured pencils and so as to create different textures, shapes (geometric versus organic) and details while at the same time trying to find things in common so as to unify them in terms of light and shadows.

Ultimately, we will be able to breathe nature in our drawings.

Overall Learning goals

• Pushing participants out of their comfort zone, at their own level. From beginners starting to sketch to more confident participants, we aim to teach you something new and push you outside your boundaries, helping you experiment.
• Experiment with different techniques and ways of approaching a live sketching urban nature situation, helping you find your own self expression.
• Using and trying different approaches to drawing trees and nature as well as horizons and people – line drawing with brushes, marker pens and watercolour pencils, painting with watercolours, light and shade,
• Develop your own way of representing what you see in colour with confidence
• Improving mark making ability – with pen, with brush,
• Losing the fear to draw big views or intimate ones

Timetable

Participants will be divided into two groups and each group will have one morning and one afternoon with each of the tutors. Locations will vary for each session.

Friday 09/08/19

17:00 to 17:30 Meet up at Hampstead Heath Railway Station

17:30 – 20:30 Drawing from the top of Hampstead Heath, long views

21:00 Gather at local pub if desired.

Saturday 10/8/19

9 to 9:30 Meet up by Hill Garden/Pergola (Hampstead Heath)

9:30 to 12:30 Morning session (in two groups) with Isa and Celia

12:30 to 2:30 Picnic lunch (bring your own) all together

2:30 to 5:30 Afternoon sessions (in two groups) with Isa and Celia

6 pm Groups meet for sharing sketchbooks (location tbc)

Sunday 11/8/19

9 to 9:30 Meet up at Highgate station (for Highgate Woods)

9:30 to 12:30 Morning session (in two groups) with Isa and Celia

12:30 to 2:30 Lunch and sharing of sketchbooks (location tbc)

2:30 Group photo and departure

Participants

20 attendees maximum, 15 minimum, any level of experience is welcome

Travel and accommodation

You will need to arrange your own accommodation and travel. To help you decide the area see the map of the workshop below. Suggested sites to look for a good range of accommodation: booking.com or airbandb.com. Suggested areas Hampstead Heath, Highgate

Travel: in London you may need an oyster card to go around (or a credit card with contactless payment which works the same in the underground and buses). We will walk a lot but meet at various public transport nodes.

Registration fee

£180 (fees are in GBP)

To book : e-mail Isabel: isabel@pushingyoursketchingboundaries.com for a registration form. (Payment can be via internet bank transfer or paypal – see link here)

Cancellation policy: All fees are refundable if cancelled more than 6 weeks prior to commencement of course (up to 21 June 2019). Bank charges will be deducted for the refund in the case of an attendee cancellation. If cancelled after the 21 June up to to one week before the start of the course, a cancellation fee of £50 (60 Euros) will be retained. No refund will be possible one week before the course.In the event of too few registrants, all monies will be refunded.

Workshop map

You can find the workshop map here

About the instructors

This workshop combines the abilities of :

Isabel Carmona and Celia Burgos