figure drawing & painting from life in Ink & watercolour | Marie le men
Saturday 12th - sunday 13th october
10am - 4pm
IN-STUDIO OPTION ONLY
€250
LOCATION: STUDIO ENNIKSERRY
About this workshop
In this two day workshop, figurative artist Marie Le Men will teach you various techniques to complete a full clothed figure from life, using your observation skills and working in ink and watercolour. You will learn how to bring your sketching skills to the next level by introducing subtle details and bringing in life and mood through spontaneous use of colour.
Open to beginners and intermediate level learners, this is an introduction to drawing and painting an expressive full figure portrait from life, in a personal style. The approach focuses first on structuring a head in planes and blocks, with free cross hatching in ink or fine liner, secondly on watercolour, exploiting the unique properties of this medium, which is notoriously challenging but offers great practicality, speed and ease of use, as well as an infinity of effects such as translucency, washes and glazes.
The course will present the participants with an opportunity to discover the subtle art of figurative drawing in an accessible and practical way, and to inspire amateurs to pursue this practice on a regular basis through life drawing and sketching their surroundings. The focus will be to learn how to be selective, to avoid copy or literal interpretation, and to infuse a portrait with one’s own aesthetic through choices of colours, patterns, composition, so as to convey one’s idea of the person depicted. The presence of a model and colourful contrasting lighting will help achieve lively results.
In a little demo and through examples of her work, Marie will provide tips and some basic principles of observational drawing to equip participants with some technical knowledge to get started. The second part will focus on painting and use of glazes and wet-on-wet techniques. The participants will make several portraits using different techniques, with a time limit per portrait.
Taking full advantage of having a model you will work on a variety of short poses and exercises focusing on drawing ears, hands, etc as well as drawing and painting the full figure in various poses.
Materials
• A notebook to document the process and techniques, and make thumbnails of your compositions
• Waterproof fine liner (ex. Sakura Micron 01-02-03) or ink pen of your choice, ex Lamy safari/Sailor Fude/Twsbi filled will De Atramentis Document Ink.
• A white gel pen for highlights/corrections
• Watercolour paint pans / palette with mixing space
Recommended palette for portraits:
cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, cad red, quinacridone pink or rose, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, hooker’s green, turquoise cobalt, ceruleum blue, sap green, chinese white or white gouache, cobalt blue, lamp black.
• Paper (300g, A4-A3, 2 sheets+ or pad)
Any watercolour paper, but needs to be smooth enough for you to draw oncomfortably. Please test your pen on it beforehand. You should be able to cross hatch and make a variety of lines in all directions.
• Brushes (flat brush (3/4”) round sable (6, 10 or 12), mop squirrel brush, small brush for details (synthetic, mixed hair or sable).
• Pencils (HB, 2B, or mechanical pencil) and rubber, paper towel
Meet Marie
Marie Le Men is a self-taught artist specialising in portraiture from life and in-situ sketching of her surroundings. She grew up in France and has lived in Dublin since 2007. She works with watercolour and mixed media. Her free-hand ink drawings express a sense of vitality through an economy of lines which captures the unique energy of each subjects. Her debut exhibition, Samhlaigh, in Ardgillan Gallery (March 2023) in Skerries, displayed watercolour portraits done during lockdown. She has been shortlisted for this year's Zurich Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland (December 2023).
Instagram: @marie_lemen_artworks