Hi Everyone

Welcome to the  very first post of the Sketchout Blog.

I am really excited to finally be able to share with you the videos that I made with WHSmith earlier this year as part of their #MakeAStart WithArt Campaign.

I have decided to launch a monthly drawing competition to help you engage with the videos and to get you drawing at home.

Many of you say to me when I see you at Sketchout classes that you love our workshops but that you never seem to find the time to continue your drawing on your own at home. Well I’m hoping to change that.

As I’m sure you can imagine I’m a firm believer that being in touch with our creativity brings many benefits to our lives and doing a little drawing is one way that we can indulge our natural human desire to make things. Also, apart from anything else, it’s a great way to relax and forget about the worries and strains of life, which, let’s face it, could be useful  in these troubled times!

This very first drawing competition is based on my video “Lemon in Charcoal” which is at the bottom of this post,  it will give you a good idea of how to go about things.

To enter the competition you have to do your own version of a lemon in charcoal and post a photograph of it to the Sketchout Facebook page by 10:00am on Wednesday the 27th of July. This gives you just under a month from now.

You can draw from the image of the lemon in the video but I would prefer it if you set up your own lemon in your own house and draw it from real life as opposed to drawing from the flat image on a screen but it’s up to you.

I will then choose a winner from all the entries and announce it on Thursday the 29th of July.

The winner of this inaugural drawing competition will receive a Sketchout Gift Voucher for the Drawing Workshop of their choice.

There is no age restriction for the competition but if the winner is under 11 years old they will need to be accompanied by an adult all day on the day of taking their free workshop.

See below for my top tips for getting the results you want!

• Draw big, much bigger than life size, this will give you space for detail of shading.
• Invest in some charcoal and a small rubber or two  like the ones on the ends of pencils, it will be very hard to achieve good results with a large rubber as you need precision for edges.
• Draw in a sketch book or on a sheet of paper stuck down on a board like I do in the video. If you stick the paper to the board around the edge with masking tape you will be left with a white border around the edge of the drawing when you remove the tape at the end. This helps to frame the work.
• Remember dark darks and light lights, high contrast makes for great drawings.

 

Happy drawing!

I can’t  wait to see what you make.

Rosa x