The Katie Lee Drawing Workshop led by Gill Condy,
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| Gill in action. |
"Remember that no finished work is perfect. It is as good as it can be at the moment it was drawn, with the limitations of your technical skills". - Katie Lee
This was a solid “back to basics” workshop emphasizing the importance of observation and doing thorough preparatory sketches, which is something most of us overlook in the hurry to produce a finished botanical painting.
Gill led us through the book from start to finish, highlighting all the most pertinent points. And although we didn’t do much drawing other than shading a few tonal exercises, the workshop was very worthwhile for all the information and quite a few “ah ha” moments it provided.
Just a few of the points discussed:
- Observation takes time – try not to hurry this stage! Try to use as many senses as possible to get to know your subject.
- Use notes to trigger a dialogue between verbal and visual.
- Note the most important characteristics of the plant – these should be evident in the final work, otherwise you have failed in rendering the plant.
- How to properly light your subject, and how light is “read”. The importance of light in relation to focal point.
- All subjects, no matter how complex, can be broken down into basic forms (sphere, cylinder, cone etc).
- All about graduated shading and building layers of tone.
- The different kinds of preparatory sketches – line (descriptive), tonal (creating form), textural, and pigment/color study – and why each one is important. The finished painting should be a sum of all of these.
- How to draw bending/arching leaves and ribbon shapes. (We got to make a bendy acetate leaf which is a useful aid).
- Drawing mid ribs, side veins and growth lines. Shading lines should follow direction of growth.
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| The book! Very practical ring binding lets you lay it open flat while open on an exercise. Printed on high quality paper which will stand up to good use. |
The book places a lot of emphasis on tonal studies, and systematically working through tonal shading exercises, with the aim of making technique in suggesting form second nature. I think any drawing exercise is worthwhile, and this book’s exercises, although they seem a bit laboriously obsessive at times, will make one a better observer, and definitely a stronger drawer.
“Drawing is the foundation of creativity, and technique is the foundation of drawing.” - Katie Lee
Review and photos by Samantha Haacke