Have you ever wondered how to move your painting towards the more abstract? Join tutor, Jason Skill, to ease you into abstracted art and move away from an accurate depiction of a visual reality. Be guided by Jason through processes you can begin to apply to your own art.
So many artists feel that they would like to add some abstract elements into their art, but feel unsure how to best begin this journey. This workshop is designed to help you build up your confidence to explore abstracting with greater conviction by taking you through a series of tried and tested painting exercises that promote improvisation upon set formats of picture construction used by many professional abstract artists. So, come and join Jason for a day of experimentation and adventure!
Students may use watercolour, gouache or acrylics on this course. However, the tutors demonstrations will be done using watercolour, so you may wish to use this medium to feel more in tune with the demonstrations given. With that in mind the list of materials below is just focussed on watercolour though feel free to subsitute.
Click below to view the list of what you’ll ideally need to bring with you.
What to expect
Time at ArtisOn is designed to take you away from it all and provide the environment, the time and the guidance you need to create. You can expect a warm welcome, skilled and friendly tutors plus the chance to meet like-minded people keen to share ideas and experiences. You can even leave us to clear up the mess! There will usually be two workshops going on and we encourage everyone to mingle and be nosey about what the other workshop is up to.
Arrive in time to meet other participants over a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits before beginning your session at the appointed time. There will be a mid-morning break for refreshments and a chance to talk over progress with others. Lunch is usually around 12:45 for about 45 mins – you can expect a homemade 2 course lunch. The main course will be delicious but don’t overdo it as the puds are usually worth waiting for! There will be a further afternoon break with the most wonderful cakes from Roots & Fruits Home Bakery, a North Yorkshire micro-bakery producing handmade bread and cakes. All food and refreshments are included in the price of the workshop.
Finish time is given as a target – there are occasions when the session may overrun so do let us know if you need to be away promptly.
We aim for your day to be a real treat… of course you could always learn a new skill in a shed or a draughty village hall with a curly sandwich, but we want you to have more fun than that! So we make it a day being looked after, with good food, good company and great inspiration!
What you’ll need to bring with you
We have water pots and boards available to use. The following list is to help you put together your kit for the day. Please do not feel this is a fixed list of materials that you must purchase as some materials may be borrowed from our supplies.
Please use this to help you check off the equipment you will need to bring when packing for the day.
Drawing equipment:
A soft graphite pencil eg. 2b
A pencil sharpener
An eraser
Accessories:
Masking tape
Several sheets of kitchen roll
Watercolour palette
Brushes:
A wash brush
Large round approximately size 12 or 14
Selection of smaller brushes you may have.
Flat painting brushes
If you already own brushes that are 'different' - fan brushes, sword liners, combers brushes, Chinese lettering, these can be fun to explore what they can do.
Paper:
Watercolour paper cut or ripped down to quarter of a full imperial sheet. A quarter sheet is approximately [A3] if you are buying paper in a pad. Please bring about 10 sheets of paper.
Advise not [cold pressed] surface140lb / 300gsm. This is the standard surface quality of student papers like Bockingford and Langton sold in pads.
Several sheets of cartridge paper or computer printing paper . These will be used to practise brush strokes and sketch out picture composition ideas.
Colours:
These are some of the colours I will be using - it is not particularly important on this course that you use the colours I demonstrate with. Just bring those that you already have.
These are some of the colours I will be using - it is not particularly important on this course that you use the colours I demonstrate with. Just bring those that you already have.
Cobalt Blue
Lemon Yellow
Cadmium Red
Ultramarine blue
Cadmium yellow
Quinacridone Majenta / permanent rose (If you have an Alizarin Crimson this will work fine.)
Prussian Blue
Cerulean blue
Cobalt turquoise light
Raw Sienna
Raw Umber
Burnt Sienna
Viridian
Burnt Umber
Titanium white
Chinese white
Reference material
Inspirational images for abstraction can be found in others abstract paintings, macro photography and images of the stars and under the sea. Please feel free to bring a selection of images that you feel inspire you to paint in an abstract way.
