Abstract Landscape Sketchbook - A Bend in the River

£95 or 3 monthly payments of £33

Abstract Landscape Sketchbook - A Bend in the River

Looking at colour, shape and pattern in the landscape and finding ways to reduce and edit your local landscape into bold semi-abstract art. I will share techniques that will help you grow bolder and create with confidence. You will create a mixed-media sketchbook full of shape and colour and discover new ways of making your mark and creating from original sources.

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Explore your local landscape and record the shapes, textures, patterns and lines that tell a story of place. I live in a landscape where the suburban meets the rural, where train lines and roads criss-cross canals and rivers. I love the decay of the industrial and the way that nature finds her way.

This course will encourage you to be bold, make brave marks and translate the inspirations around you into a sketchbook that edits the landscape towards abstraction.

Here is a little more information about the course. If you have any questions, you can ask me by using the links at the foot of the page.

A Bend in the River is a course that looks at translating the world around you with bold shape, texture and pattern. It takes the landscape and edits and enlarges the parts that inspire you to express a story of place. If you want to be bolder, brighter and less formal in your approach this course will help you to to explore, gather and then translate ideas with different techniques, all designed to help you make a stronger mark.

You will blend these starting points into a bold mixed-media sketchbook of your local landscape (or townscape/cityscape).

The course is online and consists of videos and tasks. You can start and stop the lessons to fit around your life. You can return to access the content whenever you wish.

This course is for you if:

You want confidence to translate an idea you see onto paper.
You don't draw in a 'realistic' or traditional way - or you do but you want to shake it up!
You love shape and colour....and texture
You want to make a bolder mark, use a stronger line and create a playful sketchbook.
You want a structure of ideas and techniques to guide you towards abstracting and editing what you see around you.

I have always seen the world through a childlike eye and love to draw without having to stick to the rules of perspective. I like to think of myself as a bird in the landscape and see things from different viewpoints.

This course will get you questioning why you draw, how you draw and get you making clearer decisions in line with who you want to be as a creative to help you be more expressive.

You will end the course with:

A closer connection to your environment
Techniques to help you draw with more than a pencil!
A way to move beyond taking photos of what is around you to interpreting it through mark, collage and colour.
Confidence to create a dynamic mixed-media sketchbook
A sense of flow - say goodbye to creative block
A sense of play and exploration

This online course offers you:

8 video tutorials - An over the shoulder, step by step look at my processes. You can watch these whenever is convenient for you and stop and start them as you follow along.

Tasks - I invite you to respond to the videos by working through the techniques yourself

A 'Welcome' session and a 'Goodbye' session with a summary of what you've learnt and where you can take your creativity next.

Ongoing membership of my online group forum for feedback from me and other students - mutual support and motivation!

I try to use basic art equipment that most will have already. Mostly I encourage you to use what you have. :)

Suggested kit list:

cartridge/drawing paper A3
brown paper
Posca pens
printing ink blocks (I use Tim Holtz)
paint roller or print brayer
Erasers
paint brushes
acrylic paint
Black pen
Charcoal pencil
Sheets coloured or repurposed papers
Long blade scissors for paper collage
All purpose glue (I use UHU)

What you will need to have:

The materials on the materials list (see above)
Access via a PC or laptop to my website where you can access the password protected pages
Broadband wifi with sufficient speed to watch video content
You will also need a willingness to have a go and try new ways of working - not focussed on the outcomes, but on developing a creative flow and adapting new techniques
Time - regular slots that you can set aside for yourself
Commitment to fulfil the tasks and share with others in the group so that we can nurture each other.

What to expect:

After signing up you will get email confirmation of your booking and can start immediately.
Delivery is via video tutorials that you can start, stop and repeat as you wish.
There are tasks set for you to try what you have been shown in the videos as well as step by step photos of how I created the sketchbook pages in the course
You are encouraged to take photos of what you create and upload them to the course Facebook Group.
You can ask questions in the group, or by email.

Content filmed in 2021 with updates in 2023