Using art as a therapeutic and cathartic outlet can be very helpful. It can be a mindful activity that focuses the brain on positive expression, it boosts dopamine (a happy hormone) and improves motivation.

My personal take home of art classes:

I tried the Mitsubishi Uni Nano Dia coloured lead pencil (0.7mm) this week and I absolutely loved it!

I found the results to be very impressive, I really loved it.

I could really see the difference that the 8 classes had made

This week we were trying different materials to find one we liked and to help us move away from our normal materials.

I also decided to try adding colour this week. I decided to start with a green base layer to help the skin tones appear more natural (desaturating the colours layered on top). This was a mistake,

This week we focused on our proportions, we measured and measured again.

And straight away from week 1 we had a live model to draw from! The model had one pose for the full session which gave us plenty of time to get a drawing done.

Jess took us through tonal value- we looked at ways of using monochrome and pulling out the highlights and the shadows from the artificial lighting that was set up all with one colour.

This week we tried adding colour, others in the class used different skin colours for the face, trying out blending techniques, and different colours for the clothing and background.  

I was not ready to add colour… so I didn’t! And that was ok. There was no pressure to add colour or do anything that we were not ready for.