AbigailsArtwork

Hello to all my fellow artists, and welcome if you’re new here. My name is Abigail, and I am a textiles & mixed media artist who tries to also offer free advice, tips, and tutorials once a month here on my blog.

Before I delve into this fabulous summertime task with you, I want to take a second to let you know that our wonderful local countryside that inspires so much of my artwork is going through planning to be built on. I will be aiming to create a whole new series on a particular piece of farmland area that will be due to disappear completely in the coming months and years – this series will be documented on my tiktok and social media, as well as the final pieces being available for purchase through my Etsy store. I would really truly appreciate it if you could support me by following, sharing and liking my posts, browsing my store or even writing in your support to keep the ‘open countryside that is outside the limits to development’ untouched to North West Leicestershire District Council quoting reference ‘A27’.

…Now on to the good stuff!

The Summertime Warm up Task

So, it’s summertime, maybe you’re planning to go on holiday or maybe you’ve just come back from your jollies. Some of you might be taking in the peacefulness at home, or tottering in the garden. Whatever you’re doing, this summertime warm up activity is for you.

You will need:

• Paper or Card
• Four Different Drawing Implements (e.g Pencil, Ballpoint pen, Charcoal, Graphite, Paint)
• Time (20 seconds, 5 mins, 20 mins, 1 hour)
• One Summertime Still Life Subject (e.g Flowers in a Vase, A Group of Shells, A Picnic Display)
• Easel optional

What to do:

The gist of this task is to choose one of the drawing implements, and match it with a timescale (for example Ballpoint pen + 20 seconds). Using just that one drawing implement in your alloted time, create a picture on the paper based on your subject matter. You will end up with multiple versions of the same subject but each will have a completely different feel.

By using a Ballpoint pen in a 20 second time frame, for example, it’s likely you will end up with a loose line drawing, whereas if you were using paints with a timeframe of an hour you may end up with a detailed, toned and shaded masterpiece.

Top Tips:

• Try not to get frustrated with the quicker times and instead think about the rough shapes of your subject matter.
• Sometimes it can help with the ‘looseness’ of the piece if you keep the media attached to the paper at all times, never lifting it to start in a new area or a new line.
• On the contrary, you might like to only draw with lines or hatching on pieces that allow you more time.
• Try mixing up the pairings of drawing Implements and time frames to see what results you get and what inspires you and try it on different days, especially on days when you’re struggling to get going.
• You don’t have to stick to the same time limits and drawing implements each time – experimentation is the key to inspiration and adventure!

I hope you have lots of fun with this task and let me know of your results. Do you have any fave combinations that we can all try?

I’ll leave you with my results here, based on the field I talked about at the beginning of this post. I had lots of fun doing this and it’s definitely spurred my imagination for creating a textiles piece with lots of layers of lines and line work!

I created these whilst my little one slept next to me, so I chose shorter times with the available utensils (including one of the little ones’ twistable multicoloured crayons!)… showing you that you dont need the latest and greatest art supplies to achieve inspo.

Have a fantastic summertime, and don’t forget to like, share and comment your results below.

Abigail xo