Dervish Workshop Day 3... Final Day!

And here we are at the end of a weekend full of new tips, tricks and techniques for painting your favorite little models!

So today was all about free hand work on a banner.. and after how badly my NMM and layering work went this weekend, I stuck with a more simple pattern to test out.

As you can see in the photo to the left there, I made a decent start in on the skull pattern. The style being taking a photo ( such as the skull ) and making it into a checkered pattern. Like a grid. And then re-creating this grid on the banner piece, and painting over it or through it to get the image there.

I have to say that this was getting a bit sentimental to me actually. It reminded me first of when I was learning to draw back in Elementary school ( yes that far back! ) and how we used to take a photo and draw it upside down. So that we focused on the lines, and not the final picture.

It also reminded me of drawing with my Grandfather ( Papa ) back when he was still with us. Sitting at the kitchen table and taking a picture between us. The most memorial one was of a black and white sparrow, and how ( apparently ) mine was closer to the photo as his had eaten too much!

So that aside, yeah I was feeling a bit more into today's session, although I did take a more simplistic route with just a skull. Though once getting into it, and doing the outline I was more happy on how I was able to do it with a paint brush ( although I did start with a pencil just in case! ). Will make me a bit more willing in the future to try such things!

Though the hard part was then the coloring! Compared to the rest of the choices, this was actually probably one of the harder ones! Since there is no color on the original copy! Oops! So I started in on it, and although I wanted to do more in line to the curvature of the banner, Dervish suggested to take it a bit easier on it and just paint the shine as it would be if the banner was straight.

So I took one of the other pictures as a guideline instead for shading and gave it my best shot! Was not as easy, and I have to admit I cheated.. or at least in terms for what I was supposed to do.. I used more wet blending then the layering techniques we learned yesterday! Bad Mr. Lee! Bad bad bad! That being said, I think it came out nicely.

I was unsure until I put the green background to it. Once that was done, I think I like it more now! Though should go back to it later on, and add something else to it.. like a little banner on the banner with a motto or something.. or a border on the banner.. or... well.. ideas are flowing now, and I guess that means that today's lesson on freehand had some very good side benefits!

Also the manner in which to do the banner was interesting. As you can see, it is attached with Pattafix to the packing tape that is applied to a coaster! So that you have a more comfortable handle to hold on to for painting the freehand portion! It was this ( and many other tips ) that I found out during the workshop.. and maybe I will share them? Let's see ;)

A quick group shot of everyone ( sans the photographer since they didn't want to be seen online! )...

Quite the crowd attended, all with different levels of talent ( all well above mine! ). The group as a whole were a great bunch of people, and really friendly with both advice, and help, and putting up with all my questions, frustrations and ENGLISH! I cannot say again how much I appreciated that everyone tried to make me welcomed to the group. It really shows what a difference makes when although you are the odd man out ( OK there was MaGie but she knew some German so.. ) that you don't have to actually feel it!

So thanks once more to everyone that I met, all the people I hope to get in touch with again in the future for more painting classes and exhibitions, for Dervish ( front kneeling ) for teaching everyone new things, and especially for the people who hosted and organized such an event! Time well spent for the participants, and hopefully for them as well!

I have more to say on this workshop as a whole, with regards to how it ran versus what I was expecting, what I would do differently ( more on my side vs Dervish! ), and my final thoughts after resting for a bit and recovering from the experience!

So I leave you with a few more photos of the walk back to the hotel from the workshop. I walked back as most were heading in other directions, but also cause the cold crisp air was reminding me of Canada. Just another nostalgic moment while attending a workshop in Eschweiler, Germany! Enjoy!

The start of the long walk to the hotel.

A strange smoke stack, but it looked really interesting ( though not too clean! ).

And safe to say it was not Mcdonald's for dinner tonight.. had that for lunch all weekend.. and I think it is still working on breaking down! Am currently having a nice sit in at the restaurant in the hotel I am staying. So will have some nice Greek food! Which means probably Pizza with olives ;) Cheers for now!