Thursday, August 1, 2024

Post 481: Drawing with Donna Merchant

Drawing with Donna Merchant

The Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in connection with a grant provided by the Prince William County Arts Council is has been offering free classes to local PWC artists through the PWAS website registration page. Local artist, Donna Merchant led a drawing class on Wednesday, July 31, 2024.

More Than a No.2 Pencil

For me, I'm a self-taught artist. I started drawing when I was a kid by just picking up a regular pencil, like a No.2, and doodling shapes and then on to drawings (mostly horses). One pencil did the trick for me then, similar to what I do now, but using a color pencil - especially when the aim is building an outline that will become a painting.

I was hoping to learn some proper drawing techniques, tips and skills, so I signed up for this class as did some other PWAS members along with some other people from the area. The age range was good to see, several young people on up. 

I understand that Donna Merchant was a past member of PWAS too, and she has quite the resume in the arts. Tom Payne, the organizer of these great PWAS class series in 2024 and the Member at Large of PWAS, gave Donna's introduction and background. And we're off!

Photo by Donna Liguria of Donna Merchant. 

Our first project was a game where one at a time, some small object was placed in a bag and the artists would reach a hand in the bag and take a few seconds and without taking it out or looking at the object would feel what it was, then pass the bag on to the next person. On a piece of paper in front of us that was divided into 6 sections, we were to draw what we felt represented object 1 through 6. If we felt we knew what the object was, title it. At the end, Donna showed what each object was. Sometimes, we got them right!

The thing about taking a class and taking pictures is I can't necessarily cover anyone else's art except my own or else loose some of the class...alas. Tis the nature of the beast. Photo of Donna Liguria's Project 1.

The second project was to draw and create a grid and use specific pencils to get a feel for shading with those different pencils, then using the stumps to blend. Many of the artists had not used a blending stump before. What a great new toy! Then we had to draw a sphere and then shade the sphere with a shadow. What a fantastic lesson in the use of various types of pencils. No.2 pencils are now no No.2 pencils. 

Photo by Donna Liguria of Project 2.

The third quick project was to visualize a snowman, then with eyes closed, draw said snowman. Ooops! Note to self, do not lift up the pencil. To finish that up, we were to draw the actual visualization of the snowman.

Snowman Project 3 by Donna Ooops Liguria

Finally, in groups of 3, we selected from a table various objects for our still life drawing. My table partners were PWAS members Anna Gatling and Eric Ndofor. This is the still life we were to get on paper.

Photo by Donna Liguria of the still life set up of Anna, Eric and I. Note that we were given the tip to set the still life up on a sheet of white paper for the lighting we were in to see the shadows.

Another great new toy discovery was an eraser stick. I like that tricky little tool. Something like this on Amazon. She also pointed out her drawing board easel with its own T Square that could also help as a maul stick similar to this on Amazon.

Here are some various pictures from the Donna Merchant Drawing Class taken by Tom Payne...



Left to right are Anna Gatling, Donna Liguria, Eric Ndofor and Donna Merchant





Ok, so how did my still life turn out at the end of the class? I KNEW you wanted to know...

Photo by Donna Liguria of my end of class still life

A Little Q&A

So how was the Donna Merchant Drawing class?
Great! I learned a lot!
 
Was the class fun?
YES!
 
Would you like to take another class with Donna Merchant?
YES! And I requested a portrait class which she thought was a great idea!. She was steady giving lots of tips on doing various subjects and techniques, practice ideas and more. She suggested a website called Art Tutor with a Grid Drawing Tool for doing portraits at http://griddrawingtool.com/
 
And like playing the guitar or learning piano; like doing Simone Biles somersaults or learning to sing - anything we want to learn to do - it takes...
 
Practice
Practice

Practice


Author: Donna Liguria
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.

Photography/Video Credits: Tom Payne and Donna Liguria

Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm

Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership

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