You may have read my blog about #drawingaugust, a month long daily draw, at the end of that entry I promised to tell you about 'The Virtual Art Studio'. The Virtual Art Studio is the brainchild of artists, Michelle Lloyd and Sharon Griffin. It is an online closed group that you can join via the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UnitedArtSpace/ I found out about it recently through a friend who shared a Facebook post about a 14 day drawing challenge. I was nosy so I had a look but initially thought, I'm too busy for this but I signed up anyway! To sign up all I needed to do was send a request to join The Virtual Art Studio closed group. As soon as I joined I knew this was a different type of challenge! Michelle posted a video of herself explaining how the challenge works. She made it sound worthwhile and accessible to every one. Each day we were given a theme, for example 'tone' and then provided with 2 images to choose from as a starting point. The themes were explained so we knew exactly what we were meant to be exploring, we could either copy the photos or choose our own source material to explore the theme. The themes I can remember were, line,tone,texture,colour,shadow and pattern, there were more but those are the ones that spring to mind. My quick scribble of a bike was used to explore shadow. The tasks were given a 10 minute limit (although this didn't have to be adhered to). I think having a time limit meant I was far more likely to attempt the challenge as most people can find 10 minutes to spare! The bear was to explore texture and I completed this one on the train in about 5 minutes! I was encouraged to share the drawings on the Facebook page, this is why it's a closed group so that only the people who are doing the challenge can see and comment on the work. Because of the fact it was a closed group, it was very supportive and welcoming. There is no fear of people who are unsupportive seeing your work, so no need to feel shy embarrassed. The challenge is a challenge for anyone, experienced or novice, I found that I could find my strengths and weaknesses in the tasks, so it made me think about what areas of my art needed more time invested in. I felt the challenge was very worthwhile ( not to mention it didn't cost a penny) and I missed it when it ended. Sharon and Michelle do other supportive work and lessons online, so it's worth popping over to https://www.facebook.com/UnitedArtSpace/ to see what they are doing! I did cheat sometimes by incorporating the theme into work that I was already doing but I'm sure that's allowed really 😉
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AuthorMinnie Teckman, I'm a fine artist that loves oil painting, drawing, portraiture, animals and urban sketching. Archives
September 2020
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