- £200
Making Your Mark
- Course
- 22 Lessons
In this course, equivalent to a 3 day workshop, we explore the visual language of landscape through expressive mark making and playful mixed media approaches. We use a variety of media including charcoal and collage to explore shape, line, pattern and texture in the landscape and develop our visual language.
Join me on an exciting exploration of landscape through expressive mark making and playful mixed media approaches
- Do you love the landscape & want to make artwork that reflects your excitement with its visual richness?
- Do you want to reflect your feelings for the place but struggle to become less representational?
- Do you enjoy drawing your surroundings but find that you want to create more energy in your work?
- Do you want to create more variety and interest in your mark making?
I am fascinated by the world around me and in creating artwork that reflects my experience of the landscape through the seasons. I have been exploring the visual language of my local landscapes: Their shapes, lines, patterns and textures, through a range of mark making approaches. These methods allow me to have fun and record my experience of the place in looser more expressive ways that are less representational. I am excited to share these approaches with you on this course.
We will be unpicking our subject through a series of exploratory creative mark making techniques including collage.
These approaches will help you develop your own visual language and enable you to start to identify what excites you most about your chosen landscape.
The course is structured to follow the pace of a 3-day workshop. We will start by experimenting with materials like charcoal, inks and paint, alone or together and have fun pushing the boundaries. We will then take our experiences into the landscape setting. I will be demonstrating on location (Spring Woodland) and back in my studio. You can follow along using my examples as a basis for your studies but you will probably wish to identify your own subject. It could be a view from your window, your garden or other landscape subject. You may prefer to do at least some of the studies on location or work from photographs/video.
At the end of the course you will have created a range of mixed media works on paper as well as a concertina sketchbook.
I have included a review section at the end of the course to show you how I develop and progress my own work. This can be used as a basis for you to consider ways in which to continue the work you have created on the course.
What you will discover
- Useful information about mark making
- How other artists use mark making in their work
- Technical information about different materials
- To work expressively and gesturally with a range of media
- To combine and experiment with different media
- Different approaches to looking at landscapes
- How to introduce happy accidents using collage
- To explore pattern and marks in your subject
- How to present your work in different ways on paper and in sketchbooks
- How to review your work to help you develop it further
Testimonials
'This course and your infectious enthusiasm, has inspired me to restart my practice-just the kick start I needed. It's brilliant! I am blown away!'
'Each time I look at this section, I learn something new about mark making. It is a wonderful part of your course. There is such a logical flow-each part follows from the one before. I am learning so much'
'Liz's tutorials pushed my mark making experience, challenging me to try new combinations of materials and to free up the way I make marks. An important part of this was the encouragement to go out and experience, and react to, a landscape setting and to develop this through a series of exercises'.
Paul-Course Participant
Contents
Part 1: Welcome
A 'freewheeling' exercise : Part 1
A 'freewheeling' exercise : Part 2
Introduction
Art supplies
Some thoughts about mark making
Getting started with our materials
Warming up with our dry materials
Warming up with our wet materials
Contour Drawing Warm Up
Mark Making Conversation Warm Up
Part 2 Starting to explore the landscape
A walk in the woods
Sculpting and Wandering
An expressive & intuitive approach to mixed media
Thumbnail studies-An introduction
Thumbnail studies
Part 3 Digging deeper using collage approaches
Another way of seeing - An Introduction
Another way of seeing - Reformatting studies
Pattern & texture-first- An introduction
Pattern & texture-first- Creating a collage background
Pattern & texture-first- Working over the collage concertina sketchbook
Pattern & texture-first- The finished collage concertina sketchbook
Part 4 Wrapping It Up
Reviewing your work and ways forward
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have access to the course?
Once you've enrolled and paid, you'll have access to the course material for 12 months from when you enrol. So please feel free to devour it all in one weekend or take things more slowly. It's your choice!
What if I'm unhappy with my purchase?
I am afraid that once you have accessed the course I am not able to give refunds. Your feedback is important to me though so please do get in touch if you have any problems.
I still have a question, how can I contact you?
I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Send me an email to liz@lizackerleyart.com.
Is there a Facebook group for this course?
Yes there is a private FB group for the course. The link is on the Welcome page.
How much time will it take to complete this course?
I designed this course as a 3 day workshop but you may want to spend more time on each section and take a week or more to do it.
Can I share the content from this course with my friends?
As it has taken me a lot of time to prepare this online course, I would appreciate it if you did not share any of the content with others. All the information is for the sole use of the individual subscriber and is not to be used in any form without the written agreement from Liz Ackerley. I am happy for you to share your work on social media, but please tag me or give me a mention.
Do I need to be an experienced artist to do this course?
This course is suitable for all artists, from beginners to more experienced artists, who are open and willing to experiment with the media, are keen to develop a looser and more expressive approach. A willingness to have fun and experiment with the approaches and tools is key.
Will we be working with colour?
The focus of this course isn't about colour as we are looking at other elements. But there will be opportunity to include some colour in our work. I will be keeping to a limited palette adding perhaps one or two colours in certain lessons.
What materials will I need?
Charcoal, white chalk, plastic and putty rubbers, ink, pencils, watercolour pencils (just a couple, I use Inktense and always use dark indigo, plus perhaps one other), woodies (just a couple of colours), white and black/dark paint plus one or two colours (acrylic, gouache or watercolour: I will be using acrylic/gouache), a mix of papers for use in collage including some patterned paper, brushes (a range of sizes from rigger to 3 inches), mark making tools: palette knife, bamboo pen, sticks, old credit card or bone folder, water spray. Gesso for the collage background (optional), a small pocket concertina sketchbook (seawhite or similar), cartridge paper, tape, Glue stick/pva.