Studies from the Studio Escalier Spring figure painting class.
I’ve recently returned from a 3 week intensive painting class with Studio Escalier.
Last year I attended their December drawing class in Paris which was a revelation (as you can see my Louvre drawings or December in Paris posts), before the painting class I was wondering, “How can this possibly live up to Paris?” There was no cause for concern though, as the class was incredible and inspiring.
A range of techniques were explained and demonstrated over the three weeks, beginning with the poster study.
‘Poster Vision’ – change the way you see the world
We began with the colour poster study; a suprisingly abstract but incredibly useful exercise to note light and colour effects. Their appearance of simplicity is deceptive because it was suprisingly difficult to avoid drawing and just focus on the light and colours. I didn’t make any of the examples above abstract enough!
Spending my days seeking and absorbing colour and light effects had a side effect though, that I could see everything as beautiful patterns of light and colour. Even the most everyday things can be beautiful, seen in that way; we are in control of making our relationship to the world.