South Wirral Art Society
Kim Harley Book Illustrator and Tutor at Wirral Met.
The Art of Inks. 26th Jan. 2010
This is Kim’s second visit to us and 31 members and guests where there to welcome her, and to see her demonstration.
On the night she had prepared a pencil drawing of a foal, and made ready to talk us through the ink drawing process. We where privileged to witness an artist in transition, moving from pure illustration and scaling up the pictures and techniques for the larger surface. Kim agreed when asked, that the style had more akin to drawing than painting, but the end product had uniqueness about it that we have not seen before.
Picking out some of the key traits of Kim’s style; cut down bristle brushes capable of taking the vigorous brush strokes; started with lighter tones and worked towards darker tones; started with the outline and form and built up tone line by line; the uncontrolled drips added to the freshness of the picture as well as some excitement and could be removed later; she tried to follow muscle and bone as her focus was the form of the foal; the focus was the animal as the background was left stark and blank; undiluted inks gave fewer drips and better stronger tones.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening, and the lessons might be;
· Be brave, try something new
· Don’t be precious about making the marks on the surface.
· Stand back sometimes and see the whole
· Focus on what it is you want from the picture
· Don’t overwork the picture
Peter Appleton.