ART CLASS WITH KATIE COMLEY JONES – THE FINAL WEEK | CRITIQUE

So here we are, the final week of Katie Comley Jone’s ten week art class, a week where we get to critique each others work. I cannot believe how quickly these past few weeks have gone. Looking back we covered so many topics, produced tons of work and learnt loads, but most of all, I really enjoyed myself. The past two weeks were spent on our personal project. I picked a selection of inspirational photos, making sure to remain aware of the fact that I’d be limited for time. I also picked a reference image to combine the two, like I spoke about in week eight.
 
Last week I turned up ready to paint but soon realised converting a black and white image into colour wasn’t going to be easy. Looking back, I should have tried to do a monochrome painting instead, but as I had the idea of doing a full colour painting in the style of Arata Yokoyama, painting monochrome didn’t cross my mind until much later in the day.
 
Katie agreed that I had maybe bitten off more than I could chew. As I had already started doing the background from one of Arata Yokoyama’s paintings, I was left with a choice. Start a new painting, replicate the whole painting forgetting about the reference, or try and merge the two images together. I decided to opt for trying to replicate the painting. You can see both reference images below, on the left is the untitled painting by Arata Yokoyama, in the middle the beautiful pose from misslaurelle that I never used. On the right, my painting. I gave my personal painting everything I had, but the time ran out and as you can see from the image below, I was unable to finish it :(
  • Katie Comley Jones Art Class Reference Image by Artist Arata Yokoyama
  • Katie Comley Jones Art Class Reference Image MissLaurelle
  • Katie Comley Jones Art Class Unfinished Painting by Artist Sophie Lawson
To be fair, this final week wasn’t so much about painting … the real focus was feedback! Katie had produced feedback forms on three of our drawings/paintings created during class, and we were asked to give feedback on them, before Katie gave us her personal critique too.
Katie Comley Jones Art Class Feedback by Artist Sophie Lawson
 

Along with this, Katie also set aside an hour for us to critique each others work in a feedback forum. Katie went around the room from person to person with each of us placing a piece of our work on an easel she’d set up at the front of class. We then discussed how the art made us feel. Katie had wrote on the board the following list of things to be thinking about:

Formal Elements
•Line
•Shape
•Colour
•Texture
•Value
•Form
 
Formal Principles
•Balance
•Contrast
•Emphasis
•Pattern
•Proportion
•Unity
 
I actually hit record on my iphone, Katie was giving so much advice it was impossible to take it all in and look at the art at the same time. I selected my cat drawing from week five to be placed on the easel. I received some really nice feedback.
Katie Comley Jones Art Class Oxide Powder and Pastels Cat Drawing by Artist Sophie Lawson
 

“WE’RE SORT OF OVERCOME BY THE ACTUAL SUBJECT, THAT CLEARLY THE APPLICATION OF THE MEDIUM IS SO SUCCESSFUL. CAUSE WE’RE ACTUALLY DISCUSSING MORE ABOUT THE LOOK AND FEEL OF THE ANIMAL.”
– Katie Comley Jones

Overall it was a lovely end to a fantastic ten weeks. Katie is amazing. I did intend to go to a Life Drawing class she was going to run, but it got cancelled at the last minute. She also later informed me via email that she was moving away from Plymouth. So, I may never get to learn from Katie again :(
 
I really loved Katie’s style of teaching; It was laid back but structured, giving you direction but complete freedom. She left me excited for the future.
 
Thank you Katie – KatieJonesUK.com

ART ENABLES US TO FIND OURSELVES AND LOSE OURSELVES AT THE SAME TIME

– Thomas Merton