Drawing and painting

My final run of 5 classes with artist, Jim Kavanagh http://www.jimkavanagh.com/ finished in January. We worked on a technique to capture the qualities of cloth as it drapes. It was an interesting project to work on and probably appealed to me so much because it was fabric-related! We were asked to position a 'precious object' in front of a draped cloth. So I chose a glass bowl of threads in front of a red shot-velvet. With more practice, I'm sure I could improve on this, but here are the photos of my charcoal drawing and my oil painting of this subject. I learned a lot from Jim and hope to go back for more lessons at a future date.

Aran Island Hand

This is the oil painting I brought home after my 1st course of 5 classes with Jim Kavanagh. I learned a huge amount from Jim while working on this one painting. It was underpainted in violet acrylic for 2 weeks and then painted with oils on top for a further 2 weeks.

I 'dabbled' with painting in watercolours, acrylics and oils on my own in the past, but probably never understood how to make it all work the way I wanted. Having the help of a teacher made a huge difference!

I enjoyed Jim's classes so much I've signed up for another course. We started a new drawing last night, so I'm hoping to learn some more as I do my second oil painting.