Hi Dominique. I recently viewed your exhibition entitled “The Wood” at Fidra In Gullane and really loved it. I particularly liked your mixed media ink / charcoal and guache compositions and am interested to learn how you build these up. Do you by any chance do workshops demonstrating the techniques you use? I am a retired architect and (very) amateur artist. I studied Architecture at the Duncan of Jordanstone School of Architecture. Any advice would be very welcome.
Kind regards,
Robert Sills
Hi robert, thank you for your lovely comments, its really appreciated. Umm… I’m not sure what I can tell you about the way I work, only that I start with the charcoal to give me a sense of the overrall composition and where the tones will be that dictate where the light is in the picture. Then once I feel a bit bolder I turn to the ink to start drawing. When that feels as if its getting somewhere I return to the charcoal and then swap between the two media , building it up as I go. Unfortunately I don’t do demonstrations – not sure my nerves could cope, but my advice would be is just have a go. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different media to see what happens , and the most important advice is to relax, and play. I know thats what you might have heard before but its the way to engage with your work. Loosen off your lines, your expectations and explore what line, tone, and shape can do. As long as you have a starting point, don’t be scared to see where it might end up, its all about the evolution of work not having the finished picture in your head at the start. One technical piece of advice is if you work on paper its a good idea to give it a couple of coats of slightly diluted gesso first. This acts as a brilliant ground to take ink and chacoal – which you can erase easily and makes the paper much more robust and therefore you can take a few more risks with it.
Hope thats ok Robert and good luck.
All the best
Dominique
Thank you Dominique for taking the trouble to give me such a detailed response. I shall certainly take on board your suggestions particularly with regard to the gesso and give it a go! Thanks again,
Robert
dominique cameron RSW 
Still love this Dominique. I can so nearly smell it……………
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Thanks Sandra ! Lovely to see you yesterday at the Festival 🙂
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Lovely collection!
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Hi Dominique. I recently viewed your exhibition entitled “The Wood” at Fidra In Gullane and really loved it. I particularly liked your mixed media ink / charcoal and guache compositions and am interested to learn how you build these up. Do you by any chance do workshops demonstrating the techniques you use? I am a retired architect and (very) amateur artist. I studied Architecture at the Duncan of Jordanstone School of Architecture. Any advice would be very welcome.
Kind regards,
Robert Sills
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Hi robert, thank you for your lovely comments, its really appreciated. Umm… I’m not sure what I can tell you about the way I work, only that I start with the charcoal to give me a sense of the overrall composition and where the tones will be that dictate where the light is in the picture. Then once I feel a bit bolder I turn to the ink to start drawing. When that feels as if its getting somewhere I return to the charcoal and then swap between the two media , building it up as I go. Unfortunately I don’t do demonstrations – not sure my nerves could cope, but my advice would be is just have a go. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different media to see what happens , and the most important advice is to relax, and play. I know thats what you might have heard before but its the way to engage with your work. Loosen off your lines, your expectations and explore what line, tone, and shape can do. As long as you have a starting point, don’t be scared to see where it might end up, its all about the evolution of work not having the finished picture in your head at the start. One technical piece of advice is if you work on paper its a good idea to give it a couple of coats of slightly diluted gesso first. This acts as a brilliant ground to take ink and chacoal – which you can erase easily and makes the paper much more robust and therefore you can take a few more risks with it.
Hope thats ok Robert and good luck.
All the best
Dominique
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Thank you Dominique for taking the trouble to give me such a detailed response. I shall certainly take on board your suggestions particularly with regard to the gesso and give it a go! Thanks again,
Robert
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