technique

I thought that last Saturday was likely to be our last day of summer, so used the opportunity to go out with the kayaks in Chichester Harbour – the Bosham inlet. It was fantastic. But low and behold we got several more opportunities to go out in them. We would have gone again on Tuesday at high tide, but a lot of preparation needed to be done for the Pen & Ink workshop starting the next day. However, I did get what I think might be my last trip (without wet suits) in the kayak this year, on Wednesday evening after the workshop. It was lovely and warm and relaxing – 1st October.

So why did I need something warm and relaxing? The Pen and Ink workshop was only Wednesday and Thursday, therefore I had my work cut out to teach a new technique to a full house. As normal I encouraged people to choose more realistic challenges for themselves as they needed to draw their subject before branching out into the ink technique. It was a lovely group of people and luckily they took my advice – although I think some of them might have chosen something more difficult given the opportunity. But when doing a new technique, it is always much better to choose something simple, get a feeling for the technique and thus a good result.

At the end of the first day everyone had their first layer of ink on and was ready to take a break. By the time they came back on Thursday, nearly all were enthusiastic and they stormed ahead getting the results you see. I am glad to say that most were really encouraged by their results and are very determined to do some more pen and ink work in this style.