Hi Guys

This months drawing competition requires you rummage around the house and find a pair of shoes to draw in monotone colour. Monotone means varying tones of just one colour. I’m not going to specify a material but I do require the results to be in monotone colour, so just different shades of  one colour though it doesn’t have to be pink as in the video! But  no black and white please.

Working in monotone can be tricky but it is a very good discipline as it forces you to start considering how different colours relate to each other tonally, i.e. are they darker or lighter than each other. You kind of have to imagine you are looking at a black and white photo of what you are drawing, imagine the colour has been removed but the tonal differences still remain. It’s something to get your head around but hopefully the video will clarify things a bit and make it easier.

All entries must be posted to the Sketchout Facebook Page by the 5th of December and the winner will be announced on the 7th of December.

My Top tips for getting the best results this month.

-Work in water soluble pastels/pencils, watercolour or acrylic on white paper.

-Think of the  white of the paper as your lightest tone and use a transparent medium such as the ones listed above so that you can use the white of the paper to show through in the areas  you want it to.

-Work with speed and energy. Don’t labour things too much.

-Think about brush strokes and texture. Smooth perfection can sometimes feel a little flat, get some texture into your work.

-Think about the background. Place your shoes in a location by adding a bit of background to your piece. Don’t just have them floating in emptiness. Thinking about the shadows that the shoes leave on the surface they are resting on. Including these  shadows  will help to ground the shoes and give them weight.

-Photograph your work with consideration in a place of good natural light and from straight on. Bad photos are not likely to get chosen even if the work is great because they affect the look of the blog post.

Enjoy!

Lots of love

Rosa

xx