Moments In Time:
An Evening of Chalk & Cheese
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Explore a range of chalky drawing techniques and exercises drawing from the Kanat // Vidaspace design installation and reference sheet.
We'll use a variety of artist's papers, charcoal, vibrant chalks
and pastels, stencils and more!
We encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and into your playful self daring to push new creative boundaries with
no worries about the ensuing outcome.
Warm Up Exercises: Contour Drawing
Spend two minutes on each style,
drawing inspiration from the reference images in your reference sheet.
All drawings on one page,
let your exercises intermingle.
Gather your reference material
Spend a few minutes moving in, around and throughout the design installation taking pics of the:
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a. Design Installation - through the frames, the mirrors, the real-flower-wallpaper, sculptured shapes and so on.
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b. People - the people around you, solo and in groups, take some from the mirror reflections.
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Use these pics as your inspiration for the evening, together with the reference sheet provided.
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Exercise 1: Figure Drawing
Charcoal: Sweeping Strokes
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Select 3 of your people pics.
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Use the black charcoal and A3 white paper.
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Loosely draw the contour outlines of these 3 figures, don't worry if these figures overlap.
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Use the smudging stick to elongate these contour lines into long Sweeping Strokes.
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See the sample above, watch the clip below...
Chalks: Smudge & Define
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Select your people pic(s), black paper and white chalk.
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Loosely sketch the general body shape.
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Smudge with the smudging stick or your finger.
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Re-draw atop this.
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Continue smudging & defining.
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Watch this process in the clip shown below:
Exercise 2: Abstracting Scene
Part A: Find a Frame
Use the purple masking tape to mask a frame along the outer edges of your page.
Part B: Background Blocks of Colour
Select one of the design installation/reference sheet pix you'd like to draw.
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1. Identify the broad segments, large and small.
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2. Choose your colour scheme,
try not to follow the actual colours in the pic.
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3. Draw some of these segments as blocks of colour
on your page, perhaps try positioning them
differently to your pic...
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4. Blend these areas using the sponge,
finger or smudging stick. ​
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5. Negative space - you needn't fill the entire page
with colour (see Part C below).
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6. Layer up - add new blocks of colour atop others,
highlight areas using lighter colours, blend different colours together...
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7. Consider using the Smudge & Define
or Sweeping Strokes techniques.
Part C: Negative Space
Consider leaving negative (blank) space on your page.
Part D: Mark Making
Mark making has no rules - it can be loose and expressive or controlled and neat. The results depend on your choice of media, tools & techniques.
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Some mark making samples :
We encourage you to let go and fully engage your inner playful self, be experimental trying different mark making atop the blocks of colour.
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Mark making can be as simple as a 'snail trail' line, or series of X's or O's...
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Try using the stencils and pan pastels, applying with the sponge applicators.
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Continue layering up more colour blocks and mark making, smudge & define, refining detail with each new layer.
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The finished piece could have up to 5 layers.
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Exercise 3: Combining Figure & Abstract
The finale
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For your finale piece combine all you've learnt above into a single piece including:
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- figurative & abstracted backgrounds,
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- layering up techniques,
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- smudge & define,
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- mark making,
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and so on.
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Use either black or white paper.
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Draw inspiration from the pieces you've drawn, particularly the parts you most enjoyed.
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