Berlin Drawing Room Blog

Life Drawing in August 2014

Join us for Open Life Drawing at the Berlin Drawing Room!

Wednesday, August 6, 6-9 pm

Focus: Charcoal and contour lines

Sunday, August 10, 4-7 pm

Focus: Ink and watercolor

Wednesday, August 13, 6-9 pm

Focus: Longer poses

Price: 45 Euro for all three classes, 20 Euro per class.
Materials: Bring a drawing pad, pencils, and any other drawing utensils you like. Some special materials will be provided or available for purchase. See below for details.
RSVP: contact

ink with watercolor background

Format: Draw from a live nude model! The typical format we use for life drawing, or Aktzeichnen, goes like this. We start out with a warm up drawing excercise, such as blind contour drawing. Then we do a series of gesture drawings from short expressive poses - always interesting because our models are typically dancers and performers! We end the session with a few longer 20 minute poses. I will suggest themes to focus on such as "the exploratory line" or "negative space". There is a break so you can mingle, get a coffee, or at least some fresh air.

These open life drawing sessions are well suited for absolute beginners as well as more advanced participants. Whether you want to learn new techniques, or just draw from a model with a nice group of people in a beautiful space, you are welcome.

Focus: This year I have decided to spice things up with a special focus for each session. You can choose to participate in the focus, or not. I know that for some of you, you just want to draw from a model and you have your own technique in mind, and you are very welcome to pursue this and ignore me.

Charcoal and Contour Lines: For the first class we focus on long flowing contour lines with charcoal! Emphasis will be on quality and economy of line, as well as the various effects one can achieve with the modest medium of charcoal. Materials: Bring sketch books, drawing pads, pencils, erasers, etc... Some paper and charcoal are provided.
Ink and Watercolor: We will experiment with ink and watercolor as drawing mediums. This technique is different from creating a finished painting. We will "draw" with the paint brush and use color more graphically. Watercolor may provide a soft colorful background for a an ink painting, or the drips and pools of color may blend into the drawing. (see example above) Materials: Bring watercolor paper, brushes, water based mediums such as watercolor or ink, a cup for water, a palette, paper towels. I will have some ink and watercolor to use, and some watercolor paper and brushes for purchase. If you don't have all the materials, don't worry! I have materials to share, and other people usually like to share what they bring. A little bit of my red ink for your blue? So just bring what you have.
Longer Poses: The special focus here effects the format of the class itself. Instead of the many shorter gestural poses we normally start out with, we will spend almost the entire class time with longer 20 minute poses. We will have a few short poses to warm up at the start, but then we go straight to the 20 minute poses. You can use these longer poses to create more finished works or experiment further with some of the materials we used in the first two classes. This could also be an opportunity to make more detailed studies or hands, feet or a portrait. Materials: Anything you like!

Open Life Drawing: Sunday, July 27. 4-7pm

Draw from a live nude model!

Join us for Open Life Drawing at the Berlin Drawing Room! All are welcome!

We start out with a warm up drawing exercise, such as blind contour drawing. Then we do a series of short gestural poses - always interesting because our models are typically dancers and performers! We end the session with a few longer 20 minute poses. The instructor will suggest themes to focus on such as "the exploratory line" or "negative space". Personal instruction and critique will be geared to the level of each participant. These classes are suitable for beginners as well as the more advanced who want to practice drawing from a model.

When: Sunday, July 27. 4-7pm
Where: Berlin Drawing Room
Cost: 20 Euro (some paper and charcoal will be provided)
RSVP: contact

life drawing at the Berlin Drawing Room

gesture drawings

Summer Workshops: Drawing and Watercolor!

Sign up now for June/ July Workshops at the Berlin Drawing Room!
I will be offering the Drawing Workshop from June 24 - July 29 and the long awaited Watercolor Workshop from June 25 - July 16.

To sign up, contact me at miraob@gmail.com. You will receive a registration form with payment instructions.

Summer Drawing Workshop: June 24 - July 29

This workshop introduces basic techniques in drawing, with a focus on drawing from observation. Exercises explore technique, medium and strategies in visual thinking. This class is a perfect introduction for beginners, with some new skills to be learned for the more experienced. You will see your skills improve, no matter what level you are starting at!

Each class is structured around a formal topic: contour lines, tonality, negative space, portraits, etc... with examples from art-history and contemporary art, followed by a brief discussion. We will build technique through guided exercises, followed by time for experimentation and longer drawings. We will draw from a live model and from still-life creations.

We will make an excursion to draw the ready-made still-lives of Berlin’s Natural History Museum, including dinosaur bones and exotic taxidermy. This class will take the form of a Drawing Scavenger Hunt!

Location: Berlin Drawing Room in Kreuzberg

Schedule: Tuesday 6-9 pm (June 24 - July 29) Field-Trip: Saturday, July 12, 12-2 pm.

Cost: 140 Euro for the complete Workshop (7 classes: 6 regular plus 1 field-trip)
(materials are not included, find the supply list here)

for more info: drawing workshop

Summer Watercolor Workshop: June 25 - July 16

In this Workshop we will use the landscape of Berlin as a subject for learning the subtle medium of watercolor. Basic color theory will also be covered. We will learn how to layer transparent colors to create the effect of cool shadows and warm sunlight, how to control the paint flow for fine detail as well as smooth backgrounds, and how to use the brush for different types of texture.

Tiergarten (Spring 2013)

The Workshop will take place twice per week, first in the studio and then outdoors. The classes held in Berlin Drawing Room studio will focus on technique, which can then be applied in the field. We will meet every Saturday in a new location, and paint plein-air. See pictures below for some examples of past plein-air sites.

No experience required! This class is perfect for beginners as well as more advanced students who want to improve their skills or just discover interesting landscape locations with fellow painters!

June 25 - July 16

7 meetings: 4 x on Wedneday in the studio
from 6-9 pm
(June 25, July 2, 9, 16)
and 3 x on Saturday in the field from 12-3 pm. (June 28, July 5, 13)
cost: 140 Euros

(materials are not included, find the supply list here)

for more info: watercolor workshop

Guides for Seeing Art in Berlin

In the mood to go see some art but not sure where to go? Tired of paying museum admission fees but intimidated by the long list of galleries? Already saw the "big names" but not sure what to see next?

Help is here! Well indirectly... I wanted to share with the Berlin Drawing Room community my list of art guides in Berlin. These are great resources for finding out what is currently up, but also to get tips and reviews.

Enjoy!

One of my favorite exhibitions from last year:
Hilma af Klint at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum

1. Index Berlin
http://www.indexberlin.de
This guide is fairly comprehensive when it comes to commercial galleries, and has a pretty good list of alternative spaces and private collections (that are open to the public) as well. Invaluable is also the list of openings, by date!

2. Berlin Art Link
http://www.berlinartlink.com
This website is great because they give weekly recommendations on what to see. They also post reviews, studio visits, and more to go deeper into the Berlin art-scene, as well as a variety of other resources.

3. Bpigs: Berlin Independents Guide
http://bpigs.com
Here you can find listings for mainly alternative, artist-run, project spaces in all their variety! Bpigs offers weekly recommendations for exhibitions and other art-related events. Reviews and a variety of other content can also be found on their website.

4. The Berlin Drawing Room FB page!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berlin-Drawing-Room/111978005591766
I post links here to the exhibitions we see when we go on class field-trips, or just when I come across something that I think you guys would enjoy. So "like" the page and my suggestions!

Painting Workshop Field-trip

Mixed Media Field-trip to Blain|Southern

Yinka Shonibare at Blain|Southern

Seeing White: Student Work

How to see white as a color!

In the Winter Painting Workshop, we painted from a still-life made up of all white objects. This was an exercise designed to fine-tune our understanding of white paint and how to accurately observe white objects. The perceived color of a white cup is effected by the color of the light and everything around it. There is reflected color in addition to the color of the object. Observing all the shades of white, and finding the myriad of colors to be perceived in a white still-life is great practice in observing the relativity of color!

My students did a great job with this exercise! They squinted their eyes, tenaciously mixed subtle shades of gray, yellow, pink, etc... And from an all white still life they ended up with these remarkably colorful paintings!

See some of our influences here: http://berlindrawingroom.blogspot.de/2014/02/seeing-white.html
Artists who have made the color white the subject matter of their paintings!

Seeing White

When learning how to paint, the use of the color white can be one of the most difficult skills to grasp. Improper use of white paint is one of the most common mistakes for beginners, resulting in a patch-work like effect. It is easy to assume that a white object must just be painted with white paint, or a highlight on a form should be as light as possible and therefore pure white. But as we learned, colors are relative! So even if you are painting a white cup, the perceived color is effected by the color of the light, and what is surrounding the cup. Shades of white can be very subtle and require close observation, but the results can be stunning!

Here are some examples of artists who have used white very intentionally as a color. To see examples of the excellent work from this class go HERE
Starting most famously with Whistler's aptly titled "Symphony in White, No. 1" or "The White Girl."

Symphony in White No. 1: The White Girl, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, 1862

John Singer Sargent

Claude Monet

Giorgio Morandi

Milton Avery, 1946

Georgia O'Keeffe

Painting Collage: Amelie von Wulffen

Collage can be a great starting point for a painting. This technique was used early on by Modern artists like Picasso and Braque, and advanced by Dada and Surrealist artists. Collage has continued to be a major artistic medium, remaining popular with young contemporary artists and established artists alike.

We did a project in the Fall Painting Workshop inspired by the painting-collages of contemporary German artist Amelie von Wulffen. She has developed a technique where she starts with a photograph and then extends the photograph as a painting. It is as if the "real" world within the photograph is merging with the invented world within a painting. Sometimes she also merges two different photographs, making them appear connected through the painted section between the photos.

Amelie von Wulffen

Von Wulffen often uses architectural photographs as a starting point. The technical advantage here is that she can extend the perspective lines within the photo into the painting, to create a consistent illusionistic space.

Amelie von Wulffen

Can you tell where the photo ends and the painting starts?

Amelie von Wulffen

Here are a couple examples examples from another artist, William Wegman, using a similar technique. Only this time, Wegman is using vintage postcards instead of architectural photographs. But you can still see how the use of perspective is very important in creating a continuous image.

postcard collage, William Wegman

We tried out this technique in the Fall Painting Workshop. Here are some of the results!