I had been gifted a recent drink and draw night held in the cosy confines of a Chorlton cocktail bar. My wife and I entered and was greeted by canvases laid on tables full of cocktails, pint glasses and gouache. We sat down in front of a simple subject: a vase of wildflowers with an instructor guiding the process.
Nothing fancy. Just stems slightly drooping, petals in a tangle, and soft evening light catching the rim of the glass. We started, as I often do, with quick observational drawing, loosely mapping out the shapes, angles, and negative spaces. No pressure, no perfection, just getting to know the subject by looking hard and moving my hand.
I quickly realised that my pattern had got the better of me and I was getting ahead, so pulled it back and started to focus on details. It happens when you are with others doing similar things, like in a level art class I remember there was a freedom but some pressure to compare. Those things will haunt you in the best of ways.
The reference style we were given was relatively blocky and focused on highlights and more like tri-tone work (probabky more like my wifes version here below to be honest, and which I do like but I often struggle to follow this pattern with brushwork. It is something I lean towards with graphics and digital media though and is highly effective).
I used a soft pencil to block in the key shapes, and some charcoal was available to map out some initial tone (that would be mostly painted over). I wasn’t concerned with exact likeness just trying to catch the gesture of the flowers, the sway of the stems, and the weight of the arrangement, and the symmetry of the vase.
When id finished the pencil and charcoal work my intuition led me to the acrylics (not oils because that would have been expensive class for the hosts!) And this led me to that a level art class again thinking of Rembrant or the Paris ramparts, or some other post-Impressionist fixture we studies those days.
I reached for oil pastels and gouache and began pushing an abstract of the green background, dabbing to brush like a sewing needle, not painting brushstrokes.
I then built the dark layers of the background up further and moved to the flowers with a light pink base. This allowed to reverse the flowers i.e. use dark pink for the negative of the light flowers and vice versa. Eventually the colours balance and there is 1 light flower and 1 dark that have the same colourways.
The pale whites and creams turned to pinks and violet petals woth highlights of orange and light blue, the shadows went from grey to blue. the result started to become a kind of guassian blur like the image was viewed through a watery lense.
I outlined some blooms in purple, filled the background with swirls of green and pink And blended. I then began to work in the green leaves and then add some highlights accross the background to balance the colour pallete accross, then adding in some orange highlights for some light and shadow highlights from the top right to highlight on the leaves and the transparency of the left side of the vase.
That shift—from observation to improvisation is something I love exploring, and i am guilty of not being able to follow instruction in this regard sometimes, and is the one aspect of work that is more forgiving.
It reminds me that drawing from life doesn’t have to stay literal. It can be a springboard. Once the structure is there, you can play with colour, space, rhythm. You can exaggerate, simplify, or completely reimagine.
And doing this in a public, social space—among friends, with a drink in hand takes the pressure off and puts it on at the same time. And when there is just 1 canvas with no opportunity to scrumch it up or hide away from its fair game that youre going to make some mistakes or make some excuses about it not being perfect.
No one’s aiming for gallery work. We’re all just there to create something, however messy, however surprising. Just remember that’s why you’re there in the first place.
Creativity as a Habit (and a Social One)
Nights like this remind me why creative habits are so important. I always rave about keeping a sketchbook, saying yes to casual art events, turning a night into a mini studio session and loosing yourself in it, that’s the stuff that keeps your practice alive, and also helps you to switch off in a comfortable and safe space.
Key Takeaways
If you’re an artist, or just someone who wants to be more creative, start small. Go to that drink and draw night. Sketch your coffee cup. Paint some flowers and let them get weird. Your creative self and probably your friends will thank you for it, even if they come out with a rubbish canvas you’ve made some memories together.
#PostImpressionistFlowers #DrinkAndDraw #FromObservationToExpression #CreativeHabits #SketchbookPractice #LooseDrawing #ExpressiveColour #OilPastelAndGouache #FloralArt #ArtInCommunity #UKArtists #PaintingWithFriends
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