From line drawing to volume – 6 weeks

About this course

This Line Drawing to Volume 6-week course, led by experienced children’s book illustrator and interior designer Siglint Kessler, teaches essential drawing techniques for creating the illusion of volume and space in 2D artwork.

Starting with line drawing, you’ll develop traditional skills like sketching from life, measuring proportions, recognising negative space and applying techniques such as cross-hatching, light and shadow and tonal values.

In our inspiring Twickenham working studio, you’ll also have the chance to experiment with blind drawing, mark making and other unusual tools and prompts to to loosen up and see where chance and play will lead. The course includes exploration in coloured media, e.g pastels, watercolour and acrylics, doing exercises with a limited selection as well as free, imaginative use of them, learning about composition, shape, contrast, tone and style.

What you will learnL

Focused strongly on observing light and shadow in observational drawing. Each session contains some quicker exercises to practice a method, followed by a longer main project exercise.

1. Process and methods of drawing
   • Learn to trust your eye, Mid points and help lines, looking at/using negative space       
   • Importance of light/shadows on geometrical volumes and strong light source
   • Main: Small still life in black and white (pencil) 
2. Space and lines
   • Negative space sketches, loosening up with continuous line or blind drawing 
   • Main: still life of plant/ flowers or enlarged pepper, walnut - one attempt in charcoal, one in watercolour
3. Shading
   • Ways of shading in different media and with free or controlled strokes
   • Main: copies in black and white after famous artists: one for line drawings, another for larger tonal areas 
4. Tone and edges
   • From photographs, apply some methods in quick sketches: mapping out shapes, soft and hard edges, reducing to black and white in stark light, merging areas, looking at drapery
   • Main: full tonal drawing of figure in interior in soft pencils
5. Light and Shadow
   • Light and shadow in colour, leaving black out altogether
   • Translations of black and white photographs into two or thre colour sketches, using watercolour, pastel, collage
   • Land and or cityscape in watercolour, pastel, collage or mixed media
6. Methods to give an illusion of depth
   • Structural thinking applied to architecture  or a city scape
   • Surface texture to help convey different materials
   • Composition and view finder
   • Main: Composing a scene with an unusual perspective

Materials supplied: limited selection of media

What to bring:
A3 hardback block or sketchbook
Soft pencils (2B to 7B)
Charcoal
Kneadable putty rubber
Watercolour or any other coloured media you have: pastels, pencils, acrylics,
Inks
Selection of brushes
Collection of papers: magazine or book pages, burnt, printed, found paper,
wrapping paper etc.

About the instructor:

Siglint Kessler is a versatile freelance artist with a rich background in
children’s book illustration and interior design. Her work gives her a strong
foundation in drawing from life, composing imaginative scenes, and a deep
understanding of space, volume, and colour. Currently, Siglint is a resident
artist at Redlees Studios in Isleworth, where she has dedicated much of her
recent practice to the art of ceramics.

As an art instructor, Siglint embraces a wide range of approaches and
techniques. She combines clear instruction with a spirit of experimentation,
encouraging her students to explore their creativity freely. Whether guiding
them through her own methods or promoting the beauty of chance
discoveries, Siglint fosters an environment of learning that is both structured
and open to artistic exploration.