Showing posts with label big painting challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big painting challenge. Show all posts

Sunday, September 26, 2021

The Big Painting Challenge - a memory jogger for those watching the reruns

I noticed that the BBC is rerunning The Big Painting Challenge on BBC2 at 2.15pm on weekday afternoons. Episodes are all also available via the BBC iPlayer

I thought I'd resurface my blog posts about the three series.

In every series I comment on what seem to be me to be the key themes and the lessons to be learned from what happens in the programme. Plus just a few thoughts about the delivery of the programmes by those involved! ;)


The Big Painting Challenge - a Memory Jogger!


Series 1 (2015)


The artists at their exhibition in Highgate after the series was finished



Series 2 (2017) 


Although they try to reinvent it as Series 1!

The story so far for Series 3 (2018)




PS Sorting things out for life after surgery has taken a lot longer than I expected. I'm about 85% of the way there - and pretty knackered at the moment. Although I've had my second pre-surgery assessment appointment and everything seems to be OK....

Just need a date now....
Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, September 26, 2021 0 comments
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Monday, November 23, 2020

The Big Painting Challenge (series 1) revisited

The Big Painting Challenge - first broadcast on BBC1in 2015 - is being repeated on BBC2 every day this week at 3.15pm with the Final at 4.15pm on Friday.  

I reviewed every episode the first time it was broadcast and for those who'd like to revisit what I had to say these are the links to:

  • every episode on iPlayer
  • my blog posts - which include the exhibition they organised after the programme had been broadcast and the blog posts they wrote about the challenge.


The Episodes


Episode 1: Landscapes

Episode 1: Landscapes
(Guess what's the biggest castle the BBC could find?)

Interestingly the narrative for each episode has become more more expanded.  This is what they NOW have to say about Episode 1 and the Final (see below)
This series presented by Una Stubbs and Richard Bacon takes ten amateur artists to stunning locations across the country to battle it out in a tough series of painting and drawing challenges for the title of Britain's best amateur artist. 

The competition starts in Alnwick Castle in Northumberland - known to many as Hogwarts - where expert judges Lachlan Goudie and Daphne Todd OBE set their first challenge to see each artist's unique painting style for the first time. 

Eyebrows are raised as one artist starts by painting her whole canvas bright red whilst another paints what looks like a lion straddling a cannon. As paint is put to canvas Una and Richard learn what drives each artist's passion for painting - and what it would mean for them to win. 

The second challenge each week is a quick-draw challenge. In this episode the artists must sketch, at speed, a delphinium flower. Expert judge Lachlan Goudie shows us his tips on how to capture the beauty and complexity of a flower. 

Their final challenge is to paint the formidable castle from across the banks of the River Aln. Getting a sense of depth into their paintings proves more difficult than many think. While some thrive painting outdoors, others who've only ever painted in the comfort of their spare bedrooms have to adapt quickly to the challenges of the changing light. 

Una travels to the V&A museum in London to view one of the most famous landscapes - John Constable's The Hay Wain - and artist Fraser Scarfe tries to convince her that there's more to it than its chocolate-box reputation. 

Back in the castle, the judges take on the role of executioner as they have the difficult job of deciding which amateur artist won't see it through to the next week

Episode 2: Portraiture

Episode 3:  Still Life

Episode 4: Human Form and Movement

Episode 5: Cityscapes

Episode 6: Seascapes

The grand final sees presenters Una Stubbs and Richard Bacon travel to Devon's picturesque south coast as the final four amateur artists battle it out to be crowned the winner. With just three challenges left to impress the judges, Lachlan Goudie and Daphne Todd OBE, the amateur artists get to grips with their first challenge - capturing a sense of Britain's seafaring heritage at Dartmouth's Royal Naval College. With the prize in sight, one artist goes all out to impress the judges, risking everything. The finalists have already sketched the human body in motion - but never on this scale. For their last quick-draw challenge they assemble on the parade ground to capture at speed a whole platoon of naval cadets marching in formation as they perform a sword drill. Ahead of the final ever challenge, Una travels to the Kent coast to learn what attracted JMW Turner to the seaside town of Margate and led to a lifelong fascination with the sea, while in his last how-to guide Lachlan gives tips on how to capture constantly moving crowds of people. With everything resting on the last challenge, the stakes are high and the sense of excitement even higher as the finalists create one last painting - capturing the light and atmosphere of an idyllic but visually complex scene - Dartmouth harbour. At the end of a gruelling and emotional six weeks, Daphne and Lachlan decide who should take the title and announce their first Big Painting Challenge winner.

After the Filming


My final two posts related to what happened afterwards 

The Artists


The BBC has NOT remedied the fault with the original series i.e. that the artists got not recognition in the credits.

So here is who they all are.....
The 10 artists who participated in the The Big Painting Challenge were the "last painters standing" from the 6,000 who applied to be part of this televised art competition

These are the websites of the artists involved in the series. The first link is to their page on the Bigger Picture website and then their website and social media links after that.

I look at hundreds if thousands of artists website each year and found it very interesting to look at the artwork on their websites and Facebook Pages. I suggest you take a look.
Interestingly they've changed / refined sites and accumulated a few more links since 2015!!

8 of the 10 artists exhibiting - in April 2015
(Left to right) Paul Bell, Alison Stafford, Anthea Lay, Jan Szymczuk, Anne Blankson-Hemans,
Claire Parker, Heather Harding and Richard Salter


Bios below are based on their websites!

The women

  • Alison Stafford: website | Facebook Page | LinkedIN - studied Fashion and Textiles at Manchester and after obtaining a BA Hons in that field, pursued a career in Fashion design for the next 25 years. She loves to paint portraits of animals and people that capture a character. I am fascinated with the relationship between humans and their animals and am currently exploring this in a series of paintings. She specialises in equine and canine portraits and am an active member of the Association of Animal Artists, and the ​Society of Equestrian Artists. Her equestrian work can be found on www.equestrian-art.co.uk
  • Anne Blankson-Hemans website | Facebook Page | | Instagram | blog | twitter - Anne studied Fine Art at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and came to live in the UK in 1984. She is a multi-award winning artist who has been exhibiting since 2007 and is a full member of the Society of Women Artists. She was also a finalist for the BBC Two programme #ShowMeTheMonet. More recently he painted Portraits of NHS Heroes. Reached a major birthday in September and has recently retired and moved to the Lake District to become a full time painter - with lots of plein air painting!
  • Amy Goldring: Website | Facebook  | Blog - a contemporary painter currently based in Swansea. Studied for and achieved a BA Honours, Fine Art (1st class) in 2008. Her blog has some fascinating insights into art and autism which are well worth a read.
  • Anthea Lay: Facebook - a fan of plein air painting
  • Claire Parker: website | Facebook | Instagram | | Twitter | - a largely self-taught artist with a degree in Modern Languages from Cambridge and a Masters Degree in Art History. She works in Essex and London. She has been featured in several national art magazines, and has exhibited in Essex, London, and Cambridgeshire.
  • Heather Harding: website | Facebook | Twitter - a figurative artist living in East Sussex who loves to paint and takes commissions.
Taking part in BBC One's The Big Painting Challenge was a blast. A fabulous adventure which helped me gain more confidence in my painting and 9 new artist friends. It was the key that unlocked the door and gave me permission to go through. Heather Harding

The men

  • Jan Szymczuk: website | Facebook - born in Stannington, in Northumberland in 1958 of Polish Parents. Joined the Metropolitan Police in London, and after 30 years, ended his service at New Scotland Yard, and retired in 2009 as the senior Detective Police Artist. Currently an Ambassador for SAA Artists Acrylics and sponsored by the SAA (The society for all artists).
  • Melvyn Flint: website - a representational painter living and working in Kent. My work covers landscape, portrait, still life and animal subject matter.
  • Paul Bell: website | blog | Facebook | Twitter - a contemporay artist born in 1964 in Scotland. He is currently  living and working in Beaconsfield, England. His style seems to have changed quite dramatically since the programme.
  • Richard Salter: website | Twitter - studied Fine Art with Buckinghamshire University. Served 21 years in the British Army and was medically discharged in 2017 - having painted throughout his military career - and since.
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, November 23, 2020 0 comments
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Monday, August 05, 2019

NEW PAGE: Art on Television

I very much enjoy reviewing the episodes of the various art competitions on UK television and seem to have accumulated rather a lot of posts on the topic.

So much so I've decided to create a brand new page on my blog which is purely about my "Art on Television" blog posts.  It can be accessed

  • via the menu tabs at the top of the page if viewed on a desktop or tablet
  • in the hamburger menu if viewed on a smartphone

The "Art on Television" Page includes 

  • all the series I've reviewed of programmes by both Sky Arts and the BBC - which are listed below. 
  • Every blog post I've written is also listed on the new page


Sky Arts - Artist of the Year


  • Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 - which is in the can but won't be broadcast until 2020
  • Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 - which aired earlier this year on Sky and is currently being repeated on Channel 4 on Saturday evenings at 5pm.
  • Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 - which has just finished filming the semi-finals and will be broadcast in the Autumn. The really big (this is a pun!) question was always whether a very pregnant Kate Bryan would be there all the way until the end. If you go to Kate Bryan's Instagram account you can find out what happened!
a mashup on Instagram of pics tagged #landscapeartistofthe year
  • Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 - the first series I watched via the NOW TV app
  • Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 - which I enjoyed enormously and got to know a number of the artists as a result!

BBC - programmes involving artists and artisans


The Big Painting Challenge

  • BBC Celebrity Painting Challenge - which was the format I'd been advocating for some time - but sadly with no 'normal' people involved
  • BBC: The Big Painting Challenge 2018 (Series 3)
  • BBC: The Big Painting Challenge 2017 (Series 2)
  • BBC: The Big Painting Challenge 2015 (Series 1)

BBC: The Arts and Crafts House (2018)
BBC: Home is Where the Art is (Series 2)
BBC: Home is Where the Art is (Series 1)



Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, August 05, 2019
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Sunday, March 24, 2019

Celebrity Painting Challenge on BBC1 - who's taking part?

Celebrity Painting Challenge is the second new art series on the BBC - on BBC1. 
Following on from my post TWO NEW BBC Art Shows last November, I can now reveal who's going to be doing the real work - the painting - and when the show starts!
Lachlan Goudie @lachlangoudie Mar 20
Strap on your palettes, arm your paint tubes and wind up the celebrities... here comes #CelebrityPaintingChallenge @BBCOne 8pm Thursday 4th April
Courtesy Mariella Frostrup Twitter
In this instance key facts and features are:
  • six "celebs" (names below) will find their artistic skills are tested by various challenges (as per the previous Big Painting Challenge with 'ordinary mortals'). It does occur to me that some of the might be more accurately referred to as 'former well known people on the box'.
  • the series starts on 4th April on BBC1 - with a self portrait and then hey get to paint a nude Keith Allen.


BBC One’s Celebrity Painting Challenge

Participants

The participants are
  • Jane Seymour - actress who has starred on both film and on television - who paints. She describes herself as an artist and homemaker on her website. She also has her very own Facebook Page called The Art of Jane Seymour. Here she is painting with Glenn Campbell on YouTube



  • Josie d'Arby - a Welsh television presenter and painter from Newport, Wales. She used to present a number of high-profile shows
  • Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen - Laurence gained his fine art degree at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts before going on to work for the design firm Peter Leonard Associates. His art website - which is actually really badly designed! His output has included Limited edition fine art prints for DeMontfort Fine Art (one of the major players in the UK repro print market)
  • Amber Le Bon - an English fashion model and the eldest of the three daughters of Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon and model Yasmin Probably better known for attending the celeb preview of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art with her parents. Not big on images on her Twitter feed. 
  • George Shelley - an English singer, television and radio presenter and actor. He is known as a former member of the boy band Union J. In 2015, he competed in the fifteenth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and finished as a runner-up. I'm guessing he's the male version of "the totty" - because those 'casting BBC programmes are so VERY predictable!



I'm trying to work why they are listed in this order. Is it in order of fee earned - or skill as a painter - or how long they lasted?

Interestingly, given the fact that the "names" are known for other reasons they are accorded the status of presenter (unlike The Artisans without a credit on Arts and Crafts House)

The rest is pretty much as indicated previously.

People

Format:

  • a four part series 
  • The Challenges will comprise
    • traditional - portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, still life and life drawings
    • fun challenges "with humour and a twist".
  • The Final will comprise "the toughest challenge yet"
  • A selection of paintings from the six artists will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to charity.
except for rather more detail about the nature of the first episode!

Episode 1

Six celebrities tackle the human form as they capture on canvas a nude Keith Allen and their own self-portraits. Our judges and the public pick whose art will hang in the gallery.
!!! 
    Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, March 24, 2019 0 comments
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    Friday, November 09, 2018

    TWO NEW BBC Art Shows

    The BBC has announced:
    • The Celebrity Painting Challenge a new programme testing the artistic skills of six well known people (as in you've probably heard of at least one of them)
    • The Artists Art Show - although trailed a new format for interest might be more accurate of what's happened so far.
    Read on to find out what's happened so far.

    The Celebrity Painting Challenge: Key Facts


    • to be broadcast in 2019 - due to air in Spring 2019. Filming should have started by now. (I wonder if they will go up against BP Portrait Artist of the Year?)
    • the celebrities are: 
      • actor Jane Seymour, 
      • musician and presenter George Shelley, 
      • cricketer and broadcaster Phil Tufnell, 
      • model and DJ Amber Le Bon, 
      • presenter Josie D’Arby and 
      • TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
    • the judges are: Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie who hitherto have been the Judges on The Big Painting Challenge
    • the mentors are back: Diana Ali and Pascal Anson
    • the presenter is Mariella Frostrup
    • the format is: a four part series. I'm trying to work out six people across four programmes and came up with
      • 2 programmes of 3 each - drop one at the end 
      • a semi final of four people - drop two at the end
      • a final of two people
      • OR 3 programmes with two challenges and six people and a final of a reduced number
    • The Challenges will comprise
      • traditional - portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, still life and life drawings
      • fun challenges "with humour and a twist". 
    • The Final will comprise
      • "the toughest challenge yet"
      • a selection of paintings from the six artists will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to charity.
    So basically The Big Painting Challenge with celebrities - over a faster timescale!

    The big challenge for me will be whether I can maintain my record of predicting the winner well before the end! ;) Plus I record online - so I'm not just saying that for effect! :)

    NOTE: Celebrity Painting Challenge is due to air Spring 2019. It is a BBC Studios production, the Executive Producer is Kat Lennox and the Series Editor is Chi Ukairo. It was commissioned for BBC One by Charlotte Moore, Director BBC Content and Mark Bell, Head of Arts Commissioning.

    BBC Artists Art Show - another new series - as well?


    Recently this pic has been making the rounds on Facebook. The BBC is looking for artists. I know no more than what it says.

    The BBC is looking for artists
    It seems to be commission based/biased.  Maybe it's also linked to interior decoration themes? Anyway, it sounds different from anything done to date - although I do worry that Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is involved in the first show.....

    Note it involves people from across the disciplines and includes potters, carvers, crafters, screen printers and street artists as well as painters.

    Could it be this replaces "The Great Pottery Throw Down" which also got the chop?

    This new programme could be OK - it certainly sounds a bit more grounded in reality. I wait to hear more with interest.....

    If YOU are interested the email is in the image.

    The niggles with BBC Painting Programmes


    Some of you may recall that I wrote
    Interestingly the celebrity show is a BBC Studios production - and the above has a BBC email address to respond to - suggesting BBC Studios may well be behind this programme as well.  Meaning that the awful people who made The Big Painting Challenge - who were basically a "talent show" team may well have been replaced. 

    We can but hope....

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    The Big Painting Challenge - a Memory Jogger!


    The story so far for Series 3 (2018)

    Series 2 (2017)

    Series 1 (2015)

    Posted by Making A Mark on Friday, November 09, 2018 0 comments
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    Monday, May 07, 2018

    Review: The FINAL of The Big Painting Challenge 2018

    The Final of Series 3 of The Big Painting Challenge was both better and worse than I was expecting.

    However, I did maintain my 100% record in predicting the winner - of Series 1 (2015), Series 2 (2017) and Series 3 (2018) so that was one plus point!

    As I predicted yesterday - before the Final! - Oliver Freeston won the Final.

    Oliver Freeston wins The Big Painting Challenge 2018

    However, what was surprising was that he did even better than I thought he might and seemed to weather the nerves best of all four of the male finalists. I'm sure his previous training as a dancer/performer must have helped him.

    There's a little bit of me wondering why people do get so worked up. What's the worst that can happen? They don't win - which is absolutely guaranteed for 3 of the 4 and therefore the most likely outcome. It's not as if they miss out on a big cash prize or some life-changing contract or whatever. It's just a title and an accolade. Making it to the Final is "the win" for most people.  I loved Chris's story about what it was like when he told his family he was in the Final!

    The Location


     The Final was set at the Historic Dockyard at Chatham - which my other half was pleased about as he's often thought we should have a day out there.

    They weren't lost for some BIG shapes when it came to the final challenge. In the meantime, there was the task and the "Mentor's Masterclasses"

    Some BIG Objects for the BIG Painting Challenge

    The First Task


    Anybody who has watched this series before will know that the Final is likely to involve a portrait. So no surprise there.

    Well no surprise to SOME might be more accurate. Apparently Anil owes Chris a £1 - which I took to mean he guessed it and Anil didn't. Sometimes you can read faces too...

    and your first task will be a self-portrait....
    Chris goes "I told you so" and Anil looks more than a little gobsmacked
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, May 07, 2018 1 comments
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    Sunday, May 06, 2018

    The Painting Show which should replace The Big Painting Challenge

    This evening at 6pm is the televised Final of The Big Painting Challenge (BPC).  This post provides a critique of the series to date AND at near the end I set out the sort of programme I'd like to see replace the BPC.

    In case anybody's interested, I think Oliver Freeston will win The Big Painting Challenge.
    • He's never been one of those considered for elimination 
    • he won the public vote last week 
    • he does seem to have made an effort to listen and improve his painting each week.
    • he's given his website a makeover! He just needs to do the same for the artwork displayed on it now. Most of it seems to be pre-BPC.
    • he's in the middle of the photo for their Chapter 10 Exhibition which opens this week (see the end of this post)

    The Big Issues for the BPC


    The BBC obviously does not consider The Big Painting Challenge as any sort of serious contribution to the arts in this country

    How do I arrive at this conclusion?
    • I checked out the BBC Arts webpage this morning when I sat down to write this post. The Big Painting Challenge is nowhere to be seen. This presumably because the programme is not part of the Factual World which embraces the rest of the Arts, Culture & the Media Genre on the BBC.
    • Nor is the Programme to be found in Learning - and interestingly the BBC does not recognise or cater to Adult Learning
    • Instead The Big Painting Challenge is listed under Talent Shows!!! How "dumb" is that?
    At the beginning of the series I wrote a post I called The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - The Issues in which I highlighted my niggles about this BBC programme - described thus by the BBC
    Passionate amateur artists undertake an intensive, six-week, artistic boot camp in a bid to perfect their skills and be crowned the overall champion.
    At the end - I just feel very sad.

    This programme totally missed an amazing opportunity to EDUCATE as well as entertain - without making it a "lose a candidate every week" type of show.

    If you are going to have a knock-out then you must start with the best you can find. 

    As it was it wholly:
    • misrepresented and down-sized the nature of development in painting and 
    • dumbed-down the process. 
    So let's revisit my issues identified at the outset of this series - before I identify the programme I hope they make next year.
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, May 06, 2018 5 comments
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    Monday, April 30, 2018

    Review: Movement - Big Painting Challenge 2018

    It was semi finals week in the Big Painting Challenge this week. Six people were left - which meant that two people had to go before the Final next week.

    The six semifinalists and their Mentors - just read the body language.....
    So I wrote down in my notebook I use when watching each episode the four people I thought would make it to the Finals two minutes into the programme - and come the end I was proved right.

    Who will be in the final? 
    Mind you, I think that's because I pay attention to the way the edit by the production company leaks subliminal clues from the very beginning of the series! Pay attention to who gets highlighted in the opening sequence - particularly in relation to episodes not yet shown - and how much time they get!

    This week the theme was ostensibly Movement - but was actually about looking - and the need to look, study and memorise movements and work out a strategy that worked for them about how to depict movement.

    The comments on social media continue to be overwhelmingly negative about this programme on both Facebook and Twitter #BigPaintingChallenge. Indeed I can't think of another "how to paint" programme which has ever produced this reaction.

    The theme underlying most comments is how unfair and mean the programme is to the artists.

    Even the Daily Mail decided to comment - see Judges on The Big Painting Challenge are branded 'bitchy and cruel' by viewers - who say they're more interested in 'crushing' amateurs than the quality of their art (although their final sentence - not the one below - defies logic!)
    Judges Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie were branded 'unbelievably brutal' by contestant Susan, from Northern Ireland - and many viewers strongly agreed
    I've been a defender of the Judges until now - but this week was not good.


    If this programme is not reconstructed into something less "gameshow" and more educational and appropriate for an early Sunday evening slot in future I shall be very surprised.

    I do hope the BBC take the opportunity to fire the production company at the earliest opportunity.  The direction and editing is just plain nasty.

    The First Exercise


    On the whole this first challenge was a much better tempered and less upsetting affair compared to last week. Pascal seemed to be on best behaviour and was extremely pleasant.

    I concluded there had been a post mortem after the previous week and a commitment made to have no more tears.

    How wrong was I?

    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, April 30, 2018 3 comments
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    Monday, April 23, 2018

    Review: Waterscape - The Big Painting Challenge 2018

    This week, Episode 4 of The Big Painting Challenge was the Waterscape Episode.

    Seven painters and two mentors face the Big Waterscape Painting Challenge
    As it was plein air week, they of course had REALLY BAD WEATHER!  I'm not sure that they were planning to have quite so much water in the air as well as in front of them.

    Mariella announced at the beginning of the programme that they were on the banks of Loch Lomond "at the tail end of a hurricane" - which I think this means it was being filmed in the third week of October and they had to go north to still have leaves on the trees! 

    Here's a taster of how bad it got.

    What was really odd was the variation in clothing - and you could really tell who had previously painted plein air (or was used to being outside in Scotland) and who was more used to painting in nice warm studios i.e.
    • who knew what it was going to be like (Pascal - head to toe in red waterproof oilskin of the type worn by fishermen and Tilly - who had layers on her layers and both had really effective hoods)
    • who didn't (Oliver - rocking a laddish V neck sweater and absolutely no visible waterproof whatsoever!)
    Pascal in waterproofs

    Pascal had a really bad week. He made Jane cry and then this....


    Anyway - back to the normal challenges........

    Below is my digest/review of what happened in this week's episode. This post follows on from my earlier posts (see end for the first two series and my posts about this series so far)
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, April 23, 2018 2 comments
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    Monday, April 16, 2018

    Review: Portraiture - Big Painting Challenge 2018

    Portraiture was the third genre to be tackled by The Big Painting Challenge (last night on BBC1 6pm). The setting - in the RAF's Centenary Year - was the RAF Museum at what used to be Hendon Aerodrome and the models were air cadets for the first challenge and RAF and WAAF Veterans for the Big Challenge.

    I took a look online and there were a fair few (generally unfavourable) comparisons with the Portrait Artist of the Year programme broadcast by Sky Arts - which I guess is inevitable given the discrepancy in knowledge, experience and skills.
    This week's blog post is going to include posts by the general public on Twitter as I detect a sea change in views about this programme which I think the BBC commissioners should pay serious attention to.

    Leading up to the final judgement for somebody - at the RAF Museum
    You can view the episode on iPlayer in Episode 3 of The Big Painting Challenge - and below is my digest/review of what happened in this week's episode

    It follows on from my earlier posts:
    These are the participants in their two teams for this week's episode. This year they seem to be switching people between the two mentors on a regular basis - although I don't remember that happening last year. It looks as if they swop one person with each episode. I guess that's to avoid a situation where one team gets left with too few painters.

    Diana Ali's Team - Jane. Chris, Susan and Callum
    Pascal Anson's Team - Oliver, Anil, Ray and Tilly
    There were a fair few tensions within the teams
    • Oliver wanted to make sure he did himself justice as he normally paints portraits
    • Chris was really anxious as he had never ever painted a portrait before - on top of the fact that he has ocular albinism. I looked up the term this week - and now understand much better the problems it presents. (How do you judge somebody who can't see detail very well against those who can?)
    • Callum had also never painted anybody from life - having spent his time to date painting sweetie packets from photos.


    The First Challenge


    The First Challenge involved that most difficult of portraits - a young person - in this case two young air cadets - with very young faces.

    The artists had to all use the same size of support, media of their own choice and they could bring their own art supplies from home.

    I found some of the "soundbite" comments from the Mentors to be absolutely farcical.
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, April 16, 2018 11 comments
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    Wednesday, April 11, 2018

    Review: Nature - Big Painting Challenge 2018

    This post is about the Second Episode of the Big Painting Challenge 2018 which focused on:
    • Nature - painting dogs and trees
    • Alternative ways of handling paint
    The group and tutors ready for The Big Painting Challenge Episode 2

    It follows on from my earlier posts:
    This episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer for the next 27 days.
    Nine painters continue in the artistic bootcamp, which this week sees themworking with their professional mentors, Diana Ali and Pascal Anson, to conquer paint-handling techniques to depict nature in all its glory.  BBC website

    Continuing issues for me


    Before I start I want to thank all those who took the trouble to comment on the blog posts and also on my Facebook Page where I post my blog posts once finished.  It's always really good to see if my comments resonate with others and also to get your own perspectives on how things are going - which might be summed up as Sky Arts 1 BBC 0.

    Episode 2: Coherent or discontinuity


     I'm having major problems with the format for the individual episodes. Last week we had two awful abortions masquerading as still life set-ups and went from those via two fast (but useful) exercises to a vast interior which was in some way supposed to be 'a big still life'.

    Absolutely no teaching of perspective in the content of the programme - and then somebody gets sent home for not grasping that her perspective changes when her eyeline changes.

    This week we have:
    • the reverse of still life - the two teams each had a dog to paint, neither of which was still for very long
    • exercises about how to use tools other than brushes to handle paint and make different sorts of marks
    • a discussion by Fraser Scarfe (who has morphed into a replacement of Lachlan Goudie) 
    • a big challenge about painting lots of trees - and leaves - and how best to represent these through the handling of paint

    Teaching: Imperative vs. interrogative


    I've still got my hackles raised over Diana's teaching style and tried this week to try and find the reason why.

    I concluded that she instructs in a very imperative way - essentially "don't do that, do this" a.k.a. "my way is best". Plus she's just plain RUDE and says some completely outrageous things - a bit like a "shock jock"! (This coming from somebody who is renowned for being somewhat direct!)

    It's not very energising - I'd absolutely hate to be in her group - in fact I'd walk and/or insist on being in the other one.

    Diana's group gets its dressing down about the dog pics

    It was interesting how Ray was swopped to Pascal this week after the the "don't use watercolour, use acrylic' imperative last week.

    By way of contrast Pascal's instruction is much more carefully scripted and articulated - plus he asks questions "May I show you?"  I'm very definitely warming to him in this series.

    Again, Daphne who everybody seems to think is an ogre - and who I think is just a plain-speaking who makes intelligent comments - is very interesting in the way she asks members of the group questions as she goes round the group.

    At some point they will realise that she's actually asking them whether they have considered an aspect that might be worthy of consideration. There's an awful lot that both participants and the audience can learn from the questions she asks. She's very perceptive and perspicacious ie. almost always spot on!

    I do think those who "parrot" comments about "her unfortunate manner" might want to bear in mind that their experience to date of painting tutors might be limited to those who say nice things to them all the time because they'd like them to keep paying fees for tuition!

    Give me Daphne's feedback any time if you want to make some serious improvement as an amateur artist!

    I liked Fraser Scarfe who stepped in for an absent Lachlan (of whom there was no mention). He also provided some sound assessment and judgement and was a nice foil for Daphne. (PS Do take a look at his website - he's got some paintings of trees featured!) His book is called How to Paint Atmospheric Landscapes in Acrylics - I've not seen it or read it - but it looks like the sort of book Ray might find very useful! :)

    The First Challenge - doggies!

    Ostensibly the next step up from painting something very still is painting something that moves.
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 0 comments
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    Friday, April 06, 2018

    How to get | print | use Pascal Anson's lined papers for a still life collage

    If you want to download those tonal lined papers used by Pascal Anson for the Big "Cut Out a Still Life" challenge this is the blog post to go to - DRAWING IS DIFFICULT! Perspective, Still Life, Lids and Bananas - they're at the bottom and available to download.

    Lined sheets of paper by Pascal Anson - for constructing still life collages
    You can then print on plain or coloured paper

    RECOMMENDED: Plus he has a video showing you how to use them - definitely worth watching






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    Posted by Making A Mark on Friday, April 06, 2018 2 comments
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