DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - BIOMORPHICS AND GRIDS Looking for botanical patterns Continuing with the preparation stages of this course, Esra, our teacher, instructed us to find patterns featuring organic motifs, and to sketch a single motif. She suggested going to a museum to find things to sketch, but this wasn't possible…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - ISLAMIC ART - CONTINUING WITH INK PRACTICE Esra, our teacher, suggests we practise daily with the brush and ink. It's a question of training one's hand and eye and brain to get used to this unfamiliar technique until one perfects it. It is difficult! However, several days in, I think…
NEW BOOKS Today Amazon delivered some new books for me. I have long been fascinated by the little brown "Wooden Books" on a variety of subjects, mostly esoteric. A lot of people complain about the format of these books, saying they are too small and the diagrams are hard to understand at this…
BEGINNING A NEW DOMESTIKA COURSE - INTRODUCTION TO ISLAMIC ART At the beginning of this month, I began a new Domestika course. This one (full title: "Introduction to Islamic Art - Creating Biomorphic Patterns") seemed a natural follow-on from the mandala drawing course. Lots of pattern, repeated elements and so on. I am…
A VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF MARBLES Yesterday we met up with some friends and had lunch together at the House of Marbles. We first met them there many years ago on a pre-Christmas visit. We had to queue for a table in the restaurant because the place was so busy. While we…
ISLAMIC ART - FIRST ATTEMPT, AND A NEW COMPASS In advance of the new Domestika course on drawing Islamic art, I decided to have one or two "dry runs" to get my hand in. I have been fascinated by the complex geometric patterns in Islamic art for decades, and have several books on…
STUDIO TIDYING, 2025 - A NEW SHELF UNIT My studio has been driving me nuts for months. All through last year I was busy with the online art course and was able to do most of the work on my lap in the sitting room in comfort. When I am not using my…
THE REDEMPTION MANDALA DOMESTIKA COURSE - THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING - COMPLETING THE PROJECT The final stage of drawing the project for this course was to add the shading. It always amazes me what a transformation shading makes. It turns a flat line drawing into something that springs into life and seems…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING - DRAWING THE DESIGN The pencil sketch Having drawn the basic grid for the mandala, the next lesson in the course was to make the pencil sketch. This gives you the chance to try out different ideas, and to correct mistakes, before committing the drawing…
DOMESTIKA COURSE - THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING - MAKING THE GRID FOR THE FINAL PROJECT We are now on to the two final units of the course on mandala drawing. Having done a lot of preparation, we are now ready to start the drawing that has been the ultimate destination of the…
