Drawing and watercolour on Læsø

Drawing and watercolour on Læsø

Welcome to a week in the spirit of drawing and creativity. My name is Mette Lehmann, and I'm your course leader, inspirer and cheerleading squad for this week. If you have the desire to draw, you'll surely become good - the rest I'll help you with.

I've drawn all my life - professionally for the last 30 years. So you can safely lean back and enjoy the journey I'll take you and the group on. I'm an irrepressible optimist and easy to enthuse, and I'm quite sure that with you in particular on board, we'll have the coolest group, with plenty of wayward lines, splashes of colour and laughter.

Whatever your experience with drawing, your line is unique and entirely your own. When you draw what you see, it's a personal experience. Unlike ordinary tourists with their phone, who take pictures exactly like the 1,000 already out there online. So come on now - fasten your helmet, grab the sketchbook and come along on a trip where all your experiences can be documented through your own eyes and hands.

What will you experience?

First and foremost, we'll draw and paint. We'll throw ourselves into modern watercolour, which is a freer and livelier way of painting than traditional watercolour painting. Here colours and splashes can flow together abstractly, and a field can well be pink and a sky green. It's playful and fun.

We'll look at colour theory and palettes. We'll sketch away, work with basic techniques in drawing and test out materials. All mixed with my best tips and tricks. We'll draw both in our lovely studio in the orangery, and out of the house on beautiful Læsø.

The techniques we work with in the orangery, we take with us out on adventures, where we draw what we see. It could be in nature, at the harbour, the Saltworks or by the characteristic seaweed houses. Besides the drawing, we'll hear, see, taste and experience all that Læsø has to offer.

From magnificent nature, lovely food, the culture, the historical and the tall tales.

But there's also room to hop on a bike yourself and head off into the blue, or a trip to Læsø Kur, which is housed in an architectural gem of a converted church.

Everyone can join in!

"I don't know how."

"I don't know anything about watercolour."

"I haven't drawn since I was a child? What if it doesn't look like anything?"

That's how we adults often think. We doubt whether we can. Children don't doubt that they can draw. If they put a colour to the paper, they're drawing. And that's true. Put colour on paper and you're drawing. Children are free. They don't analyse what they're doing, or who's going to see it.

They create and play carefree. The best place to start learning to draw is to start drawing. Yes, it sounds funny, but it's true. Drawing skills are something you practise and develop. A sketchbook is a wonderful place to start. Here you can play and experiment. Follow your development and test things out. If you spend a little time each day, you'll quickly discover that something starts to happen.

It's never too late to begin - and least of all when it takes place on magical Læsø and with me to motivate, inspire and take you by the hand. Shall we see each other?

Day participants can also join

You can also come along as a day participant if you have a home/summer house on Læsø. It's a condition that you take part in the whole programme.

Fondest greetings, Mette Lehmann

A few testimonials about Mette as a teacher:

"WOW! What a great workshop! Engaging, energetic and super educational for everyone. Mette brought so much of herself into our workshop with presence, commitment and positive energy. She embraced opening the team up to learning with attention to vulnerability and individual needs in the team."

Lena Friberg, Head of Branding & Design, Coloplast

"I'm still blown away with enthusiasm after having been to a workshop with Mette Lehmann. Mette's energy is something quite special! And at the same time you're not for a second in doubt that here you're dealing with an impressively sharp and wildly talented woman. Mette is deeply professional in her facilitation - and because of her fantastic energy, concentration and focus are at their peak!"

Line Kudsk, Trainee Lawyer, Penta Advokater | Vice President of Operations JCI Danmark

"Mette is just fantastic - nothing less! With her many years of experience in challenging her own creativity, she takes her audience along on an inspiring and different workshop that "gently" nudges everyone's habitual thinking.

Ditte Busk Toudal Pedersen - Sales & Marketing manager, Dansk Magisterforening

Materials

In principle you can take part in the whole workshop with:

3-5 different watercolour colours

3 brushes. E.g. size 6 + 8 + 12

1 sketchbook with reasonably thick paper

A couple of pencils & a black ink pen

Other materials?

I encourage you all to look at what you already have lying around at home. It could be a couple of black pens, pencil, wax crayons/Caran d'Ache, coloured pencils, gouache, coloured ink or Posca pens. You don't need to go out and buy a lot, just see what you have, and bring a bit of a variety. I do have one piece of experience, though. If you're sitting with a very expensive sketchbook, it can be an obstacle to throwing yourself into experiments. Instead you "look after" the fine book.

So even though a sketchbook with expensive watercolour paper is super nice, a cheap (and perfectly fine) Royal Talens is perhaps a better choice for your creativity.

But if you'd like a few different recommendations from me, you'll find a list of good, quality materials in various price ranges in the text below.

Recommendations for materials

Here's my list of quality products in various price ranges. The prices are indicative. They're the prices I found when I googled the various materials. You can of course buy pretty much everything online. But if you have the chance, don't cheat yourself out of a visit to an art supplies shop. It's just nice to be able to hold the things in your hand and feel the materials and the paper, and figure out what appeals to you best. Fondest greetings >:^) Mette

WATERCOLOUR SET:

As mentioned, you can manage with 3-5 colours, but I recommend you buy a set - the size is up to you and your budget. When you have more colours in your palette, you don't have to mix so much, and that can be nice when you're not so practised. Most watercolour firms have both a "student line" & a "professional line". The difference is how lightfast the colours are - how long the pigments last in sunlight. But for a sketchbook, student grade is perfectly fine.

154 kr. Royal Talens Student grade - Buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B00NU4TCTI/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_9?smid=A1LZM4YAK6A5OA&psc=1

172 kr. Paul Rubens Student grade - buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B08JHMBPBL/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=AD8LXQDDN9761&psc=1

265 kr. Winsor & Newton Cotman student grade https://penstore.dk/dk/winsor-newton/cotman-brush-pen-set

590 kr. Schmincke Pro colours https://stellings.com/products/schmincke-horadam-akvarelsaet-12-pans-i-stor-aeske

SKETCHBOOK IN A5 Sketchbooks come in all sizes. If you already have a larger watercolour sketchbook, or several ordinary types of sketchbooks, lying around, then do bring them along. But my experience is that it's always the smaller books I reach for when I'm heading out to experience things and am on the go. So an A5 book - or similar size - is easy to find and perfectly suited to our course.

70 kr. Royal Talens 140 g. https://panduro.com/da-dk/products/kreatima/papir-blokke/blokke/royal-talens-art-creation-sketch-skitsebog-13x21-cm-gult-omslag-140-g-m%C2%B2-80-ark-596837

189 kr. Moleskine 165 g. https://www.markersnpens.dk/p/moleskine-pocket-sketchbook-hard-cover-plain/

195 kr. Leuchtturm 150 g. https://penstore.dk/dk/leuchtturm1917/sketchbook-a5-medum

SKETCHBOOK WATERCOLOUR PAPER

The magic of watercolours only really comes into its own on watercolour paper. I always have a "proper" watercolour sketchbook that I really enjoy using to explore watercolours in. Can be recommended.

209 kr. Moleskine 165 g https://penstore.dk/dk/moleskine/sketchbook-medium-black

WATERPROOF INK PEN

We need to be able to paint with watercolour on top without the colour bleeding out. Ask where you shop for e.g. Uni Pin fine line 0.7 Edding 1800 profipen 0.7 Uni ball Signo gel stick 0.7

BRUSHES:

From 43 kr. Stellings Golden Brush - Mette's favourite - Go for size 4 - 14 depending on taste. (6+8+12 is a good starter set) https://stellings.com/products/stellings-golden-brush-guldhar-rund-600

NICE TO HAVE:

When we draw in nature or on the go, there are a few things that are nice to have with you, and that make the drawing life a little easier:

Tote bag or little bag & a pencil case for your things

Eraser

Paper tissues

Soft pencil - HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B - the higher the number, the softer the pencil

Pencil sharpeners

Enamel mug for water - light, but robust

Water bottle you can fill with clean water

Clips to "hold the pages" in your sketchbook in windy weather https://panduro.com/da-dk/products/kreatima/vaerktoej/clips-klemmer/papirclips-guld-19-mm-10-pak-109469

A little water spray bottle to "wake" the colours in your palette https://panduro.com/da-dk/products/kreatima/vaerktoej/ruller-tilbehor/tom-sprayflaske-sat-2x50-ml-970708

A micro, smart fold-out stool from Spejdersport. Handy when you draw on the go, so you can place yourself wherever you want without sitting on the ground and getting cold. NOT something you need for this course. Just nice to have :) https://www.spejdersport.dk/asivik-taburet-campingstol