Children stencil tessallating geometric patterns.

I have recently returned to the UK after delivering a series of workshops in Doha, Qatar. For two weeks in July / August 2012, myself and two colleagues from the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts led Islamic art classes at Katara Cultural Village. The workshops were a great success, and were even featured in a lovely article in The Gulf Times! As usual, the trip was very busy, very tiring, but also very fun! I particularly enjoyed spending time in Doha during Ramadan. During the day, the streets are quiet, but everything comes alive at night! The atmosphere is very special. With the nocturnal eating hours of Ramadan, the city buzzes in anticipation of the secret midnight feast and night time prayers.

Square and hexagon shaped "tiles" are ready to be cut out and tessellated.

It is late here in the UK, and I am tired, so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. Above are some examples from our geometric stencilling workshop. Students used paints and stipling brushes to stencil geometric patterns onto square, hexagon and triangular shaped “tiles”. The “tiles” were then tessellated to form several group projects. The results are below:

One of our competed group projects - consisting of stencilled hexagons tessellated together.

My colleagues and I put the finishing touches to one of the group projects.

We also led a workshop on Platonic solids. Our students coloured the surface pattern on polyhedra nets, which were then cut out and assembled to form 3D shapes:

A student paints, then constructs an octahedron, as part of our Platonic solids workshop.

Two brothers work together on colouring their octahedron.

Some of the completed Platonic Solids - great as festive decorations!

Students had the opportunity to learn about floral design in Islamic art. Using inspiration from nature, we led them through a simple workshop on rotational symmetry, which resulted in the following beautiful tessellating patterns:

'Breath of The Compassionate' group project.

At the end of the week, my colleague and I led special adult classes in traditional geometry and Islamic manuscript illumination. As part of the illumination class, I showed some of my own work, and taught students gilding and brushwork techniques:

A student working on her piece from the Islamic manuscript illumination class - this requires very careful concentration!

Student's work from the Islamic manuscript illumination class.

A belated Eid Mubarak to you all!

(c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012. Watercolour and aluminium leaf on khadi paper.

Wishing everyone a very blessed and peaceful Ramadan!

Interested in learning about Islamic and/or traditional arts? If so, why not book me for a workshop? Please contact me to find out about classes in geometry, arabesque design, colour harmony and illuminated manuscripts. And don’t forget to check out the AMAZING student’s work on my website!

I love teaching, I love art, and I love nurturing creativity amongst young people… so I feel this is the perfect progression for me to make. I still intend to freelance as an artist and illustrator during holidays and in my spare time, but I’ll have a full teaching timetable to keep me busy for the next year, plus the PGCE assignments and lectures!

I suppose I’d better enjoy these last few months of studio time, before life gets very busy…!

Carvoeiro Beach (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Just a few more sketches from last month’s holiday in Portugal. Both are a little unfinished, but perhaps I’ll use my photographs to help complete them at some point.

Boat (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Vienna (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Some work with pastel pencils and coloured pencil…

Carvoeiro, Portugal (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Bird sketches (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Just a few bird studies from my sketchbook. I’ve used a 0.2 waterproof marker with watercolour pencils in the sketch above. I’m pretty pleased with the vibrancy of the pencils – didn’t expect for them to be so nice and bright! The paper is from a Starbucks paper bag, which actually turned out to be a lovely surface to work on. Recently, I’ve been in the mood for some experimentation with materials. Collage and unusual papers are really appealing.

Geese studies (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

I love the patterns created by the feathers of these geese. Here, I’ve used watercolours over 0.2 waterproof marker on khadi paper. By the way, these bird studies are sketches for a larger body of work, which I hope to be able to tell you about soon! Until then, enjoy the art!

'Dodo' from the Natural History Museum, London. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Last Saturday, I attended my first ever “sketchcrawl” at the Natural History Museum in London. If you don’t know what a sketchcrawl is, take a look at the Urban Sketchers blog, where artists (both amateur and professional) share their sketches of everyday life from around the world. The aim of the site is to encourage the art of drawing on location – i.e. not from photographs or memory. Artists simply try to capture their environments in a sketchbook, and share these visual stories with others.

A “sketchcrawl” is a day when a group of artists meet up and draw on location together. The London Urban Sketchers group decided to spend the day at the Natural History Museum – an excellent choice! Not only are the exhibits fantastic, but the architecture of the museum is simply breathtaking. In fact, the building is my favourite in London.

Our first stop was the bird gallery, where I couldn’t resist the replica dodo (above). Its feathers are so soft and fluffy, it looks like a sheep-bird. How sad to think that such a beautiful animal is now extinct. For this sketch, I used pencil, 0.2 waterproof marker and Chinese stick ink on khadi paper. It was a challenge to keep my inks and materials balanced on my sketchbook while painting – but all part of the fun!

Stained glass panel at the Natural History Museum

After sharing our sketches over lunch in the museum cafe, everybody headed off to different areas of the museum. I was enchanted by the stained glass, and spent the remainder of the afternoon sketching this panel. It took me some time to work out the geometry, but it was very satisfying.

As the afternoon wore on, the light began to fade and the glass changed colour. I haven’t done it justice, but I hope that a little of that subtlety is captured in this sketch.

'Plesiosaur', from the Natural History Museum, London. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2012

Finally, I am adding this sketch that I made of a Plesiosaur at the Natural History Museum in November last year. It proved quite a challenge, and as you can see, it’s unfinished. I love the texture of the fossils, and the way the shapes of the bones create patterns.

Thank you to all of the Urban Sketchers for such a fun and inspiring day! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next sketchcrawl!

Bird sketches. Pencil and 0.2 marker on moleskine paper. (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2011.

Just a few sketches that I have been doing in preparation for a project that I hope to be starting next year. More on this soon!

For anyone looking for a great resource of wildlife images, the National Geographic website has a fantastic online gallery of animal photography. Enjoy!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Happy holidays!

A sketch of the neighbour's house. Chinese stick ink, pencil and 0.2 marker on khadi paper (c) Ayesha Gamiet 2011.

A few weeks ago I was feeling a little worn out and tired. Do you ever get that feeling when you’re just too sluggish to focus on your work? Perhaps the cold and lack of sunlight was taking it’s toll. Whatever the reason, I could feel that I needed a break that afternoon, so I dug out my Chinese stick ink and a new pad of khadi paper in order to do some sketching.

I haven’t sketched on location in a long while, so eased myself into the process by simply sketching the neighbour’s house. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, or how the sketch might turn out, but now that it’s finished I’m actually quite pleased with the result. I’m making an effort to use less colour, so that I can focus on line and tone… it’s amazing the amount of variation you can achieve with just one colour, and how it forces you to find new ways of describing a surface or texture.

The idea of sketching on location was inspired by this fantastic blog called Urban Sketchers. Members, including artists, illustrators and many other creative people share their sketches of everyday life from around the globe. It is a great website to look at for some daily inspiration… I especially love the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes, and picking up new techniques!

I think that leaves me with a good New Year’s resolution for 2012 – do more Urban Sketching!