Workshop with Jelly Massee

Learning pen and ink techniques at a terrific workshop

I adore horses, as anyone who knows me or who has browsed this blogsite understands.

So I was keen to take a class with Chapeau, Quebec-based artist Jelly Massee, who taught class participants various techniques of using pen and ink to create art from photographs we had taken. Techniques included stippling and crosshatching, among other styles of shading and definition. The class took place in 2012.

Armed with a photograph of my husband Eric’s Friesian-cross-Standardbred gelding, Trooper, I created a pen-and-ink study, using all the techniques being taught during the class.

First, I studied the image I had taken of Trooper. I took this image the day we purchased him, and Eric had just taken him out for a drive in his previous owner’s buggy, on the roads. What a handsome lad he is (I mean Trooper...!)...

Then, I traced my photograph, and started work on Trooper’s face. 

Below right: the image is near completion. Notice how I still have Trooper’s chest to fill in, and there is more detailing to be executed on his neck and  harness.

NEW!

Special note re exhibitions (this note is added later, in 2014): I will first exhibit this pen and ink work, “Trooper” during my first solo show (May 12-July 4, 2014) at The Mud Oven, in Ottawa.