Ellie Andrews West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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Studio Life Drawing, Illustration and Figurative Art.

My practice centres around the figurative. I use charcoal, pastel, and oil paint and always from life in a sitting with a life model, my child / other children or a sitter.

My portraits capture likeness and character using loose and expressive marks. The 'working drawing' underneath is often left visible, alongside marks where I have tested colours and marks. I work fast, always from a single life sitting and respectful and true to the time allocated for the sitting. There is an experimental aspect to these sessions as I prefer to choose colours and composition at the beginning of the sessions after spending a bit of time with the sitter. There is no predetermined plan.

If I am working with children the experimental aspect becomes riskier and exciting because the sitting is so much shorter time-wise and I invite them to collaborate on the portrait with me, once I have the basic likeness and structure drawn. The result is unknown, but we always reach a sweet spot where adult self conscious mark making meets with a childs unboundless creativity, often with unique and exciting results.

My other figurative works start with drawings from life which are then introduced into a new narrative with colour, composition and mark making. These works are about capturing experiences in my life such as motherhood, and reworking them visually to express the emotional complexities of that particular moment, which at the time were difficult to verbalise.

I also run tutored and untutored life drawing and portraiture sessions from my studio in Burley, as Leeds Drawing Club (est. 2007) I also teach freelance at various arts venues, schools and universities around Leeds.