I discovered the Royal Academy Saturday Sketchclub during the pandemic. At that time it was a series of classes over several Saturdays and it was free. I did a few and it was a lot of fun, I got on better with some classes than others but really enjoyed them all.
Over the past few months, I have been playing around with Islamic geometric design, sparked by a book I found while out christmas shopping. I’ve been getting on ok and having fun but have been looking for other resources to move myself forward. So I scoured the internet and I came across Samira Mian, who has a great website of resources including video tutorials and information about equipment and books.
The RA Sketchclub came up again…this time it’s monthly and costs a small fee, but coincidently, I saw that the sketchclub in March was going to be with none other than Samira…how lucky was that? So I signed up.
Joining the Sketchclub felt like a real flashback to the pandemic…my creaky iMac set up on the table. It was great to hear a little bit of background before launching in to some activities, the first of which was….well….a bit of origami!
It felt a bit odd to get started with paper folding but it became obvious that this was a really useful way to understand some of the things that I’d already been doing. It made the geometry more obvious.
The result of the first activity….an eight pointed star…all done through folding. I had my trusty compass at the ready but didn’t need it!
We then launched in to a more complex activity, using a 12 pointed star as a basis. Samira did the activity with next to no equipment, even using a piece of folded paper as a ruler. I cheated and used a compass and a ruler but it was interesting to see how it was possible to do something which looked this complicated with no equipment at all.
So, off we went, following along. I started well, it’s incredibly satisfying when things begin to come together and join up. It was also helpful to hear Samira’s thinking process as she put this together. I’ve largely been following step by step instructions in books, it was really enlightening to hear what it was that Samira was looking for as she drew.
However, despite all that, it wasn’t long until I was pretty lost and unable to complete the design. From the chat, I wasn’t the only one but they reassured us that we would get a link to the recording so we could go back and try again in our own time.
So I just sat back and watched Samira finish things off and show some examples of the different effects that could be achieved from the same design. I was also incredibly impressed with what others in the class had managed to achieve first time.
A really enjoyable class that left me desperate to have a go in my own time.
Almost a week later, the recording link turned up and I was able to have a look to see where I had started to go wrong. Being able to pause the recording meant I soon got the hang of it and managed to do the design as Samira had done it on the day…and also to do another, slightly different pattern.
I had also gained enough confidence to go off on my own a bit and explore different ways of making patterns from the same basic grid. In this case, I put in more construction lines and picked out different elements. It produces something that looks quite different.
The next thing to do was to add some colour so I tried a variety of different techniques.
Here I used pens and some gold paint for the centre. You can see the error in the central star!
Bold and quite pleasing.
This one is done with watercolour and gold and silver paint. My watercolour technique needs a lot more practice.
This one was done with watercolour pencils and gold paint. The finished result is nicer than the photo shows but still it’s the one I’m least happy with in the end.
So, all in all, a great experience. I need lots more practice. I’ve been looking out for more books on how to construct the patterns which are less step-by-step guides. I’ll also check out some of the videos on Samira’s website.
Tartantastic 
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