Old Masters of the Future

Fleur is the co-founder for Design in Quarantine and volunteer curatorial assistant working on the Rubens to Sickert: The Study of Drawing exhibition.

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Precious Pearl
Pen and Ink on paper
5×7 inches
By Holly Cox

I’m a 31 year old artist from Reading, with a love of Art Nouveau and Victorian illustration.  My drawing depicts a hand holding a baroque pearl which is suspended on a ribbon.

I love puns. And “La planta del pie” is in fact, a Pun. In Spanish we translate the sole of the feet as the ‘plant’ of the feet… Therefore, a foot in a plant pot.

I’m a self taught illustrator, I never studied art or anything similar so, if I’m kind of good at it is because I’ve never stopped drawing since I was a kid. Maybe having a big imagination helps to make me form a picture in my head and be able to put it into the paper. I also like sketching and doodling on any piece of paper I find! 

I grew up watching Cartoons (Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros, and some anime) but I’d say my biggest influence comes from Matt Groening. His style is simple but very expressive and that’s what got embedded into my brain when I started exploring the world of illustration. 

Laura is a Fine Art and English undergraduate student at the University of Reading.

Georgios Gyparis is a current 3rd year Art student of the University of Reading.

Georgios Gyparis, ‘A self-portrait’, March 2021, pen on paper, A4(0,21m x 0,297m).

‘Lying nude’, charcoal on paper by Paul Whitehouse

Charcoal sketch of model Ezra from a recent online life drawing session with Wokingham Life Drawing Society.

“I try to capture the gesture very quickly without overthinking it, then go back and correct the line if I have time. My biggest weakness is that I can’t resist trying to get an impression of the models’ face even when time is short. When it works it always makes the drawing more memorable for me and sometimes might even improve it. I like to try different approaches and mix it up a bit with charcoal, pencil or pastel.” – Linda Graves

Still Life by James Banerjee.

James hasn’t had any formal artistic training, and his approach reflects the majority of self-taught artists who start their study through still life.

Celeste Kelly created this drawing in Jenny Halstead’s Life Drawing Session.

Ann Spicer created this drawing in Jenny Halstead’s Life Drawing Session.

‘Edie’ by Tayo Jones, a fine art graduate student.

2021

This is a portrait by Peter Betts

A contemporary version of

Girl with a pearl earring

wearing a Billy Eilish t-shirt

By Mary Arkinstall

Thinking of taking part? Still not sure what to draw?

Read this information on how to get started and submit your drawings.

We look forward to seeing your submissions!