Level Best in Lockdown: July Round Up IV
23rd to 31st July 2020
There have been many discussions among staff and trainees during lock-down and much feedback has been gathered about the changes to our service. We have found that some aspects of remote and external sessions are worth keeping on and possibly expanding in future, so we will be doing a mix of sessions back at our base, as well as continuing 1 to 1 sessions (and hopefully the skype group chats).
Week of Weddings: self catering al fresco with Jamie Croft
Sarah & Dean
drawing portraits ABBA Dean Smith
Feta & Cous Cous Salad & pea carrot corn & bean salad
by Rebecca Clinch
Peanut, red cabbage,
curly kale and pepper salad Rebecca Clinch
digital colouring Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory
marrying Amy Farrar Fowler by Jessica Allum Brown
wild flower and grass bouquets
"So the highlights of wedding week for me
has been the enthusiasm you have all had and shared and the stories I have heard.
Our group chat yesterday saw photos of Alex at his mum’s wedding to pal and Angus in a shirt and tie that he wore to a wedding. We discussed favourite shirt and tie colours.
The food has been exceptional from Simon Waller with his Prawn Cocktails, Dean Smith with a vegetarian tart, Angus and Margaret Wilkinson with Coronation Chicken, Jamie Croft with salmon and homemade mayonnaise.
Yesterday Rebecca Clinch made 3 salads to accompany the feast an Israeli Cous Cous, Thai salad and Russian salad.
Dean Smith made an exotic fruit salad served in melon baskets. accompanied by Dales shortbread biscuits.
The cake was made by Rebecca Clinch and decorated with sweet peas. The evening buffet was Britney with her beef burgers on the bbq Daniel Thomas Lewis made pizza and Tony had some sausage rolls with a twist.
The photo below was taken very quickly but how often do you see chefs wearing fascinators in the kitchen"
- Sarah Herbert 24/7/20 Daconbakers Facebook page
"War droids" by Josh Wilsher
The above drawing was inspired by a Skype discussion Josh had with Colin about different forms a robot can take, referring specifically to Droidekas from Star Wars episode 1 The Phantom Menace.
Josh continues to draw characters and share his work with us remotely.
When at Level Best he enjoys telling the stories of his characters to staff and trainees.
Josh also scans his drawings and uploads them to his deviant art account.
As we can't presently help Josh to tell the stories of his newest chaacters, an idea evolved to use the characters we already have on file to produce a set of Top Trumps playing cards.
The google slide below shows the design for each card.
If you are new to the game of Top Trumps, it is a card game where each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values to try to 'trump' and win an opponent's card.
Josh helped decide which characters to use and what the criteria should be.
We settled on a Horror theme and have made a set of 50 playable cards with 20 'collectibles'.
drawing a Matryoshka doll step by step by Jamie Croft
drawing the Ghost Busters logo step by step Jamie Croft
Woody Wood Pecker by Dean Smith
We now feature step by step tutorials
for all sorts of things from trees, birds, bees and buildings to favourite game and animation characters at www.dacontrust.co.uk/step-by-step-drawing/
These tutorials are sourced from YouTube and are used to help guide trainees to make complicated and recognisable objects and characters, through simple form drawing step by step.
An example is shown below and more can be viewed at the page created for them
under the 'Home' button on the links bar at the top of this page.
How to draw Baby Groot
See original video for this step by step here
apple pie & cinnamon biscuit Daniel Lewis
shepherds pie Tony Hale
Merlin & Magic themed drawing with Jane & Dale Northcott
crustless quiche Jamie Croft
cheese scones with green tops of spring onions Simon Waller
chicken & mushroom pie by Kyriaki Skambalis
lemon meringue pie by Angus Wilkinson
strawberry and cream victoria sponge Britney Warren
stuffed peppers Dean Smith
Deadpool lego figure Ryan Balkwill
sticky toffee pudding and sauce Simon Waller
"day at the Beach" by Dean Smith
RDB Reviews: episode 20 artwork by Ryan Balkwill
to mark the 20th "episode" of RDB reviews, Ryan has produced a drawing featuring the characters from programs to be discused that week.
The drawing is based on cover art from the US series Entourage and features characters from the program as well as count Dracula, played by people Ryan knows.
Ryan proposes to create a new piece of artwork each week for subsequent episodes of RDB reviews, related to the media he chooses to review.
RDB Reviews: Dracula (2020), Celebrity Death Match for PS2 & Entourage
Ryan discusses Dracula (2020), Celebrity Death Match for the PS2 & Entourage seasons 1 - 8
To read Ryan's reviews on his wordpress blog, click the different titles above.
Robert Green: Tom the powered wheelchair
Castle Park, allotment & Middlewick Colchester
Tom and his boss journey through Colchester's Castle Park to the Level Best Art Cafe's allotment, grown wild under lock-down conditions. Later they visit Middlewick for the second time but explore a much wider area and by chance find the same field they had discovered from the other direction back in early April.
The animation at the beginning and end of this video was completed by Robert with help from Level Best staff.
Mersea Road to Middlewick part 2 with Robert Green
Exploring more of the Middlewick grasslands, Tom was interested to find himself back in the same field which he had explored with his boss from Friday Woods back in April, having approached it from the other direction this time.
Adventures of Tom The powered Wheelchair: animatic.
Level Best Art Cafe's kitchen is up and running again!
Thanks for reading
we'll be back with more from the Level Best Art Cafe next time.
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