ric woods Cartoon Workshop St Brigids Raymond Terrace

I need to be on the move all the time during the cartoon workshops in schools.St Brigid's at Raymond Terrace NSW is one of my favourite schools.the kids are really creative and confident, this I believe is directly due to the great teachers out there.

I teach the kids how to portray different expressions, happy,sad angry,surprised etc....

I get to sit in the teachers chair....something I could never do when I was at school.

Here I'm talking about the muscles in the face, and what happens during different expressions.The kids really take it in

Mary Parsons, one of the best teachers and budding photographer captures me and one of the happy cartoons....I'm the one on the right

Concentration...the kids take a little time to understand that in cartooning we don't use an eraser...and "mistakes" usually makes the drawing funnier !! They soon get it.

Mid size felt pens work best.

I usually teach the kids to draw common animals, dogs ,cats,pigs, earth worms getting married...all common stuff.

All the kids leave smiling, surprised at the quality of drawings they quickly achieve through simple drawing tips and tricks.

What more information for your school? email me enquiries@ricwoods.com. We are taking bookings for 2011 NOW.

Photography and Lighting Courses for 2010 by ric woods

Beginners course – ‘your new digital SLR camera’

Our beginner’s course was a tremendous success. Small classes greatly benefited student to teacher time
The two session course covered lots of information, all the participants left shooting on manual instead of “auto.”
A few participants comments:
Anne said ‘in the second week I had the confidence to get off auto and not be scared of shooting manually’

Robyn liked ric’s ‘professional tips and learning from “the real stuff”, ric showed behind the scenes, and how he solved problems on his recent commercial shoots’

Amanda said she was ‘given the confidence to try new things and experiment’

Continued interest in the Beginners Course shows there is a need for a second intake.

Our “Perfect Black and White” seminar in May 2010 is suited to both beginner and advanced photographers. There are still spaces available in this 2.5 hour workshop requiring basic computer image editing skills– enquiries to maree@ricwoods.
Phone enquiries 02 4962 1066. ric woods photography’s commercial website http://www.ricwoods.com/

Download the 2010 course booklet HERE

Male Portrait

When we photographed Josh's portfolio we decided to create a little drama in the image.He was sporting a sport injury and his left shoulder was strapped with sticking plaster and we had to hide it.He is lit by a small (60x60cm) softbox camera left and a gridded spot camera right and from behind him,camera right is a spot that is bounced of a small reflector just "breathing" some light into the image.

If this was a magazine image we would photoshop the folds in his skin on his neck as the diagonal lines carry you down and away from his eyes. That is a compositional decision, I tend to want to portray people more natural way using light and camera angle/lens to flatter them.

Many of the images I see and many I produce there is a request to manipulate, I'm cool with that and the paying customer is the boss.

Sometimes it's like eating too much fast food...I just CRAVE some good honest cooking like a BBQ and salad !!.

I shoot BW film for my figurative exhibition images ( 18 years plus disclaimer) and although that in itself is a manipulation by means of the colour, what is in the frame stays in the frame. I have a wet darkroom to print this work at the New Carrington Studio and with the workload at the moment its still not fully operational (sigh).

Im looking forward to printing some negatives that Ive not done yet. I would also like to run some small group classes in the studio and darkroom if there is enough interest....its all on the "to do"list. Today, I', going to post some new portrait images on my commercial website www.ricwoods.com