Sunshine Time!

Heading to Los Angeles tomorrow for a very quick trip to CHA (schedule is here). I’m really looking forward to seeing friends, meeting my publisher, and just standing outside in the warm sunshine. (It’s supposed to be warm, RIGHT!!?)

Both these images are from a recent sketchbook.

 

Pink Bird! Journalfest!

“Pink Bird,” gouache and ballpoint pen, from a “blob”

Wow… Friday already!!

Yesterday I got the word that I will be teaching two classes at Journalfest 2011: “Your Inner Dr. Suess” and “Blobs and Sidewalk Cracks (a sampling, above).” The site with all the details will go live in early March, but you heard it here first!

2011 This & That

Just a quick rundown of my 2011 so far — more for MY benefit than yours, but thanks for listening!

1. Silly 3. We are having so much fun over at The Art of Silliness 3 flickr site… over 1,200 creative posts in just two weeks’ time… awesome!

2. Spanish Silly starts tomorrow! It’s a small group, but we already have lively participation and it’s awesome to try and communicate in Spanish again — I am “bumbling,” but it’s fun!

3. Sewing online class: A Journal and a Purse is starting up February 4th… click here for details!

4. Next Friday I fly to Los Angeles to attend the CHA Conference (Craft & Hobby Association). I will be at the conference Saturday and Sunday, January 29-30. Here is my schedule:

Book Signing
Barnes & Noble booth
Saturday, 1/29 — 10:00am – 11:00am
Sunday, 1/30 — 10:00am – 11:00am

Make & Take (Picasso Dogs Drawing Lab!)
Quarry Books booth – #323
Saturday, 1/29 — 2:00am – 3:00am
Sunday, 1/30 — 1:00am – 2:00am

If you live in the area and have the time, please come by and say hello!

5. ETSY. I’ve been a seller on etsy.com since 2005, and just love all the etsy has done to make the handmade “cool” again. So obviously I’m excited to be traveling to NYC to be the guest instructor for EtsyLabs’ Craft Night on Monday, February 28th! (The details of my night will be up soon…)

6. One-day workshop in Port Angeles, WA. “Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists,” and a “talk” during lunch. March 12th… details here!

7. Artfest 2011. I’ll be teaching a one-day workshop: “The Art of Silliness.” LIVE!!!!!

Okay… back to work!!!

Cereal Box Paper Dolls!

Look what my friend Jane LaFazio did with her friends! They spent an art-making weekend in Palm Springs recently, and did several exercises from “Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists.” Above are the paper dolls they made from Lab 30… aren’t they GREAT?! I love that they did self-portraits (plus “Carlos”)! To see more art from the weekend, go here.

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It’s been a long time since I’ve thanked all the wonderful reviewers over at  amazon.com. Thank you!!!

I happened to notice today a new review, which totally CRACKED ME UP:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, January 11, 2011

By mommyme “mm” (Pennsylvania)

This review is from: Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun (Lab Series) (Paperback)

I love this book. I have new ideas to try as an artist and as an art teacher. Great ideas and illustrations. The only problem is my book smells a little funny, maybe it is the ink?

I completely recommend this smelly drawing lab book.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Our New Studio!

My husband, Steve, is a photographer and hasn’t had a studio space since we moved to Seattle a year ago. So we are moving in together!

My area…

and Steve’s…

(We’re mostly moved in, but I’m  not working there quite yet… my computer office isn’t finished and there’s no heat! But soon. VERY soon.)

Click here to see the whole thing!

Alligator Coloring Tutorial

Hello!

Those of you who have been in my workshops know that I like to build color very slowly, using multiple layers of transparent colors. This step-by-step shows an example of the process (though remember it’s unlikely you will have the exact colors, types of pens, etc. that I have, so of course whatever you do will be different!).

STEP 1
Using brown watercolor with a little green mixed in, I free-hand painted the alligator shape. The color should be very pale at this stage. (I didn’t use a pencil first… the darker green outline you see around the edges is green watercolor.)

STEP 2
When the first layer of watercolor was COMPLETELY dry, I added a second light layer of green right on top of the previous layer.

STEP 3
Using a light pink Copic marker, I added the “orange” lines you see. (They look orange because the pink is mixing with the greenish-yellow underneath.) Keep your hand loose.

STEP 4
I repeated Step 3 using a light gold Copic marker.

STEP 5
I grabbed a black ballpoint pen and started adding outlines, scales, and cross-hatching, again, keeping my hand loose and squiggly.

STEP 6
Keep working the ballpoint pen until you feel done!

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For those of you in the Northwest, I wanted to tell you that I’ve just added a day-long workshop on Saturday, March 12 in Port Angeles! It will be held at Art Supplies Unlimited. There are two ways to participate: I’m teaching a workshop called “Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists,” which will include things like the above and more. Also, I will be giving a “talk” during the lunch hour, which is open to anyone, even if you are not taking the class. Join me! All the details can be found here.

Mired in Silly

The above drawing was the best from a two-hour life drawing session about a month ago…

Posts are down here at Snowball Journals because I’ve been mired in the Silly the past week… loving it, though!

We (my husband and I) also moved into a new studio on Saturday… but things are so chaotic there that I’m working today at my old office, which I have until the end of the month. (More on the studio soon!)

Last night I was so tired that I took a bath around 7:30pm and decided to wash my hair. My next memory was waking up on my husband’s side of the bed, the cat curled up next to me, my head on a soaking wet pillow. My hair? Wet, but unwashed.

I’m getting old.

Highly Prized? Seattle!

This month over at The Sketchbook Challenge we are all working with the theme, “Highly Prized.” Here are some of my pages with that theme in mind.

Recently we moved from a very small town in Colorado to the city of Seattle, Washington… and I LOVE it! Truly, I’m so grateful to be living in a city now.

I love being around people…

… and museums!

The last two images were drawn from Picasso’s 1950 bronze, “The Goat” (which is currently at the Seattle Art Museum). The top page was sketched while on top of the Space Needle on New Year’s Day, and painted with gouache later…

Fish on the Brain

I’ve drawn and painted a lot of fish the last six months. Above is a demo drawing from a class in the Fall. Sharpie pen, Copic markers, colored pencils and pencil.

Have I shown you this one before? Gouache and pencil on wood.

I painted some fish to use on the Silly 3 Test Worksheet, above.

The ant’s comment on the worksheet made me think it would be fun to put the words and picture together.

Then I thought it would make a cute t-shirt!

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Now I need to get back to WORK!!

 

Happy New Year