Registration OPEN for “Spark Summer!”

Spark Summer!
(Formally 2015: Year of the Spark)
Instructors: Lynn Whipple & Carla Sonheim
6-week class • 12 video lessons

Class Dates: June 20 – July 27, 2017

Note: This is a repeat (partial) of the 2015 year-long class, “Year of the Spark.” If you were in the original class, you are welcome to join this summer at no additional cost. Email Carla at carla[at]carlasonheim.com and ask to be put on the list! Thanks!

Hello!

In 2015 we (Lynn Whipple & Carla Sonheim) taught a year-long online class together, 2015: Year of the Spark.

This summer we are picking our favorite 12 lessons and running them over a six-week period starting June 20th. Join us!

This online class is about ART, and how we can infuse MORE of it into our lives…. More art, more creativity, more time, more inspiration, more motivation, and more FUN!

Lynn and I share a love of making art, moving our hands, and keeping things FUN. We believe that the more fun you have, the more open your mind is to creative solutions, which produces more authentic and imaginative art!

Two times a week (one each from Carla and Lynn) you will receive a video lesson + pdf which will include a short spark-your-art exercise (how do we make the time for creativity? How do we start?), as well as a longer, technique-based mixed-media project.

How will this work?

We want students to create art that is true to their own style (as opposed to expecting art look like ours). The techniques taught are just starting points and you will incorporate them into your own existing styles, and what will come out will be fresh and new!

Also, we strive to make sure that every online lesson includes both techniques and the opportunity for personal growth and self expression. “Spark Summer!” includes an online community where participants from all over the world share their work, their thoughts, and encourage each other. And of course, we are available to comment on all work uploaded throughout the class.

This class includes:

• 12 VIDEO LESSONS (6 from Lynn, 6 from Carla), each with a warm-up exercise and a main mixed-media lesson
• 12 accompanying PDFs with step-outs, written instructions, references, links, etc.
• Instructor FEEDBACK on uploaded or emailed work
• Private BLOG and closed FACEBOOK group.

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Class Itinerary

Week 1 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Journal Pages & One-liners and Gestures! Exploring Line Quality

Thursday – Lynn
Sketchbook Patterns and Brain Surprise: Shape Making

Week 2 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Automatic Writing and Thoughts are Things Mini Books

Thursday – Lynn
Drawing to Music and Duo des Fleurs “Flower Duet” 

Week 3 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Warmup with Wes and Smartphone Monotype Collages

Thursday – Lynn
Color Mixing and Color Making: Value Painting

Week 4 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Journal Diving and Carved Watercolor Paintings 

Thursday – Lynn
Favorite Icons and Threading Thoughts

Week 5 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Daily Ritual and Draw-Through Face Grids

Thursday – Lynn
Thumbnail Sketches and Directional Mark Making

Week 6 ___________
Tuesday – Carla
Modern Artists & Kids and Painting Big: Thinking Small

Thursday – Lynn
Free Patterned Paper and Not so Still Life

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For details and to sign up, click HERE!

Registration OPEN for Fred Lisaius’ “Painting Foregrounds” Class

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Intro to Acrylics: Painting Foregrounds
with Fred Lisaius
2-Week Class; 4 Video Lessons
Class Dates: June 6-16, 2017

Welcome to the third class in a three-part series! In these classes we will learn how to create the Background, Middle Ground and Foreground. We will also learn many techniques for creating depth and making all three grounds work together.

In this third class we will use our paintings from Parts 1&2 and create two foregrounds, which will become the main subject of the paintings. Have fun deciding what will be in the foreground of your paintings. Is there a hiker with a dog? An animal? What else might work? Do some sketches to help visualize your ideas and then find some good photo reference to help you paint it accurately.

Acrylics paints are beautiful. The medium is creamy, colorful, and very versatile. This class is designed to introduce beginners to this beautiful medium and to excite more advanced students with new information and techniques. I look forward to painting with you! — Fred

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Series Schedule:

Backgrounds (instant availability)
Middle Grounds (instant availability)
Foregrounds (June 6-15, 2017)

Cost is $95 for all three classes in the series or $40 for each individual class.

Sign up Today!

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Part 1 – Foregrounds Class Itinerary

Week 1 – Blue Sky, Mountains, Deer

Lesson 1 – Decide on your foreground subject and make sketches to get familiar before committing to paint. Choosing warmer and richer colors to bring the subject forward and roughing in your subject with the first layer of paint.

Lesson 2 – Adding second layer of paint, refining the form of your subject, and adding final details to make it feel close and really bring it to life.

Week 2 – Sunrise Sunset, Trees, Hiker

Lesson 3 – This is the culmination of our whole series, and we will be taking on the challenge of painting the human figure, starting again with some pencil sketches and then applying our first layer of paint to our panels.

Lesson 4 – Using smaller brushes, we will make those final touches that give the human form its character and personality, as well as refining light and shadow and bringing it to its finish.

Click HERE for more information and to sign up!

(Note: For those of you who already signed up for the three-class series, there is no need to sign up again. You will receive a welcome email shortly.)

“Making Faces” with Lynn Whipple Starts Next Week!

Hi everyone!

I spent a happy hour making these faces, an exercise from Lynn Whipple’s fun new class, “Making Faces.” Class begins this coming Tuesday… please join us if you can!

30: A Post Every Day #30

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #30

Something FOUND.

Another Iranian illustrator I really like: Fereshteh Najafi.

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Something WRITTEN.

This is the last post!

I started this 30-day 34-day project hoping to reconnect with my writing and it did just that. I’ve really enjoyed it and thank you for reading and for all the comments and encouragement!

I will definitely do another 30-day run in the near future, but will take a short break for now.

In the meantime, I will tie up two loose ends:

1. The Worst Flight Ever Story. It actually was a perfectly wonderful flight in every way but one: I was in real pain the whole trip because I ate too much granola and, apparently, oats expand to 4x their normal size when in my stomach right before a 5.5 hour flight.
2. The “Lost” Luggage Story. The luggage wasn’t lost, but it was super late getting off the plane. I think we had waited 45 minutes when Steve and I said, “Forget this!” and left the airport without our luggage. We laughed all the way to the car; we showed them! (But American Airlines was the one laughing the next day when Steve and I had to go back to the airport to pick it up!)

That’s all for now… Have a wonderful rest of May!

Carla

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Something MADE.

Have a wonderful day!

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30: A Post Every Day #29

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #29

Something FOUND.

I love this piece by Iranian illustrator Morteza Zahedi:

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Something WRITTEN.

Hello.

 

Today I hung out with a butterfly in a treehouse* and put my toes in the ocean.

A perfect day.

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Something MADE.

Have a wonderful day!

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* Liam was the butterfly and the treehouse was our living room.

30: A Post Every Day #28

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #28

Something FOUND.

I recently found this in one of my old journals:

“Have you seen the whale?”

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Something WRITTEN.

The Grouchy Man Story, the Real One

 

Once Upon a Time Steve and I spent a good but emotional weekend in Annapolis, Maryland in order to attend our youngest son’s college graduation ceremony.

Right before we needed to leave for the airport, Wes and I were standing outside a coffeeshop waiting for Steve to return. Wes, who is amazing and wonderful and perfect in every way — but not necessarily super demonstrative with his affection — asked me to smile as he held up his cameraphone.

This was unusual, but I complied happily.

Wes seemed to be taking a long time taking this parting photo, but I chalked it up to him not really knowing how to use his phone. I kept smiling.

At some point I was aware that two middle-aged, shorts-sporting men were standing on the sidewalk near us but, possibly due to my extreme state of pity for Wes (who, a college grad now and 21 years of age, clearly had no idea how to use the camera function on his phone), or possibly due also to the glowy feeling of having said son give me some attention (or both), I didn’t give the men much thought.

Enter Steve. He emerged from the coffeehouse, assessed the situation, and quickly told the men that they didn’t need to wait for us, to go ahead and pass behind us.

Oh.

This isn’t the first time I’ve missed something obvious while living in my own little world. Two years ago I copied down the following sentence in my journal: “Have you seen the whale?”

My friend Robert had asked me this as I passed him at the corner of Yesler and 1st Avenue on a day in January 2015. I laughed and shook my head “no.”

Then, delighted with the strange question, I rushed home to write it down. How absurd!

(I didn’t find out until days later that a 30-foot gray whale had been found under the Seattle ferry terminal, about 100 yards away. A real whale, people! Robert was actually asking me if I had seen the whale.)

But back to Grouchy Man.

“Are they done?” he asked.

“Yes,” Steve assured, waving them along encouragingly.

“Well you could have TOLD us that!” Angry Man shouted as he stormed past.

The three of us stared, confused.

The thing is we weren’t finished, as Wes (bless his heart) was at that moment still fumbling with his phone. How could I have told him ahead of time that we had finished when, clearly, we hadn’t?

I understood that this man was trying to be polite, I did. But my heart went out to poor Wes… in a few minutes we would be leaving him all alone with The Grouchy Angry Man and his Petite Polite Posse.

And he didn’t even know how to use his phone.*

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Something MADE.

Have a wonderful day!

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* Wes knows how to use his phone. He was making a video.

30: A Post Every Day #27

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #27

Something FOUND.

From Studio Beerhorst, I think the Brenda half. See more HERE.

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Something WRITTEN.

 

The Grouchy Man

Oh dear. I might have oversold this story.

An overwhelming number of you chose “The Grouchy Man,” no doubt anticipating a front-row seat to some juicy marriage moment.

Alas, I must disappoint.

However, Steve and I will be married 25 years in June, so… hmmm… perhaps our moments (of the juicy type) number in the… hundreds? Thousands? No matter, most of them are forgotten now, or buried so deep that they don’t surface during the normal course of our days.

It’s kind of weird though. One minute they are down quite deep and the next the little fellas just show up, ready to lend a hand. But in truth they are a little bit desperate about it. It’s as if these forgotten-but-not-forgotten memories suddenly need air — it really is an emergency situation — and, gasping, they stumble into the current moment in order to help clarify things.

The truth is they’re not actually that helpful.

No, they’re really not helpful at all.

So, back to the story. The grouchy man is not Steve this time.

Yes, Steve can be grouchy. Yes, he might be the grouchiest man on earth if I am a little too bouncy in the morning before he’s had his coffee. And yes, most stories titled “The Grouchy Man” would indeed have been about Steve.

FOR SURE.

But not today.

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Something MADE.

Have a wonderful day!

30: A Post (Almost) Every Day #26

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #26

Something FOUND.

I really like Scott Bergey‘s visual style!

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Something WRITTEN.

I’ve missed a few days due to traveling to Maryland and back for my son’s graduation. I thought this might happen and am happy to report that my first instinct (to end the 30-day project the day BEFORE the trip) was sound. It’s the counting of days that I need to second guess next time!

The trip was wonderful but it had its moments. Which story would you like first?

a. The Grouchy Man

b. The Worst Flight Ever

c. “Lost” Luggage

Please comment with your choice and I’ll do my best to accommodate in #27!

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Something MADE.

Collaboration with my son Wes when he was about 4.

Have a wonderful day!

30: A Post Every Day #25

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #25

Something FOUND.

Found on my camera-phone: Ellie & me (taken by Steve).

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Something WRITTEN.

Steve and I are in Annapolis, Maryland and will attend our son Wes’ college graduation ceremony tomorrow. He made it!

Today we attended kind of a talent show by the Senior Class. Students sang duets and played piano solos… and Wes did a short skit with Kit.

What a beautiful bunch of humans.

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Something Someone MADE.

Wes.

Have a wonderful day!

30: A Post Every Day #24

A 30-day blog project: Something Found, Something Written, and Something Made.

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Day #24

Something FOUND.

Great lettering over at Susy Pilgrim Waters‘ website… and paintings… and illustrations….

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Something WRITTEN.

I can eat whatever I want as long as it’s on the following list:

1. Rabbit Food

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Something MADE.

An old one!

Have a wonderful day!