Registration OPEN for Jennifer Mercede’s New Class: Three Flower Paintings

Three Flower Paintings
Instructor: Jennifer Mercede
6 Lessons • On sale for $72.25

Welcome to the bright, whimsical and colorful world of Jennifer Mercede! In this class, you will create three separate floral paintings of various sizes on wood panels… THREE different approaches! We’ll draw from life, get imaginative, play with color and composition. You’ll approach each of the three paintings a little differently, using flowers as our inspiration for all.

In the first painting we will draw from real flowers and create an elegant and loose all-over pattern with the wood showing through:

In the second painting, you’ll get a little funky with imaginary flowers, and you will be painting on a colored substrate for a different effect:

In our last painting we will go abstract and BOLD:

Jennifer writes: “I’m so excited to jump into the world of beautiful florals with you — let’s practice loosening up, being free and letting go of the end result!”

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Class Itinerary

Class videos are pre-recorded and will be available at 1amPT each lesson day on the following schedule:

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, June 6
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, June 7
Lesson 3 – Friday, June 9
Lesson 4 – Tuesday, June 13
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, June 14
Lesson 6 – Friday, June 16

Lesson 1
Painting #1: In this lesson you’ll pick out some beautiful flowers, leaves or plants whose shapes inspire you and do a blind contour exercise with the intention of connecting to what you are drawing. You’ll eventually look a little more at the paper and then move to drawing these flowers on the wood panel.

Lesson 2
Painting #1 (cont.): We’ll paint in the flower drawing on wood with a limited color palette. Explore mixing and using color as an element of composition.

Lesson 3
Painting #2: Lesson 3 loosens us up! We get to draw funky flowers from our imagination and from the recent flowers we worked with in Lesson 1. Play with drawing lots of loose, fast, funky ‘flowers.’ Get crazy! We will also prep our board for the next step.

Lesson 4
Painting #2 (cont.): Using the ball point pen, we’ll move fast and sprinkle our funky flowers all over the board, taking into consideration any desired composition. After we draw, we will have fun coloring them in using all kinds of supplies like crayons, markers, gel pens and colored pencils!

Lesson 5 
Painting #3: In Lesson 5 we will do some color exploration, practice using the Montana Marker and the draw our final floral style onto the wood panel. We’ll once again reference our flowers, drawing them and filling in the space between with lines and fun shapes.

Lesson 6
Painting #3 (cont.): Finally  we’ll color in all the shapes, letting go of any idea of a foreground or background. We’ll practice tuning in to our color intuition and making colors pop. Bonus video: Seal your paintings! I find using polyurethane as a final coat to my paintings protects them and makes them a bit more vibrant.

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Click here to join! Thank you!

Podcast Pages

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately and decided to start “taking notes” in watercolor. Here are 8 from the last week. (And if you have podcast recommendations, please comment!)

Registration is OPEN for a New Pet Portrait Class!

How to Paint a Mouse!
Dog Portraits with Robert Lucy
6 Lessons
Class Dates: May 9-19, 2023

Here is a video introducing the class!

I never set out to be a painter of dog portraits, but in painting this subject matter, I’ve discovered something profound. In this class I will share my technique for building a dog portrait layer by layer, and capturing the pure love we experience with our pets.

We’ll start by discussing how to choose the best photo for your painting and how to crop it for best impact. I will then show you how I use a grid to carefully draw the image on the canvas, and then guide you to slowly build your surface, starting with a very thin wash drawing to ultimately using thicker and thicker paint with more and more detail. We will also discuss how to create the best possible background to compliment your portrait.

For my demonstration, I’ll be painting a portrait of “Mouse,” Steve and Carla’s 2-year-old Aussiedoodle, but you’ll be painting the dog (or pet!) of your choice. Before class begins, you’ll receive a short video on how to choose and crop the optimum source photo so you will be ready to paint in Lesson 1.

I hope you will join me!

Bobby Lucy

Class Itinerary

Class videos are pre-recorded and will be available at 1amPT each lesson day on the following schedule:

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, May 9
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, May 10
Lesson 3 – Friday, May 12
Lesson 4 – Tuesday, May 16
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, May 17
Lesson 6 – Friday, May 19

Lesson 1
Using a very simple grid technique we’ll make an accurate, proportioned drawing of the source photo onto your canvas.

Lesson 2
We will discuss paint mixing and the advantage of pre-mixing a general color palette before starting to paint. We will then create the foundation of our portraits by painting a very thin first layer of our image.

Lesson 3
I will discuss my approach to choosing a background for a dog portrait and lead you in an exercise to help you discover the optimum background to compliment the dog you have chosen to paint.

Lesson 4
We will begin applying a second layer of slightly thicker paint. For those using oil, this is where we would begin to add medium to our paint. We’ll discuss the advantage of going from thin to thick and general to specific.

Lesson 5
In this lesson I will focus on a small area of the portrait to show how to create more detail and presence.

Lesson 6
In our final lesson we will bring the whole portrait to that same level of finish and detail, creating vivid portraits that jump off the canvas!

Note: In this class Bobby will be painting with oils, but you can substitute acrylic paints if desired; the principles of paint are the same.

Yes! You can paint a cat if you wish, or a horse or a guinea pig or…!!

Click HERE to sign up! Thank you!

A New Bunny ‘Zine

Hello! 

I like to shop at thrift stores and make my way around to my favorite spots pretty quickly: yarn, office and art supplies, books… with cursery glances at clothing, purses, frames and baskets if I can be bothered that day. 

Most of the envelopes I use when sending out ‘zines and Artist Trading Cards are thrifted, and I both like and don’t like this part of me that ensures that I don’t really have a “look” but instead prefer to make do with what I find at thrift stores (this goes for clothing too).

Recently I bought what I thought were some beautiful grey cards and envelopes, but it turned out they are just the cards… no envelopes. So I decided to cut them down to ATCs and made these two bunnies:

Now I want to make a 100 of them and make a limited edition ‘zine/ATC combo called “100 of the Exact Same Rabbit.” I’m not sure it would sell that well… LOL (I might do it anyway).

In the meantime, I’ve created a little rabbit ‘zine you might like… “21 Buns” and it features 21 of my favorite drawn/painted rabbits from the last 10 years or so. It’s $5 plus shipping + taxes and you can preorder it HERE. 

etc.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day! (And don’t forget that there’s a new Dog Portrait class starting May 9th, and that Michele Landsaat’s Paper Mache class is 50% off right now!)

Carla

Note: This was originally sent as a newsletter… click HERE if you would like to subscribe!

Registration OPEN for Julie Liger-Belair’s New Class!

Dream Bubbles, Scrappy Blablahs & More
Mixed-Media Collage with Julie Liger-Belair
Class Dates: April 4-14, 2023

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In this class we’ll be exploring collage on paper and wood using different techniques. Once we’ve sourced and created our collage papers, we’ll begin with “Scrappy Blablahs” — fun little characters made from the scraps in your studio and great creative warm-ups. From there we will move on to “Dream Bubbles” where we add more sophistication, story and paint!

Finally we’ll spend the last week building large “spirit house” paintings on a cradled wood panels, exploring the layering of painted and collaged elements to create a piece both visually rich and symbolically charge. I love houses and they appear often in my work. They can symbolize the place where we are most comfortable, most ourselves… a place of warmth and protection or sometimes a place where we might feel trapped. These paintings are a way to explore some of these ideas for yourself and have fun with symbols using all our media.

I hope you will join me!

Julie

P.S. We are adding an optional Zoom “work session” with Carla on Saturday, April 8th, where we will all work on Julie’s assignments together.

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Class Itinerary

Lessons are prerecorded and will be available at 1am PDT each lesson day on the following schedule:

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, April 4
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, April 5
Lesson 3 – Friday, April 7
BONUS Zoom Work Session with Carla – Saturday, April 8, 10am-12noon PT
Lesson 4 – Tuesday, April 11
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, April 12
Lesson 6 – Friday, April 14

Lesson 1. We will source and prepare our papers and make hand-decorated elements. We’ll be painting some larger papers, but also using up all the paper scraps we may have laying about to make some floral/botanical elements for use in our collage projects. I will also be introducing stamp carving and printing as another way to make patterned paper.

Lesson 2. Our first collage project will be to make a ‘scrappy blablah’. This is a really fun, smaller collage project that has fewer elements to combine so one can just play around with different possibilities. I really love this project as a warm up in the morning to get my creative juices flowing.

Lesson 3. We’ll be making some ‘dream bubble’ collages. This is a more complex project than the blablahs as we will be using up almost the whole surface of the page to create a sort of dream/surreal world. We’ll be using paints as well as collage for this lesson.

Lesson 4. In this lesson we will be starting our ‘spirit house’ collage/paintings. We will be preparing the wood, considering the imagery we want to use and starting our backgrounds. We will explore the use of stencils to add yet more pattern to our pieces.

Lesson 5. We will be continuing our pieces by adding more details around our houses using some of the floral/botanical collage elements we made in the first lesson. I’ll be discussing the different ways we can add layers and details.

Lesson 6. This lesson is all about how to finish our ‘spirit house’ pieces. I’ll talk about the media I like to use on top of the paint and paper to add finer details and patterns to make our pieces visually rich.

For a full list of the supplies you will need, see the tab titled “Supplies” located just under the video screen above.

A limited number of scholarships are available. To apply, click HERE.

Registration is OPEN for Katie Vernon’s First Class with us, Creative Illustration Workout!

Creative Illustration Workout
Teacher: Katie Vernon
Class Dates: March 7-17, 2023

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Hello!

In this class we will stretch and work out our creative muscles through artistic exercises that I regularly use to face a blank page. You’ll push yourself to combine a variety of media, look to new places for inspiration, and expand your (weird, funny, poignant, etc.) artistic voice.

Each of these exercises gives you a taste of making work that could be used in a variety of illustration markets., and I’ll show examples of how the art I’ve made through these exercises has turned into projects ranging from greeting cards to children’s clothing.

Get out all of your supplies as we make pages and pages of illustrations with watercolor, acrylics, colored pencils, crayons and more!

Please join me!

Katie

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Class Itinerary

Lessons are prerecorded and will be available at 1amPT each lesson day on the following schedule:

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, March 7
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, March 8
Lesson 3 – Friday, March 10
Lesson 4 – Tuesday, March 14
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, March 15
Lesson 6 – Friday, March 17

Lesson 1 – Using one base shape to create different illustration icons
Push your creative muscles to come up with a variety of icons all starting with the same shape. Try to find connections between the icons that create moments of wit and whimsy.

Lesson 2 – Imaginary Plants
Put away your flower books and get inspired by an adjacent art (culinary, architecture, dance, etc.) for your imaginary plant. Play with mixing media to create interesting textures and forms.

Lesson 3 – Drawing one item in lots of ways with lots of different media
Learn why certain icons are better than others for this exercise that lends itself to perfectly to creating a surface pattern.

Lesson 4 – Sandwich Illustration
Using a pull-apart layout, this lesson creates an informative (and delicious) editorial-style piece.

Lesson 5 – Imaginary Monsters
Using a few prompt words as your guide, bring an imaginary monster to life.

Lesson 6 – Finding a Story
Looking through all the bits and pieces we’ve created in the previous lessons, search for a story to tell that involves at least two of your images.

Registration is Now OPEN for Lewis’ New Class – Begins Feb. 7, 2023

Mixed-Media Painting with Lewis Rossignol
6 Lessons
Class Dates: February 7-17, 2023

Recently I have begun making larger, more colorful paintings and in this class we will work with vivid colorful mediums that lend themselves really well to working fast and loose. We’ll allow ourselves to make mistakes, maybe even making them on purpose so that we can practice trusting the process. We will just let the ideas loose and see where they lead with a focus on creating interesting texture, variety and composition.

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Class Itinerary

The lessons will be available by 1am PT each lesson day on the following schedule… once the lessons go up, you can access on your own timetable.

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, February 7
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, February 8
Lesson 3 – Friday, February 10
Lesson 4 – Tuesday, February 14
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, February 15
Lesson 6 – Friday, February 17

Lesson 1
For this lesson I will introduce the tools we’ll be working with throughout the class. Then we will start two smaller drawings that will help us get familiar with the tools for the bigger pieces later. These drawings will be very child-like so we won’t be using any reference photos. I’ll show you how I use paint markers to create nice textured backgrounds to work on. After this we will begin our drawings by drawing the main subjects only.

Lesson 2
In this lesson we’ll be moving back and forth between the two smaller drawings to finish them. You’ll see why it’s good to have at least two drawings going at a time as the mediums can take a little time to dry. I’ll demonstrate how I let the drawing come together by making quick decisions, not overly fussing as these mediums make it very easy to make changes as you see fit. We’ll also work a little bit with shading, and color.

Lesson 3
Today we are starting our two larger drawings that will make a nice set. We’ll start by creating two different colored backgrounds full of texture and slight color variants. Then we will begin the line work for the grid drawing. I’ll demonstrate how I like to use a few different colors for the line work for variety. I will also let you know how lists can be helpful in this type of work to help keep you moving quickly once you begin. Finally we’ll talk about how using flux and obliteration is a much more realistic way to work then what you may be used to.

Lesson 4
For this lesson we are going to line out our “chaotic drawing” to get it to the same level as the grid. I will demonstrate how I choose where to place things, and the importance of varying your size and spacing within your composition. After this we’ll get to start using more color within our grid with our paint markers. I’ll show you a few different ways to make your line drawing stand out from the background using different levels of contrast to make sure your focal point isn’t lost.

Lesson 5
As our pieces start coming together we’ll continue adding color to both of our pieces. I’ll demonstrate what I do with areas that aren’t working for me, and how to trust your gut. We’ll also totally cover parts of our drawing in order to improve the overall composition. You’ll see how I follow my intuition when drawing, and hopefully learn to trust your own.

Lesson 6
We are going to finish our two large pieces today. I will show you how I use areas of black and white to up the overall contrast and composition. Then we’ll add some collage elements to our pieces. I’ll also demonstrate how I use crayons and woodie pencils to add more color and texture to my work and finish the composition. Finally we’ll give our pieces a nice unifying feel with some gloss medium.

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Click HERE for the supply list, more information and to sign up!

Registration Now OPEN for the 2023 Yearlong Class!

2023: Year of the Rabbit
24 Lessons (12 prerecorded video; 12 “live” via Zoom)
Only $198.
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Hi! And welcome to our 11th yearlong class!

We started with the Year of the Giraffe in 2013 and some of you have been with us since then… thank you! We are so grateful to have this special place all year long to grow and encourage each other through the ups and downs of the creative process!

Each year we change up the theme, and this year we are going back to our roots a bit with “Year of the Rabbit.” Unlike our giraffe class, however, we will be drawing and painting more than just rabbits! We will be working in all media and the projects will center mostly around animals, faces, flowers & plants and some patterns and abstraction. But we will use the rabbit as an anchor image throughout the year of drawing, painting, collaging, writing, sewing, printing and creating together.

I will be teaching all of the lessons this year and if you’ve taken a yearlong class from me before, you know roughly what to expect… lots of fun exercises and mixed-media projects designed to recover a more joyful, childlike approach to creating.

Additionally, I’m hoping you will join me in my quest to use up every art supply I own! Just kidding… but I want this year to be a year of experimenting, exploration and not buying a bunch of new art supplies.

Here’s what you get:

12 Main Lessons – First Friday of Each Month
Drawing, Painting, Mixed Media
All of the main lessons will begin with a “rabbit warmup” exercise… draw, paint, collage the rabbit!
Then, there will be a more in-depth project/assignment. Here are some planned lessons:

– Grid People Paintings

– Alcohol Ink Symmetrical Drawings
– Photo Montage Paintings
– Lacy Lions on Wood
– Mixed-Media Comics
– More is More: Reworking old or abandoned work

12 Zoom Sessions – Third Fri/Sat of each month (except Feb)
Making & Working in Our Books Together
Our monthly  1.5-hour Zoom sessions will begin with a warm-up exercise, then Carla will demo that day’s project or book technique, and then you will work in small groups on that day’s assignment. Some planned demos:

– Making book pages; binding
– Alternative edges and decorative elements
– Pockets & Foldouts
– Drawing in the bound books (connecting pages visually)
– Packing Tape & Rubbings
– Gelli Plate Techniques

I’m really excited for this year and really hope you will consider joining our group of like-minded creatives from all over the world!

Carla (and Steve)

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Some Project Samples

Alcohol Ink Symmetrical Drawings…

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Reworking old or abandoned work…

Lacy Lions on Wood…

Photo Montage Paintings…

And the mixed-media artist’s book that we will add to all year long:

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Nuts & Bolts

• The odd-numbered Lesson Videos will be available the first Friday of each month.

• The even-numbered Zoom Sessions will be on the third* Friday/Saturday of each month: 5pm PT Fridays and 11am PT Saturdays and will be recorded for those who can’t attend the live event. (*except February)

• Community Forum. We will have two private forums (Facebook and Padlet) to share our work and be inspired by the work of others.

• No art experience necessary… really! Just jump right in.

• We have kept the price the same since 2014 because we want this class to be accessible to everyone! That said, we understand hard times and don’t want you to miss out if finances are truly an issue. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, click HERE.

• Thank you for being here and I hope you can join in!

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General Themes

– “Chase” Rabbits (Ideas) and let go
of expected outcomes!

– Use up supplies we have on hand.

– Experiment!

– Learn new mixed-media techniques; Revisit
old techniques in new ways.

– Gain confidence in your unique style!

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Click HERE to sign up!

Registration is now OPEN for a New Painting Class with Betsy Walton

Symbolic Portraits
Teacher: Betsy Walton
Class Dates: November 1-11, 2022

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In this class we will build poetic figurative paintings with open-ended narrative elements. During the first week of sketchbook explorations, I will show you my warm up ritual and walk you through some exercises around symbolism, communicating mood and emotion with abstract elements, and developing a sketch for your painting. We will also play with mixing colors and make a beautiful color swatch reference piece… and you will draw your color inspiration from this in your final painting.

In Week 2 we will  start by preparing your wood panel and then you will take your sketch to a final acrylic painting. I will share my typical process of building the painting in many different layers, each one becoming more detailed until the image is complete.

I hope you will join me!

Betsy

P.S Scholarships are available. Click HERE.

Detail from above painting:

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Class Itinerary

Lessons are pre-recorded and will be available on the following dates:

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, November 1
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, November 2
Lesson 3 – Friday, November 4

Lesson 4 – Monday, November 8
Lesson 5 – Wednesday, November 9
Lesson 6 – Friday, November 11

Lesson 1 – Connect with your intuition and explore mood visually using colors and shapes
Learn a ritual for starting your work session. Use your sketchbook and colored pencils to visually explore emotions, moods, and big themes that resonate with you.  Review the list of symbols for future lessons. 

Lesson 2 – Symbols Exploration
Pick an environment, a mood, some plants and animals to explore in your sketchbook. Draw from memory or references and research the symbolic meaning of each symbol (optional).

Lesson 3 – Adding the Figure & Color Mixing
Explore figurative drawing in your sketchbook. Consider using references and/or selfies. Think about using the figure’s poses, accessories, etc.  to reinforce the mood or narrative element you wish to convey. Practice mixing colors and make a sheet of swatches for yourself.

Lesson 4 – Composition & Structure
Prepare your panel for painting by sealing it and gessoing. Add some washes for background colors; pencil in the composition.

Lesson 5 – Paint the Big Shapes
Refine your composition as you go and think about elements and placements that you want to work towards.  Make changes as you go.

Lesson 6 – Details & Finishing Touches
Continue with smaller shapes, adding layers to make things more opaque or to add texture, and work towards high level of detail for the focal points of the composition.

We hope you can join us! Details HERE.

Registration OPEN for Anita’s New Printmaking Class

https://www.carlasonheim.com/online-classes/creative-printmaking-with-anita/

Hi everyone!

Registration is now open for Anita Lehmann’s newest class, “Creative Printmaking by Hand!”

I love monotypes and I love working with Anita! In this class she makes monotype printmaking accessible to anyone… and you don’t need a press! And like all of her classes, she combines her clear teaching style with a spirit of inventiveness and freedom. We will roll, wipe, scribe, dab, fingerpaint and design in seven creative lessons!
 

In this class we will:

• Experiment with the printmaking process of monotype in black + white and color
• Work with color and value to evoke mood
• Discover new shapes + lovely, creative mark making.
• Find texture to create depth of surface, space and perhaps mystery
• Launch your imagination: creating prints with surprising + unique qualities

Class begins October 4th… details and sign up HERE!