“The Giraffe and the Pizza Drawing”

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drawing giraffes, drawing on pizza box, giraffe, pizza box drawing, world pizza, year of the giraffe

Once upon a time there was a fairly tall giraffe named Carla.

She liked to draw and paint and make stuff, and also taught art classes. She decided to host a year-long class called Year of the Giraffe, which was described, among other things, as “a creativity experiment.”

One day she ordered a pizza from World Pizza in Seattle, Washington. When the box was handed to her, there was a really cool drawing on it.

On the way home she thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to ask that pizza girl to draw a giraffe next time?”

Then she thought, “Nah. Too shy.”

Then she thought, “Wait a minute! This giraffe thing is a creativity EXPERIMENT. Experiments are inherently risky. Come on… DO IT!”

So she did.

The next week Carla the Giraffe ordered another pizza.

She asked the girl (whose name turned out to be Emily) to draw her a giraffe.

And she did!

Thank you, Emily Hyde!

And thank you, World Pizza, for being a cool place to eat and draw!

_____________________________

Last call! There is still a day or two to join the Giraffe Fun. It’s been a wonderful month already, and there’s 11 months to go! Details for the year-long online class/experiment here. (Come on… DO IT!!!)

See you in two weeks!

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drawing animals, drawing giraffes, giraffe drawing, sketching animals, year of the giraffe

Just kidding!

I do have a very busy two weeks ahead of me, though. Besides my “job,” I have a goal to fill up a sketchbook with giraffes by the end of the month.

Did you know that giraffes only sleep five minutes at a time? Or that the average lifespan in the wild is 25 years? Or that they are strong enough to kill a lion, its only predator?

More to come, more to come.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Checking In!

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art class online, art classes online, drawing giraffes, drawing nudes, figure drawing, giraffe drawing, online art class, online classes winter, painting giraffes, winter online art classes, winter online class, year of the giraffe

I just wanted to say a quick hello between holidays… above is my son, Christer, and my grandson, Liam (15 months) on a cool, wet walk Christmas Day. We had a wonderful time with family and hope yours was happy, too!

Here is Christi, my daughter-in-law, with the little cutie pie.

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I’m really looking forward to 2013… are you? Of course I have the big Year of the Giraffe experiment starting next Tuesday, and that’s super exciting (don’t worry, if you can’t join us for the full class, there will be other, peripheral, opportunities to participate in the experiment later in the year!).

And the Draw! class should be really fun, too. For the first time I’ll have all of the drawing exercises documented in video in one place. In addition, we will be drawing the figure, which I have found so helpful in my own drawing practice. If you want to draw, this might be a fun class to get you started this New Year! Class begins January 10, 2013.

In any case, I’ll see you soon!

“Giraffe Receives Her Spots”

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adora, cereal box doll, drawing giraffe, drawing giraffes, giraffe collage, girl, grow a baby, paper doll, pink animals, pink giraffe

Hello!

I was asked some months ago to do a little illustration for an impressive creative project. “Adora” is a little girl living in southern California. When she was born in 2009, her father conceived of a project where he asked artists from all over the world to create a piece of art in her honor.

The “Grow a Baby” project has just surpassed the 500 art mark! Go to the website archive to view some of the submissions, or to ask be part of it yourself!

P.S. I was a little late getting my illustration done, and did it last week. You can tell I have “giraffes on the brain.” 😀

Two New Online Classes! Registration Open

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art class, art class online, art classes online, drawing animals, drawing class, drawing faces, drawing giraffes, figure drawing, online art class, online art classes, online classes winter, online figure drawing, painting animals, painting giraffes, winter online art classes, winter online class, year of the giraffe

I’ve been working hard developing TWO new online classes!

The first one, “Draw! 21 Days Towards Freeing Your Creative Self” is a three-week, video-based class for everyone — all levels encouraged and welcome. Click HERE for all the details for “Draw!”

The second one is called “Year of the Giraffe” and is a long-term, group project exploring a single subject matter and culminating in a ‘zine.

Take this class if you:

• Want to practice your drawing, painting, and observation skills.
• Paper maché is something you’d like to make time for again.
• Think giraffes are one of the coolest creatures ever.
• Don’t necessarily care about giraffes at all, but want to learn to think more creatively in general.
• Want to participate in a year-long group project.

Click HERE for more!