Everyday Objects from the Kitchen

One would think I liked birds........



Sweet BeBop missed us while we were in Arizona last week.

Such a sweetie face!


HOT Summer blog hop giveaway! Go over to Diana Trout's blog today.

Danny Gregory ~ my idol

The Art of Breakfast from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

This fabulous new video by the extraordinary Danny Gregory says it all. Can you see why I admire him so much? If you're not already, follow his blog and buy his books. He's simply the best.

My online joggles.com class starts tomorrow! Sketching & Watercolor:Journal Style ON LOCATION. Join in! you don't need many supplies...inexpensive watercolors and good quality paper and a perm ink pen.

Today starts the HOT summer giveaway! Go over to Carla Sonheim's blog and leave comment.

Art Unraveled Art Retreat 2011

  
This was my fourth year teaching at Art Unraveled. It's always great seeing my teacher friends like Michael de Meng, Ruth Rae and Lisa Engelbrecht.

Meeting new students and seeing former ones again. (prints from my polaroid pogo) 

Above is the wonderful Erin Moore Garmon in my Big Book class. She teaches at-risk kids at the Youth Development Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.


Student at work.




Student work. This was the first drawing of the class! I definitely challenged them. Fabulous, huh?

 As usual I had all levels in my Sketching & Watercolor: Journal Style class. From people who hadn't drawn since the 3rd grade, ones who were new to watercolor and some with experience.



Student work from the day. Gorgeous, isn't it?


 
I also taught monoprinting (and brought along my rubber fish)

And we did some sun prints in my BIG BOOK class.
Proposals are due next month for Art Unraveled 2012. Any suggestions on what I should offer?

Hot! Summer Giveaway!

Hot! Summer Giveaway my fabulously fiery friends are simply too hot to handle this summer! Be inspired and feed the fire of your creativity with some of the most creative publications and DVD workshops out there.

Visit each blog on the scheduled day for that person and leave comments for chances to win in this hottest of summer giveaways!

Wed August 10 Carla Sonhiem http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/

Thurs August 11 Diana Trout  http://dianatrout.typepad.com/blog/

Fri August 12 Gloria Hansen http://www.gloriahansen.com/weblog/

Sat August 13 Tracie Lyn Huskamp http://thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com/

Sun August 14 Jane LaFazio http://JaneVille.blogspot.com

Mon August 15 Jill Berry http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/

Tues August 16 Judy Coates Perez  http://judyperez.blogspot.com

Wed August 17 Kelli Nina Perkins http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/

Thurs August 18 Lyric Kinard http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/

Fri August 19 Melanie Testa http://www.melanietesta.com/mtype/

Everyday Objects ~ hen basket

I'm continuing working on my Everyday Objects page (tutorial here) for this month's Sketchbook Challenge.

Long Beach Quilt Festival 2011

Me, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Jamie Fingal, Judy Coates Perez, and Pokey Bolton 

Even though I'm busy teaching classes (and shopping, and looking at the art quilt exhibitions) at the Long Beach Quilt Festival, I manage to find time to hang with my peeps. This photo is from Cloth Paper Scissors/Make it University's annual Saturday evening event entitled "Surviviving the Runway." It was a royal wedding/hat theme.

The contestants! they did a fabulous job decorating their hats and laughing and playing along.

The paparazzi!  (That's Lindsey Murray on the left, from Cloth Paper Scissors staff)

Me and my quilt "Industrial Aged" at "The Space Between" exhibition at the
Long Beach Quilt Festival this year.

I taught a Make it University session, Sketching & Watercolor Journal Style. I had 16 students and they all did great!
 


 
The Make it University sessions are only 1 hour (checkin my watch above!) and take place in the middle of the convention center exhibition floor. Crazy but fun!


I'm at Art Unraveled, in Phoenix, right now and returning August 7. If you're nearby, stop by the Shopping Extravaganza on August 6.

Monoprinting class at Long Beach Quilt Festival

Have I mentioned I love monorpinting on a gelatin plate? (Especially now that Gelli Arts has come up a printing plate!)
Here are some pics and student's work from my 1 day class at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival. Clearly other people love monoprinting too!


(The little paint cups are from Discount School Supply.)











 





















I'm teaching Gelatin Monoprinting on paper and cloth at Art Unraveled, in Phoenix, on August 4.

Everyday Objects tutorial

It's my month to pick the theme for The Sketchbook Challenge, and it may come as no surprise to my loyal readers that the theme I've chosen is "Everyday Objects." And so to celebrate the theme, here's a tutorial on drawing your everyday objects using a Tombow water soluble pen. (I like the black or grey pens and use the tip, not the brush end of the Tombow dual brush pens--but any water soluble pen will work for this.) This method makes it quick and easy to capture drawings in your sketchbook!

1. Sketch your object with pencil first. (The proportions are a off in the drawing, which I didn't notice till I looked at the photo, but I'm not going to worry about it. No time or reason to completely redraw this.)

2. Pencil over your sketchlines a little darker, getting the details and symmetry as best you can.


3. Using your water solube pen, and still looking at the object, redraw your lines. Erase the pencil lines.( Notice the slight smears? Tombow pens take a few minutes to dry.)

4. Use my fave Niji Waterbrush, or any paintbrush with some clear water.

5. With your brush, touch the edge of the line and shade with the ink. Do this sparingly and try not to cover very much of the white of the page. (It's a great way to learn to practice learning to see subtle shading and shadow.)

I'm working in a Strathmore Visual Journal (mixed media~ 9x12) and plan to add more Everyday Objects to this page (and to my journal.) I'll post my images throughout the month of August.



I added a little red watercolor to my chicken timer.

And, throughout August I'll show you how I have leveraged some of my sketches into my other mixed media and fiber arts projects using some of the ideas from my DVD/dowload "From Art Journaling to Art."
You can see my complete 'in person and online' teaching schedule here.