Collage class with Lynne Perelle

A weekend of dabbling with paint. I'm surprised at how a lot of freedom can be difficult. I felt lost. This was the only time I wished I had step-by-step directions. In the middle my pictures looked like they were floating. The most valuable lesson for me was kowinng I had to find a way to connect my images - basically "composition" is key and that was what I needed. In the end though, I was glad I went with the flow. I splattered paint! Making the next step depending on the previous unplanned one I made. Baby steps it was...not minding the big picture...just staying connected with my inner self...the gut feel. In the end I found...

Layering Class with Lynne Parelle

First day of this weekend workshop. Met incredible people who were as involved in doing art as I...or even more. I was grateful to be around creative people who I had something in common with - collage. I wanted my piece to reflect ME so I decided to personally draw an image of me! I used less paint than I thought. I used a lot of tissue paper than I had planned. Nevertheless, I like the colors and the effect. My main goal in my artwork is to release my inner voice. It's so easy to fall into the trap of imitation stopping us from saluting our own uniqueness.

Gesture Drawings

This is my favorite class in the drawing course I've been taking so far. These range from 1-5 minute drawings. The limited time given to draw live human figures makes the experience so dynamic and thrilling. It's literally living in the moment. Who cares if I dont finish in time!

Drawing Heads

The shape of the head from the front view is oval while the head look like a rounded square from the 3/4 view.

Contour Drawings

Contour drawing is a warm up exercise where you draw the outlines of images without lifting your pencil. I drew a group of objects like a water bottle, starbucks cup, sunglasses, and an apple. We drew our hands and fruits as well. Drawings look comical and are never close to perfect. The point is to just keep your eyes on the image and keeping the pencil moving on paper without lifting.

Beeswax Collage class

I was asked to pick one face image and 2 patterned papers. Then i though of a design. I used a thick board as a base then coated it with melted wax. Next I layed white tissue paper or japanese paper over then added another coating of wax on top. Then i used melted crayons to do the colored background, then i layed the back most collage images first. Using less wax as adhesive, i used a travel iron or a quilting iron to help set the crayons and excess wax. I added the rest of collage images making sure to apply heat sources each time to set the layer for the next one. Lastly i finished my work by adding stamp ons on tissue paper and added this to the collage. I also added a button as my final decor.

Drawing Class

For our first class, using charcoal on huge newsprint paper, we were asked to draw from a painting on a post card. I picked this lady becasue i liked the lines on her body. It was tough getting the right proportions and to actually get her to tilt her hips in the drawing. My teacher told me to find the imaginary lines on the lady's shoulders and hips and to bring that out in my drawing. I learned that i should pay more attention to larger shapes than details to get the closest contour and form. I constantly had to remind myself to keep my charcoal moving on my pad or else it meant that i was paying attention to detail instead of the larger shapes. . It took me 45 minutes to do this. I got tired after. We were told that drawing takes lots of practice. We were recommended to draw an apple a day. For our home work we were asked to draw our self portrait. I read in a book that to get good at drawing, I have to practice for an hour or two daily. The great thing is, DRAWING CAN BE LEARNED!

More Projects: Just Playing Around

click on the title and be linked to more of my recent experimental works...