Workshops

Adult Courses

For Adults (18 years and up)

One to four weeks of daily practice – four hours a day, 3 to 5 days a week.

The Art of Sketching/Journaling

The process of keeping a sketchbook and establishing an ongoing practice of sketching invokes creativity like nothing else and is essential to completing well-crafted and artful occasional works for your personal pleasure as well as full bodies of finished work for professional use. Sketching and drawing are the foundation to inspiring creativity and establishing any creative Visual Art process.

My task as your mentor is to show how and to encourage you to connect the gestures of your hand as it moves on your paper to your evermore-observant eye. To sketch and draw with ease, flair, and personal expression, one must follow time proven steps in a training process and I am able to take you through that process with relative ease, after 30 plus years of teaching it, and as a devoted practitioner. I love doing so and I love those who wish to learn this process that is so dear to my heart. You will find me to be an understanding person, engaging and encouraging.

Choosing me as your guide for learning how to sketch makes sense when it comes to considering my blend of knowledge, ability, thoughtfulness, and love for art and its practice. While taking my course, you will find that the thought and commitment you put into developing these timeless skills will equal the results you notice in your ability along the way. It’s infectious; as the more improvement becomes evident through your work the more enjoyment you’ll derive from the process.

The Art of Seeing

As an artist, I am constantly making mental notations of all scenes that pass before my eyes. I am always looking for both the essence of a place and the extraordinary in it. In a sense, I am taking streams of mental pictures that would put any touring shutterbug to the test. A very long time ago, I realized that a memory was far more powerful in the practice of visual expression than any snapshot can ever hope to be. The snapshot proves you were there, but the memory takes you there with a fully sensual remembrance and allows you to dream-walk around in it for forgotten or unnoticed details.

Later, when I trained professionally to become an artist I discovered the specific study and names of some observation skills I had gained naturally as well as other useful techniques, all of which are identifiable and capable of honing for active, aesthetically visual recall: the art of seeing. These pearls are in the understanding of the elements and principles of Design. Design, simply put, is the arrangement of visual experience, broken into identifiable parts, such as line, value, and form and a list of dynamic ways to gather those elements into striking and meaningful vignettes.

While mentoring with me during this course, my students will learn to describe, analyze, and interpret the world through design as an active visual process that helps to form an intensified observation and accessible notation. Sketching and journaling will be introduced as a natural extension of this process. Our course will explore expressive retrieval of stored imagery through the mixing and creative use of visual media and common art skills and tools. Our discussions will include the development of visual vocabulary, constructive critique, craftsmanship and original works.

Artistic Journaling

As a practice, through the ages, artistic journaling has been a successful means to every kind of creative goal. David Hockney once said, “You must plan to be spontaneous.”  One is unlikely to find a more creative, brilliant and prolific artist. This idea is the point behind “Artistic Journaling”. The artist's journal is not only a coordinated strategy, but also a record between the states of flow, in which visual expression occurs. Through journaling, people can find their clues, their muse and their genuine voice.

Participating in this course, you will begin your journaling process while establishing a foundation for exploring self. Your personal awareness will be encouraged through the discussion of a variety of timeless world philosophies along with time proven physical and mental exercises that cultivate personal steps to engaging artistic thinking. Learn to balance the methods and benefits of visualization and expression using principles of visual design and characteristics of creative thinking.

Engage in the processes of “art making” with practical techniques that generate ongoing discovery. Artistic Journaling will reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary, allow you to explore and provoke the creativity that brews in the bones; assist you to develop your own artistic vocabulary; and access the power that enables unique visual expressions.

Workshops and Lessons for Youth and Adults

To schedule please use the Contact Form, call: 208 290 8796 or email: [email protected]

Raffia Creations

o   Design and create

o   Mat

o   Bag

o   Sandals

o   Hat

o   Mask

 

Sewing

o   Hand sewing principles and techniques

o   Machine Sewing principles and techniques

o   Design and create basic clothing and costuming

o   Design and create dolls and/or animals

o   Design and create Moccasins

o   Design and create soft sculpture

 

Folded Paper

o   Origami

o   Flying Things

o   Architectural Modeling

o   Sculpture

 

Handwriting

o   Improve printing

o   Hand Script

o   Calligraphy

 

 

Drawing

o   Traditional skills

o   Cartooning

o   Manga Techniques

o   The Figure

o   Doodling

 

Pen and Ink

o   Nature

o   Animals

o   Traditional Sumi-e

 

Printmaking

o   Mono

o   Cardboard

o   Rubber

o   Linoleum

o   Wood

 

Painting

o   Acrylic

§  Nature

§  Still Life

§  Portraiture

§  Animals

 

Watercolors

o   Nature

o   Still Life

o   Fantasy

 

Make up

o   Styles

o   Artistry

o   Face and Body Painting

 

Mixed Media

o   Collage 2D

o   Collage 3D

o   Mask making

o   Found Object Assemblage

 

Sculpture

o   Fiber

o   Wire

o   Wood

o   Clay – Self Hardening

 

Weaving

o   Creative

o   Macramé

o   Crochet

o   Loom

o   Beading

 

Puppetry

o   Finger

o   Hand

o   Marionette

Musical Instruments

o   Drum making

o   Thumb Piano

o   Ocarina

o   Whistle/Flute

 

Wind Catching

o   Pinwheels

o   Flags / Banners

o   Socks

o   Chimes

 

Game Making

o   Cards

o   Boards

o   Concepts

o   Pen & Paper – RPG Design

o   LARPing

 

Creative Writing

o   Fiction

o   Poetry

o   Journaling

 

Idea development

Style

Research Skills

Basic Illustration