Month: August 2021

In Brittany’s workshop today, we looked at how to draw cartoon aliens.  Brittany showed us the work of three artists; Robin Eisenberg, H.R. Geiger, and Nathan Pyle.  I  thought these were great choices for exemplars because they cover a wide range of sensibilities.  Geiger’s work is baroque and dark, Eisenberg is colorful and contemporary, and…

In her workshop, Chris taught us about the art of kiragami, which is similar to origami only in that it involves using paper to create sculptures.  It seems to me that the biggest difference in Kiragami is that you can cut the paper and so it seems like a more open-ended process.  I do remember…

At the outset, I have to admit I have never liked drawing with colored pencils.  Sanguine Conté?  Yes.  Charcoal?  Definitely.  Ink?  Love it.  Oil Paint?  I have a fantasy of retiring and painting in oils every day.  Graphite?  Any Day!  Colored Pencils?  No.  I have just never felt comfortable with them. Maybe it’s the brand…

In Chelsea’s workshop today, we explored the magic of salt dough.  It brought back memories of the time before I was in school, when I was home with my mom during the days before she re-entered the workforce.  We would sometimes make play dough and it was great.  I remember the smell of it especially. …

Stan’s workshop was fun and relaxing, but not easy.  I think that the process of making a Suminagashi print is fascinating.  It is an easy process but making a really good print is not easy.  It’s such a delicate process, and where Brianna’s workshop explored paper as a material, I feel like Stan’s was exploring…

In Devin’s workshop, we used an open source program called OpenToonz to create animations that we later made into GIFs.  It was a very good introduction to animating digital drawings using tools like keyframes and wire meshes, which help to automate the process.  I had never done animation this way before, so I appreciated the…

Derin’s workshop was a very technical deep dive into how to photograph artwork.  It was very interesting and useful in a number of ways.  Most of all, it got me thinking about how to offer a simple workflow to students that will allow them to create accurate and useful images documenting their work.  It seems…

I had a lot of fun learning how to make a stop motion puppet from Rimi.  Her demonstration and calm presence throughout the process was great to experience, and her knowledge of the subject was very useful.  At one point I had trouble because I had drawn the arms too short in my original design,…

I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed this workshop, because my most recent experience with sewing before this was 7th or 8th grade Home Economics, which I did not enjoy.  (But then again, not much was fun about middle school.)  Once I settled in and got the hang of it a bit,…