This class is designed for people who want to tap into their creative flow more regularly! Wether you are someone who wants to work through ideas for a new body of finished pieces or just want to establish a regular creative practice by “art booking” this class is for you!
I have been an ardent “art booker” for at least 20 years. I have found some of my best ideas while playing in my book. My art book practice has allowed me access to an endless stream of creative potential. My goal is to lead others to this source!
I will share my favore practices to encourage free flowing creative energy as well as my art book philosophy.
I call it an art book because: It’s more than a sketchbook, not exactly a journal, but somewhere in-between. We will work with ways to allow our personal ideas and narratives to take visual form. We will do this through working with collage, water media, acrylic paints, drawing media and more.
As the course progresses- I will work individually with students on how to turn these raw ideas into more finished pieces, maintaining the vital energy of the original idea.
You may pay the tuition here to reserve your space. Class has limited spots.
Cost- $250. Thursday evenings- 5 classes- 6-8:30- May 4- June 1 2023
Materials included in tuition- scraps for collage, water media and acrylic paints to use during class, glue, scissors, pens, colored pencils, and other media.
Students are asked to bring a sketchbook of their choosing, preferably one with thicker paper that can withstand collage and gluing. As class progresses, you may want some art paper or a canvas on hand if you plan on beginning a piece.
Syllabus:
Class 1 (May4)
We consecrate our art books! We will set a creative goal or intention for ourselves and decorate the cover to reflect that, or to reflect the aesthetic we are drawn to.
We will do a drawing exercise that shows us the differences in drawing from our minds and imagination and one that is drawn from reality. Students are encouraged to bring a loved object or photo of one to use for the “from reality” drawing.
We will do a third drawing that combines reality and imagination.
We will strategize and develop plans on how and when to incorporate an Artbook practice into our busy lives!
Class 2 (May 11)
Watercolor! We won’t be using watercolor in a traditional way. Watercolor has been one of my favorite fluid and spontaneous Artbook drawing mediums. We will do exercises with pen and watercolor to connect to our creative intuition.
We will be somewhat limited here due to drying times and not being able to turn the page. I will provide some extra sheets of watercolor paper for further exploration!
Class 3 (May 18)
Collage! Collage is a great way to explore aesthetics as well as to break up the visual field (white space). Sometimes a clean white page can be intimidating. Collage is a great way to get a start- that first idea can be a picture, color, shape, texture, pattern that already exists! I find that that initial idea is something I can easily build on. Students will also be invited to combine collage with the intuitive watercolor drawing.
Class 4 (May 25)
Conceptual Artbooking! My ideas for this class are kind of hard to explain in the written format but suffice to say we will be cutting, rearranging, taping , and using ephemera. I will give a little preview in class 3 so if there’s items you want to have you can gather them.
Class 5 (June 1)
Extrapolating! We will take time to review what we have enjoyed working in in our art books and discuss how to take those explorations further- you may want to start a painting or mixed media piece in this class. We will discuss ways to keep the fresh energy of our art books alive in our “real work”.
Some students may not have interest in creating “real work” and that’s ok too! We will continue to build on our idea generating processes in our books- by layering some acrylic paint into some of our previous pages.
