ArtTrader Magazine Workshop Plug

This robot girl was created from watching a video by Andrea Melione from the Fantastic Faces online workshop through ArtTrader magazine. I cannot say enough about the quality of workshops through the mag, the website, and the personal feedback and support provided.

I'm having major problems with inspiration; my muse is blowing in the wind that is howling outside, I guess. Yet since I signed up for the workshop, I can pop online, watch a video, follow along, try new things, keep my critic at bay, and learn.

While I definitely didn't think I did a good job, this card has received some positive comments at Atcs For All, so even in this slump of mine I feel like I'm still creating.

Thank you Andrea and ArtTrader Mag!!

Art as therapy

Yes, we've all heard it before, but art really is therapy. With everything I've been going through lately, all the little and big stresses, I find if I have a project (or 2 or 3) going and within visual range, I'll sit down and work on it for a while and not only get out of my bad head space, but get a little art done, for better or worse.

I'm quite committed to getting better at my art, and want to qualify to join Illustrated ATC's at some point, but just the fact that art is part of my daily (and sometime hourly, if I had my way!) life is a gift. I always wanted to be the person with a small pad and pencil in my purse in case I had to wait somewhere and draw instead of read or fret. Now I am. Yay!

101 Faces and practice practice practice!

Carla Sonheim's "Faces 101" class wrapped up last Friday, though I'm still finishing my 101 faces. Yep, that's what the class was, 101 faces! While the class was not about specific methods for drawing faces, she challenged us to use various media and techniques to draw many faces, all with no erasing (except for the exercise where that's all you could use was an eraser...oops, spoiler alert!).

I learned the true meaning of practice when it comes to my drawing in this class. For instance, the piece here is one of 10 drawings done with colored pencil, no erasing, from the same photograph. I learned that to get better at drawing is not only about new techniques and ways of drawing the components of things (though that it useful), it is important to draw the same thing over and over and over again until you get closer to the image you want. I was missing that part of my growth in drawing. Thank you, Carla, once again!