If you like the whimsical, the odd, the nonsensical and fun — and would like to begin incorporating these characteristics into your journals — then this is the class for you!
We’ll spend the first hour drawing and playing word- and drawing-games designed to loosen your hand and get your ideas flowing. Then you’ll construct several small irregular-shaped books and I will demo my own mixed media painting process (watercolor, ink and charcoal, and collage). Then you’ll get to work!
These books are unique in that they are “puzzle-like.” You will begin adding imagery on one spread, with the goal of having each spread connect to — and spring off of — the images from other spreads. (In other words, since the pages are bound irregularly, drawings from one spread will show up when you turn a page…. You will then create the next image based on what is already “started.”)
We will also explore “story,” page design, and the use of white space.
Note: You are welcome to work in your journals in this class (rather than make separate little books). Just be sure you have a heavier paper that can take wet media.
Supply List:
- Extra Fine Point Black Sharpie
- Black Micron Pen (size 01)
- Mechanical pencil
- Scissors
- Small watercolor set (cake or tube)
- #12 round watercolor brush
- Glue stick (or preferred tape tool)
- A selection of your choice of mark-making materials (crayons, colored pencils,
markers…) Less is more, and I will have tons to share, so please don’t buy anything
new! We’ll be working on 140# hot press Fabriano paper.
Optional
- Alphabet stamps and ink (I will have my sets to share)
A Little About ME
Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator, and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. She is the author of Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun.
One of her students writes, “Carla just shines and is so gentle and generous that you will work hard all day and come out energised and inspired. Most importantly though, [her] class was a touchstone in my artistic journey, giving me the courage to stop resisting, and open myself to my creative voice.”
