What a week it has been for me. I had my very first session of my 5 week online course with Penn Art Studio on Thursday morning (for me, Wednesday evening for people in North America!) And after being a little frantic with the prep. It went ahead with 27 students and I think it went really really well! The theme was “Connection” which covered connection to our supplies, connection with each other and connection with ourselves. Students have already been uploading their paintings to an online tool provided and hosted by Penn Art school and we are already able to connect and over there, look at each other's paintings and feel a sense of community building. Next week's theme is PLAY. If you're interested in joining in, there's still 3 spots left! And you can pretty much catch up by watching the recording of our first class and join us for the other 4 weeks. It's that easy. I'll provide the link below here to the sign up page here if you want to get in on the action! I'm discovering what a professional, reputable school Penn Art Studios is, and I'm so utterly grateful and privileged to be asked to teach with them.
What else? I don't know if you've been following me on instagram stories, but leading up to the start of the course, I went on this intense creative spurt! I suddenly felt the urge to try new supplies, new subjects. I started to sketch with my pencil, drew with charcoal, dug up my markers, crayons, coloured pencils, ink and more. I also went on a little spending splurge at my local art store (oops) and I am creating right now, a little “Art Haul” video that I hope to release next week! It was a really weird thing to suddenly find myself in. While planning and creating a watercolourcourse, I was busy messing around with so many other mediums! I think it was a way my brain was trying to help me cope with the stress of the course. It was trying to divert attention and energy to the anxiety and to focus on positive arty things. I think it worked quite well for me creatively, (but not so on my wallet oops). Anyway here is a glimpse of that art haul. Video editing in progress….
I even signed up for not one, not 2, not 3, but 4 Domestika courses as they were having a sale. (Are they always having a sale?) In case you're interested, I'll link the 4 courses I've signed up for here. 2 of which I am halfway through but can't wait to dive into all of them. (not sponsored by Domestika here. Just sharing the goodness!) Expressive Floral Painting with Acrylic Paint A course by Sonal Nathwani Creative Patterns Using Watercolor A course by Lola San Román Marshall Artistic Portraits with Watercolors A course by Ale Casanova Animal Illustration with Charcoal and Ink A course by Laura McKendry
What else? Oh yes! Kristy Rice sent me a whole bunch of supplies awhile back to try and I finally made 2 videos on my YouTube channel reviewing her beautiful paint palette! The first one is just an unboxing and swatching, and the 2nd one features a real-time floral bouquet painting using all the colours in her palette. If you don't have her paint set, you can still definitely follow this tutorial using the colours you like and have.
Like the little pun on the title? “Crushing”?
Alright! So I think that's it from me for the week.
Didn't I say a lot's going on? :P