Saturday Night "Poppies" Paint Party

painting the background

Saturday night I painted with a great group of ladies. Here are a few pictures from the paint party.

Positive/negative

Autumn is my favorite time of year and I enjoy doing fall inspired projects.  We will be working on a positive/negative design.  This project uses symmetry, reverse image, pattern, line and positive/negative space.

Positive/negative space play an important role in determining the overall composition. It creates balance. Positive space is the subject area while negative space is the area around the subject.  The shapes of the negative space are determined by the shapes of the positive space.

Students will be given a color piece of paper (positive) and a black paper (negative).  They will create a simple design (pumpkin, owl or their choice) with cut outs. The design will be glued down creating a reverse image and symmetrical design (equal on both sides).

The next step is to use line and pattern again in a mirror image, creating symmetry. Here is an owl with line patterns being added.

"Playful Puppy" Photos

Saturday October 18th was my first paint party at Proximity Cafe in Pottstown, PA.  Proximity is a super cool coffee house with a great menu and coffee. They feature lots of local musicians and open mic nights.  The Cafe is a church plant/outreach of Penn Valley Church/Grace Christian School where I teach art. 

"Playful Puppy" was geared for ages 6 and up.  Four girls and one adult painted with me. A portion of each fee was donated to Mostly Muttz Dog Rescue.   I don't like "cookie cutter" art so I am open to participants picking their own colors during a paint party. The girls ran with this.  When I start hearing "do we have to do this... can I use this color?" it makes me smile because I know the creative juices are flowing!  Here are the finished paintings as well as photos of the girls working on their paintings.

I will be teaching an adult party this Thursday, October 23. We will be painting "Sunflower". Please contact me to sign up!

Social Painting Fundraiser Event

Please join me this Saturday, October 18th, paint Playful Puppy and help raise money for Mostly Muttz Dog Rescue.

The painting event will be held at Proximity Cafe in Pottstown from 5pm to about 6:30 pm. I will lead kids ages 6 and up (adults are welcome to paint) step by step through this 12"x12" painting. You can personalize Puppy's tag with your dog's name!  The cost is $20 and I will donate $5 from each fee to the dog rescue.  You get to leave with a cool painting AND help dogs in need!  The Cafe has great food and coffee for parents to eat/drink while the kids are in class.

Please email me to register or for further information.

10/14 - Perspective From the Bottom Up

In this class I will combine my annual tree lesson with a perspective lesson.  Perspective is a drawing technique used to illustrate dimension through a flat surface.  Our project will use a worm's eye view - looking from the bottom up.  Worm's eye usually includes three vanishing points: one point at the top, one point to the left and one to the right.  We will be using crayons for this project.

Students will have their choice of tree projects.  This single tree is good for adding some texture and shading since it is larger.

This cluster is trees places the viewer in the middle of a forest, looking up at the canopies.

This drawing takes the viewer's eye skyward, following the trunks up to the colorful leaves.