All Creatures Great and Small: Draw, Paint and Fabric-ate!
A weekend with Carla Sonheim
March 13-15, 2009
Fri: 2pm-7pm    Sat/Sun: 10am-5pm
1 hr lunch each day

Animals enrich our lives on so many levels… the facial expression of an irritated house-cat or the sheer bulk of a hippo inspire and nurture our souls. For me, creating my own menagerie of animals has a similar soul-healing effect. So… with animals as our subject matter, our three-day adventure will begin with the line, then progress with the addition of color and wrap up with dimension.

We’ll start with pen and paper!

Some time around third grade most of us decided we couldn’t draw, and drawing — which had come so naturally and joyfully to us as little children — ceased to be fun. It’s my mission to try to put FUN back into drawing! As one student recently said, “[Being in your class is] like being a child again, but you get to do it as an adult.”

We’ll complete dozens of drawings in a variety of media: pencil, charcoal, ink, ballpoint pen, Sharpie and watersoluable crayon. We will work fairly quickly. From whimsical to serious, we will draw from life, from photographs and from our imaginations. (Don’t forget to bring in photos of your pets!) Each drawing exercise is designed to build upon one another and give you the confidence you need to incorporate drawings into your mixed media work.

From there we will add color to the mix, and after a few idea-starter exercises, you will be set free to work on a series of 3-5 compositions in the media combo of your choice. Drawing is a Blast!

Once we complete the drawing process we will move into painting. Seven years ago I moved to Colorado and gained a wonderful studio. However, I had a problem: it was in the middle of our home, and housed our wood stove. Oil paints — my preferred medium — were out. Acrylics, then? No… I’ve never liked them. So with time I developed a mixed media painting technique that gets a result reminiscent of the luminescent and textural oils I love, but with watercolor! You will learn this process, working on paper, wood and clayboard so you can see for yourself how the same techniques produce wildly differing results. You will work on five to eight paintings simultaneously, as this multi-media process requires drying time between layers.

We will explore painting both intuitively and intentionally. For example, you will be surprised that many of your abstract watercolor starts will already suggest the animal it is going to be...you simply need to finish what's already “there”. Other paintings will require more concentrated effort, and we will use both 2D and 3D references to get you started in those cases. As your facilitator I will spend a lot of time "working the room", helping each of you work with perceived mistakes and make decisions to create the best paintings possible.

With line and color well in hand we will switch gears and spend the remainder of our time with paper and string, wire and fabric, needle and thread. We’ll start with paper and fabric “wrapped” animals, endeavoring to capture the essence of the creatures only through the simplist shaping… no detailing allowed!

Next you will create a free-form stuffed animal – no measuring, no patterns — I’ll demo my own approach and you will be encouraged to finish your animal with buttons, needlework and other oddments (detailing encouraged on this one).

For your final sculptural creation, you are encouraged to combine some or all of the techniques and materials learned this weekend – wire, fabric, paper, drawings, paintings, sewing, wrapping…

Supplies needed:
Ultra fine-point black Sharpie
Mechanical pencil
Package of 3”x5” plain index cards
Two 5”x7” or 8”x10” clayboard canvases (flat or box)
Some photo references of your favorite animals, including pets (I will bring a lot as well)
Small watercolor set (cake or tube)
#10 round watercolor brush
½” flat brush (or similar)
A small assortment of cheaper brushes (just bring what you have on hand; I will have some to share)
brayer
Wire clippers (I will also bring some to share)
A small bag of your favorite fabric scraps
A small stack of papers at least 8”x10” (thinner papers like tissue paper, rice paper, newspaper work best)
Scissors
Buttons, oddments
Basic sewing kit (needle, thread, etc.)

Teacher will Provide:
Charcoal, Crayons, Pastels, Colored Sharpies
Erasers
Wood canvases
Drawing and Watercolor Paper
Wire
Fabric
Paper scraps
gesso
Sewing machine to share
Anything else needed

Optional:
Heat gun