Let's Face It 2017 Registration Open & Giveaway Winner

I am delighted to say registration for Let's Face It 2017 is open at the early bird price of $99!

I am a natural storyteller so I am very excited my lesson is all about to painting a portrait with connected figures. When you add more than one figure to an artwork you are able to create a more expressive visual story with depth and feeling.  Plus I will be sharing a special tip and mini lesson too!

When you're ready to sign up I would absolutely love it if you use one of my links.  When a class has multiple teachers each teacher gets paid when a student signs up from a link connected directly to that teacher. That's how it works so of course I would love to have you sign up through me :)  You can go to my class page or use any of the links in this post to sign up.

WINNER OF THE GIVEAWAY!

The other awesome news is that I have a winner for the free seat in the class. Suzanne Sperl is the winner of the random draw. Congratulations Suzanne!

Thank you very much to all of you who commented to enter the draw I have to say I would love to have been able to give you all a free spot. 

Love, Robin

A Little Before and After Painting

More Oil  Pastels

Magazine pages are pretty amazing to work with. Not only because there are no rules and therefore fun to do but also because I learn so much about the art of drawing and painting each time I do one.  Below you see the before and the after of a recent makeover. I photocopied and enlarged the image 160% then used matte medium to glue her into my large sketchbook. She was already a B&W image from W Magazine Then I used clear gesso over the entire thing, adding black gesso  to all the intimidating white that remained.

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I had already made up my mind I wanted to add collage since all she was wearing was a suit coat that  did nothing for me in terms of imagining a clothing makeover using that. I didn't overthink it. I pulled out the first thing from a pile of collage material and ended up with an Italian math workbook. So she became a mathematician in my mind.  And Italian.  And cool. My color choices were based on the magazine image below done by my initial inspiration artist  Guim Tio'. This complimentary yellow purple isn't generally appealing to me but  I really liked his result so I quickly decided  to just go with it. So now I have violet hair and violet lips. Really? That meant I was willing to use yellow ochre for her skin. I was not too sure about this but I did it anyway. I am keeping the idea of experimentation in the forefront of my mind. I told myself it didn't matter 

So I used the matte medium to change her clothing and put a coat of clear gesso over that. I used acrylic paint for her hair because no way dod I have that color in the oil pastels. So once that commitment was made I moved on without stressing too much. Upon further reflection after the fact I think what I especially had liked about what he had done was the solid abstracted shape of her face and nose.  And i think I wasn't able to let myself go that far. Next time....

I took the opportunity to really focus on the lights and darks as shapes and added umber and dark blue to the areas I could map on her face. The is a fairly high contrast image since it was editorial  high fashion image not a makeup ad. I added all of the colors with a very light handed touch wanting to work in layers and build up a variation of tones. So all of her face is yellow ochre in the middle photo above, just applied in varying layers. I also chose to focus on her eyes since in my mind that was the focal point of the image. The intensity of her look. So her eyes are a combination of oil pastel and charcoal. I thinned the oils pastel and used a fine brush  more or less like traditional oil paint. The background is super thick with three shades of green applied in patches then smooshed around, (not too much) with my fingers. Most of the painting was done with straight pastel, no thinner and with my fingers as the blender. 

I think the red earrings and red marks  in her shirt are key elements to bringing some life and energy to the painting. Otherwise she seemed very subdued and even serious in spite of her having a green nose. Her name is Liliana.

And here she is in her final complimentary color glory! Another lesson learned is that it's just not my palette.

Love, Robin

**If you are interested in learning more about using oil pastels and magazine pages go to my class page and read more! 

The Storyteller's Art

Class Opens March 4th 2016

So the day has arrived and I couldn't  be more excited! I am excited to share what I've been learning and discovering about the power of using our voice in tandem with our art!

Come join me on a week long journey into the magical realm of storytelling and art! This unique class will focus on developing your storytelling voice so that you can create art that is compelling and rich with imagination! Fun and deep is where we are going in this class my friends!

We will create 3 projects that are tied together with the glorious thread of story. I am excited to watch and assist all of you in uncovering your storytelling voice in the process! You will create expressive paintings that will mesmerize and engage your audience. Storyteller's need and audience so our work need to be dynamic and engaging! 

I am especially excited to gather together as seekers and  storytellers  in our Facebook Group! It is a bit of a dream come true for me to explore new ideas and share the experience of our journey in a safe and supportive little world of our own. Please join me for this adventure if you are even a little bit tempted to open up your heart and mind to a fresh and new way of expressing yourself with your art! 

Love, Robin








Paint and Pixels Self Study Program is Open!!

Ivy and I have been very busy in our creative little think tank with putting together this project! I am just so excited about opening our new self-study program that I can hardly sit still! Our students from the live class have told us over and over again that Paint and Pixels is an amazing and unique class! They tell us how much they have learned and they demonstrate this every day by creating more beautiful art! The flow of ever more sophisticated art work just keeps coming and we are just so delighted to watch our students grow and gain confidence. Our new self study students are so fortunate to be able to join this vibrant and active group of amazing artists!

See!? If you have watched the video above you will see what we are so excited about!

But I'm going to stop right here for a minute and add the learn more and purchase button so that if you would like to you can go straight to the classroom sales page on Ivy's website to sign up or read an extensive description of the class!

So what does it mean exactly to be a student in the self study program? Trust me it's all good and students will have full access to the amazing and rich content Ivy and I have created! For many students the fact that it is self paced will be a huge advantage to working within the context of  a four week classroom. The main difference is that the self study students will need to have the determination, a stick-to-it attitude and the enthusiasm for learning as they work through the initial learning curve. We've created plenty of unique content and helpful guides for the self study students so they certainly will not be left on their own. And Ivy and I are still right here cheering everyone on and helping out when needed.

If you have followed along with Ivy and I on the Paint and Pixels journey you will already know how dedicated we are to spreading the word about this new art form! It's all been very thrilling and having more artists join us and our amazing graduates would be great fun indeed! Our students have inspired us so much more than they realize and we are as proud of their success as much as our own!

Love, Robin

The Calling to Create

What Brings You to The Creative Process

I created this image very late  at night using the deepest and darkest charcoal I could find. I have a lot of emotions connected to my art and this image has a story to tell that I do not yet know how to put into words. 

This morning, before the sun even thought about peeking from behind the mountain I awoke and remembered that today is the day I begin a new course with Gillian Lee Smith titled Drawn To Expression. I adore Gillian. She was my first real art teacher. She was the teacher I decided to trust and allow into my secret world. I'd lived a long time with a terrible hunger to create that I had not allowed myself to satisfy because of fear. There were times I thought I might starve because of my fear and stubbornness. I was fortunate because that desire to create remained strong and was binding it's time for the right moment to come out and into the light.  

Fear is such a crazy thing. Insensible, irrational, incredibly powerful. Gillian was the one who called me to wake up and she helped me find my courage. I will be forever grateful to her for her gentleness and her desire to light the fire of creative passion within her students. I feel so fortunate. 

 AsI listened to Gillian introduce the class by reading a quote from Mary A. Granvo I started to feel that her words were speaking directly to my heart. Here is the Quote:

"I have found that by using very simple art materials we are able to tap into a soft and tender place that is begging for attention. This soft tender place is our connection with our true essence, our spirit and our soul's longings."

I wasn't really planning to write a blog post today but because I felt so moved so excited to begin this course I simply wanted to share. 

Love, Robin

I'm Teaching In Let's Face It! An Online Workshop

Hello My Friends!

There is still time to win a free seat in Let's Face It!

**Here is where you can read more about the class. 

To enter…just leave a comment here on my blog letting me know why you want to win a spot in Let’s Face It 2016 and subscribe to my blog.To increase the number of times I enter your name, you could do any or all of the following to spread the love. (Be sure to pop back and let me know in the comments all the ways you have shared so I can add your name again and again)

* Share about the class on your blog, twitter, pinterest, google, facebook page or other social network platform.

* Like my facebook page or invite friends to like it.

* Follow me on Instagram.

I will announce the winner on Monday October 26th!

I am so excited to announce that I am going to be a part of a brand new, awesome online course titled “Let’s Face It”!

LET’S FACE IT is a course created and hosted by Kara Bullock from Kara Bullock Art.  It is for anyone that wants to practice creating faces and portraits, but is especially designed for those of you that have felt scared or intimidated to do so at some point in your life.   I'm teaching alongside a fanastic group of artists and together, we want to share with you our strategies, tips, and techniques that we use in order to create our faces and portraits.  You will leave this course feeling confident enough in your skills to never feel intimidated again.

Since I will be teaching along side the amazing artists you see above you will have an opportunity to explore the many styles and techniques unique to each of them. Pretty cool I'd say! You can find out a lot more about Let's Face It here. 

I love to draw and paint faces so I'm excited to share my lesson. I will be teaching you how to create a face in profile which is not near as difficult as you may think! Plus I will include a mini bonus lesson that will help you speed up the process of learning how to draw a profile.

Registration is not open quite yet but on October 15th, you can register and If you sign up by December 1st, you will get a great discount on the price! 

Guess what else!?  I get to give away one free spot in this course to one of you!!

To enter…just leave a comment here on my blog letting me know why you want to win a spot in Let’s Face It 2016! To increase the number of times I enter your name, you could do any or all of the following to spread the love. (Be sure to pop back and let me know in the comments all the ways you have shared so I can add your name again and again)

* Subscribe to this blog.

* Share about the class on your blog, twitter, pinterest, google, facebook page or other social network platform.

* Like my facebook page or invite friends to like it.

* Follow me on Instagram.

I will announce the winner on Monday October 26th!

I look forward to seeing you in class! In the meantime here are some examples of profile faces I have created. 

xo robin