Brusho workshop

It was a very successful Brusho workshop, organized by our local art guild that I'm a member of.  It was my first teaching this and was a little nervous only because I wanted everybody to have at least one nice sample to bring home after spending a whole day exploring this new medium.  Turns out no worries-everyone had a great time and we learned so many ways to use it from each other. Lots of inventive ideas were played with and each as individual as the person doing it.  I just showed them how it works and we spent the morning playing around with it. After lunch I did a  couple short demos, including how to mask off tree shapes and create winter birch trees and cardinals, but emphasized it could be any kind of tree or season. One lady did a beautiful fall scene background with birches, and another did just abstract colors behind the trees. Fantastic!

Proud participant with no previous                        A row of engaged students.

painting experience!                               

                           

                                                                                   

This person does journaling and taped a little Brusho sample to her entry. She also had a butterfly stencil and made little Brusho butterflies with it. (shown next to journal here)

Flowers were a favorite, so nice and bright. I can't even show all the great things people came up with! Someone did a batik style fish using wax resist, another did a frog that somebody else bought!  And when all was done, everyone went home happy and many ordered their own Brusho to play with to continue the fun.


The group and I were also interviewed by the local paper!  You can see the article and pictures in the link below:

http://auburnpub.com/skaneateles/news/bit-of-excitement-skaneateles-artist-christy-lemp-introduces-brusho-watercolor/article_728cd883-9b02-5390-b9a2-11d8ce67a2e1.html

This fox is finished! I used all my tricks of "seeing" if it was finished-looking in the mirror, upside down, and taking pictures on my phone. They all help see the picture from a different perspective and mistakes , or room for improvements, are more pronounced. And I also finally figured out watermarks!

Foxy Play

I've been fascinated by the red foxes that have been dashing through our yard lately. They're just a quick blur of red and that foxy face, off to maybe find food (the neighbor's chickens!) I don't have chickens so I continue to like their elusive charm.

I spent a whole morning sketching little studies-they turned out to just as elusive to me to capture the face; it's kind of triangular looking and the ears have to be just right. And the colors took experimenting also. Finally decided on raw and burnt sienna, and Schminke transparent orange instead of the new vermillion I bought. ( the top to the orange was hopelessly stuck on until my teeth held it firm to twist it off. Must remember to get a little pair of pliers!) Cobalt turquoise light to contrast and highlight the white fur.

 Letting him rest today with one eye and will continue tomorrow. Also want to try him with Brusho!