Fall Classes.

Woo Hoo! The Fall class schedule is out!

I am REALLY excited about the line up.

A little something for everyone, even kidlets.

Here are a few highlights, to see the full list, 

click the "classes" button at the top of the page.

Hope to see you in a class very soon!

Contour Drawing: Flowers  September 16th 6-8:30pm

Patchwork Pattern Play  Saturday, September 19th 10-1pm

A great class for beginners to painting and drawing!

Parent & Child Class: Wet Felted River Rocks  Wednesday, September 23rd 4-5:30pm

Encaustic Mixed-Media Family Collages Saturday, October 10th 10-2pm

Mono-printed Long Stitch Books at Oregon College of Art and Craft

Saturday, October 17th 10-5pm

Contour Drawing: Mushrooms Wednesday, October 21st 6-8:30pm

Kids Make Art! Drawing Animals Tuesdays, October 6th-27th 4-5:30pm

To register for any classes here at Bird's Eye View Studio,

simply email me at suki (at) birdseyeviewstudio (dot) com!

Progression of Peony.

I saw the most magnificent peony last week in a friends yard,

and knew immediately I wanted to draw it.

Here is a progression of a peony inside my sketchbook.

I started with this amazing Kuretake Bimoji super fine brush pen.

LOVE this pen!

It's easy to get lost when drawing from a reference image,

I had to do my normal pep talking, "keep going, keep going, keep going."

I also of course had to make some "Artist choices" as I call them,

adding a few imaginary petals to make up for gaps and goofs.

Usually I would recommend working light to dark in watercolor,

but of course being a rule rebel I worked from dark to light.

I was painting with my travel Cotman watercolor set,

and my Pentel water brush.

Next I filled in my mid tones, the flower then started to come to life.

And lastly I pulled out my lightest tones,

made a little swimming green background,

and painted "peony time" in my new favorite painty font.

Here is the original photo I was working from, it's clearly more vibrant,

but what fun this little drawing was to make, and it took less than an hour.

And now I have a visual record of a beautiful spring moment with a friend.

Glad I sat down to work, as always. What will you draw today?

In My Sketchbook This Week.

It's been a fun sketchbook play week for me. 

I moved a little desk into the living room, and have been drawing and painting

while the Mr. and the cat watch TV in the evenings. 

Even shows that I usually love don't hold up to the pull of playing in my Sketchbook.

Here's what I have been up to this week...

Here is a very loose drawing of a arrangement of peonies.

I drew it with a Pilot Varsity water-soluble fountain pen and painted it in with gouache.

I love the bleedy blue lines of the ink.

I've been on a roll drawing faces from my google image search of "regular people."

I scroll until I find someone I like the looks of, then draw them, 

and I finish off the exercise making up a story about them.

"This guys name is probably Bill, or Mark, or Carl.

He will laugh at your jokes. He's got a black lab named Marley,

named after Bob Marley, his favorite musician in college. 

He is kind and will wheel out your trash if you're on vacation.

Just don't ask him to water your ferns, he's not a 'plant guy.'"

Five minute drawings over a gouache box. Everyone has time for five minutes! 

I love putting diluted ink into these Niji and Pentel water brushes and using them to sketch.

I drew these sheep looking at a recent piece of art from Taproot Magazine.

Then my brain got to thinking about the next page, and I drew this skein of yarn.

I like when pages relate to each other.

Another guy from the interweb...

"Omar loves cheese, the only problem being that he is lactose intolerant.

He is quite tolerant of ducks though, and feeds them bits of bagel every Wednesday,

on his way home from the gym."

And of course a few birds to round out the week.

What I like most about this is the combo of bright green and red,

I must use more of these complimentary colors in the future.

So, that's what I've been up to this week, how about you? 

Been sketching up something fun?

I'd love to see it!

A Fun New Series Class: Sketchbook Play!

I am THRILLED to announce a brand new series class starting in January,

Sketchbook Play

The Art of Keeping a Visual Journal

Come learn to play, sketch, paint and record your daily life in a handmade book. 

This class is geared for the sketch-phobic, the ultimate beginner,  the "I always meant to", 

the "when I retire", the imperfectly perfect Artist in all of us. 

No experience needed, no magical talents requested,

 just bring your own wonderful self.

In this class we will spend the first week creating our very own long stitch

 bound sketchbook using vintage book covers, hot press watercolor paper,

 and waxed linen thread. This simple bookbinding method is delightful

 because our books will open flat giving us full access to all of our pages. 

Weeks two through six we will learn the basics of contour drawing

using everyday objects as our models. 

We will continue on learning about watercolor techniques, 

hand-lettering, fancy borders and more!

Classes will begin with a demonstration and are followed up with plenty

of work time which includes, coaching, and creative cheerleading from Suki.

We will study and draw botanicals, vintage household curiosities,

gifts from the sea and forest, and anything else that strikes our fancy.

We will embrace recording our daily lives and objects in a visual format, 

which is such a treat to look back through and treasure.

Dates: Wednesday January 7th-February 18th, skipping the week of February 11th.

Time: 6-8:30pm (We may run a little late the last week of class.)

Location: Bird's Eye View Studio, 3934 NE 16th Ave. Portland, OR 97212

Cost: $150 plus a $20 material fee. 

Your material fee covers the cost of your handmade sketchbook and a 02 micron pen. 

There is an additional small supply list of a few brushes, an inexpensive 

set of watercolors and a few pens, which we will discuss during week one.

I'm SUPER excited about this class, and so are others, spots are going fast!

If you are interested in joining us, email me: suki (at) birdseyeviewstudio (dot) com.

If you have always wanted to have a daily sketchbook practice,

but haven't made it happen yet, SIGN UP!

Make and keep your 2015 creative New Year's resolution.

Art Camp: Drawing and Painting

Art Camp at OCAC has been a blast! 

Here are a few delayed pictures from the Drawing and Painting tent from a few weeks back.

 The kids and I worked on contour drawing and color mixing, it was FUN.

Everyone was amazed that out of three little primary colors we could

mix every color of the rainbow, including brown and gray.

We delighted in making color wheels,

I think we could have made them each and every day.

Stay tuned for more pictures from my current post in the Book Arts tent...