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?

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.