Lucky me! I recently attended classes by Dina Wakley, hosted by The Ink Pad NYC. They were held at the Westbeth Center Community room and it was a bright and open location for the class.
First thing is that even though I was hugely excited about these classes, I almost didn't make it. I had a seriously ailing back, and I actually had to really work my way up to attending. Armed with loads of ibuprofen, back warmers and loads of determination I drove in for the class. I found parking a block away and had my rolling suitcase loaded with supplies. Thanks to my dear pal Brenda, I never had to lift anything. She really was a lifesaver. She's such a girl scout, she's always prepared. I hope she's in all my classes forever. She made her own journal to create in, and cleverly stamped images instead of trying to pack dozens of stamps. The girl is a genius.
Our first class was Layering and Listening. Brenda and I found seats near the front and ended up sparking a friendship with Lisa Mita who is an amazing artist. Here's a link to her Facebook page.
We laughed a lot and Lisa really got me to break out of my clean-freak mode (more on that later)! We also met Laurie, who we learned to love even though she was such a space hog (LOL).
We were armed with a large piece of watercolor paper and we had to create 25 layers! Each different color was a layer, using a stencil was another layer, etc. It was a challenge to keep track after about a dozen or so. We were learning what our layer quotient was, or how many we liked to have as a background. It was a great exercise. Learning the basics of composing a journal page was SO helpful to me.
What I really loved is how we got to play in Dina's class, but we also had a goal in mind. She had us create two journal pages, based on a formula. The pages incorporated the layered page we made, and it all came together by the end of the class. I had two completed pages and that made me sooooooo happy. This is where she soared as a teacher, in my opinion. I've taken classes with teachers who just let you play with techniques or supplies. However, with these type of classes I later feel as if I didn't get my "money's worth" out of them. Not in this case.
Plus, we got to try out Dina's paint colors which are beautiful. They are colors that work really well together and are not the same old basics. Dina had some cool tools as well, including a needle-tip bottle for painting extremely thin lines.
Here are some pictures from the class. I apologize to Dina, I was snapping when I could as my back didn't allow for carefully executed shots. She's a lot of fun, but you also really learn a lot.
I managed to get Lisa in the picture below, she's on the right!!
The 2nd class was Delightful Painted Deli paper. I had to take a pic of this page. I just had to copy the teacher and make a page using the heart mask. This technique is SO fun. I was totally nutty about cleaning and Lisa and Laurie both appropriately scolded me into sanity. The whole point is to be messy, use all the paint and don't waste anything. I'll have to add a picture of the page Lisa started in my journal, using the leftovers from the heart mask I had been about to wipe off.
I'll have more to say about this later, but I was so happy I took this class. We had a smaller group and Laurie finally got some much needed elbow room, when some people from the first class left for the day.
I know that using deli paper with the Gelli plate is da-bomb but I never had thought about using deli paper to create backgrounds. Dina told us that she and a friend will get together and create 25 at a time, and use them for projects. It's such a great idea.
My favorite technique is using stencils to do rubbings with the deli paper. I'll have to do some samples and talk more about that later.
Below it's Brenda, Dina and me!
Okay, well I had better wrap up this post because it's a long one. I plan to do some show-and-tell and show off my journal pages.
toodles for now . . .
2 comments:
Hello! Thanks so much for coming to class and making art with me, I am so glad you enjoyed the classes. You made great art! Thanks for being my art people! Hugs! Happy art making!
Both classes were great. I didn't want the day to end. Thanks for joining me Julie.
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