I spent a lovely day today teaching an all-day workshop in Watercolour Pencils to thirteen keen and creative folks. The way to tell when people are really “in the zone” in a class is the level of talk — today when I sent people back to their tables after each demo, each time there was a velvety silence, broken only by the sound of pencils rubbing on paper — the true Sound of Creativity. Not wanting to break the spell, most of the time I hung out at my own table, creating along with them, which was really a nice feeling. I actually finished my demo abstract ( I rarely finish a class demo in class) and a quick little pink bunny drawing.
I have people make their own scribble abstract sampler as a way to test out the techniques I show them without the stress of needing to make a “picture”. It occurred to me that people are making their own colouring pages! I also brought along a good bit of my collection of Safari animal figures for them to draw from (thus the bunny), and not one of them quailed at the challenge; I was so proud of them all. We worked in both drawing and painting styles, and I think at least some of them are hooked!
I wrote a blog post about watercolour pencils a while back, if you’d like to read about the stuff I taught today. Here’s what my table looked like — I brought all my pencils!
There’s nothing quite like a beautiful rainbow of pencils, waiting to be used to make art!
Karen Gillmore Art 
It’s amazing to see others ‘in the zone’ when painting. It brings up memories when I use to teach “Art as Therapy” in a hospital for out-patients that had a variety of chronic illnesses. They’d walk into the room complaining about their pains and their not so good week. The negativity, you could cut with a knifr, but once they started painting, not a sound, and when class was over the heavy-air was lifted with smiles and even laughter. Rewarding, to see what art can do = Fun
I’ve never painted with watercolor pencils only waxed based colored pencils. I would be honored, if you would check out my post of “Eyes Have The Power To…”
Thank you for sharing your artistic experiences in your blog.
Connie
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Hi Connie, thanks for sharing your experiences with the patients. Art really is great therapy — I know from my own experience that If I’m feeling crummy I’ll feel better if I can just make myself go up to the studio!
Had a look at your post — that’s some very fine coloured pencil work! How do you find the Prismacolors? I have a very old set that I use in conjunction with my Derwent Coloursoft pencils, but I’ve been hearing that the quality has gone way downhill since the company was bought out and moved their production to Mexico. Sad to think of, because they’ve always been a staple of mine. Do you ever use the Verithins, made by Prismacolor?
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I find Prismacolors on line at Blicks Art Materials. Most of the art stores have closed around me. I also use Verithins Prismacolors.
Thank you Karen for the lovely comment. Much appreciated. I look forward in following your blog. Connie
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Oh! I meant how do you find the quality of them these days! Sorry, vague phrasing from me. That’s awful not to have art stores handy — we have three in Victoria, besides Michaels and a few gallery/frame shops that sell supplies. There are so many artists here that it’s hard to turn around without meeting one! But Blicks is a good site. I used to always shop at Daniel Smith when I couldn’t get something here, but they’ve shut down their online sales except for their own paints (which are wonderful and worth checking out).
Thanks for following — I hope you enjoy it, and suggestions are always welcome.
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I will check out Daniel Smoth for paints. I think the quality of Prismacolors are still great.
Thank you for follow – I just started this blog and still trying to understand all the ins and outs of WordPress – widgets, sidebars, how to add a photo of me to my profile pic, Oh my! So much to learn.
Look forward to seeing more of your blog.
Connie
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You’re very welcome — I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work too.
Best of luck with the new blog — fortunately WordPress has an excellent library of support articles, which is my go-to when I need to figure stuff out. I’ve done all kinds of geeky things that I never would have tried without that!
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