I found out about Claudia’s weekly classes this weekend and asked to attend. It is a big drive for a weeknight (1 hour each way) but I really want to improve my pen and ink skills. The current session started last week so I need to play catch up which should be no problem since I don’t have to work until Wednesday night. I have a release that evening so to be able to attend this class I have to stay late in the studio and dial into work. I should be driving home around 11:30 pm.
Tag Archives: Class Project
Color Creation – with Claudia Nice
Color Mixing class at Brightwood Studio. Used M. Graham watercolors, six primary colors, a warm and cool mixed the rest. Used the tube secondary colors orange, green, violet for short cuts.
I got so much out of the classes last year, that I registered for all of Claudia’s workshops. This one was the least exciting by far, but very foundational. I did walk away having had a big bunch of fun and a much deeper feel for tertiary complements and complementary shading. I am spent part of Sunday working up a background chart for another color wheel and want to rework it with punches so it looks more ‘professional’
Another day of flowers
New Office
Offices come and go. I haven’t had a door in six or seven years. I’m acting supervisor for the next couple of months. It may shake down into something more permanent. For the time being, I have a private office near the break room. No one is even in the cubes right out side. I brought in a bunch of art that I’ve worked on in the last year. Bought a two dock iHome, verilx and flower calendar and some cat office supplies. Almost as nice as my home office now.
More Flowers 101
Cactus Reloaded
Taking another go at the cactus to practice what I learned at the Claudia Nice workshop this weekend. Wish I had taken notes on the color mixing. I think I got more stickers this time around. Broke open a new set of Rapidograph pens I bought on eBay after the first class. Work much nicer than the ones I re-habed. Started with the 0 and will do the background cactus shading with 000 next.
Finished most of the pen work watching last week’s True Blood.
Two One: Painting in Pen, Ink and Watercolor with Claudia Nice
As you can tell, day two is a seaside landscape. Not as pleased as with the cactus yesterday but learned a lot of color mixing and watercolor technique. Claudia Nice is the BEST!
I had the same problem as most of the other students, we were up tight about putting the rock texture in. I am going to give both of the projects another try before moving on to my own photos.

Day One: Painting in Pen, Ink and Watercolor with Claudia Nice
Same Subject-Three Times in Three Minutes (each)
Blind Contour Drawing
Blind contour drawing is a method of drawing, popularized in part by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his book The Natural Way to Draw (1941), which presents itself as an effective training aid or discipline. The student, fixing their eyes on the outline of the model or object, draws the contour very slowly in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper. The student may look at the paper to place an internal feature, but once they begin to draw it, they do not glance down, but follow the same procedure as for the outline.
Blind Contour followed by a Contour drawing. I worked on the bear a third time in pencil while the other students did a value scale. Learned her that my quick fountain pen drawings are more pleasing to look at.










































