Classes with Limor Webber

Hello lovelies (this is a long post, so please click through),

I mentioned in my earlier post that I went to Echuca for artyness on the weekend.  Friends and I  traveled 2.5 hours each way to take 2 classes with the fantabulous Limor Webber hosted by Hobbysew in Echuca.

I believe it's important for us Aussies to support the dwindling number of bricks and mortar shops we have in this country.  Plus I love to be on the other side of the room being a student rather than teaching all the time. 

I'm such a girly swot - I managed to get a photo with the teacher :)

But onto the classes - what did I learn?  Plenty!!
The first class we did was a 2 hour preview of Limor's upcoming Art of Sketching class.  I haven't sketched a face in a while, so the practice was really good for me.  She started by asking us all to draw a quick face sketch.

Pretty rough isn't it! The head wasn't evenly shaped, the eyes were wonky, the nose too large and the ears were off-kilter (she looks pretty ghoulish actually).  We then practiced individual features, refining as we went. Lips:

 Eyes:

 Then adding in a nose:

Finally starting to put it all together:

2 hours and there's a vast improvement in my facial proportions. The key to sketching a face is practice, practice and more practice... expect to start seeing more faces in my art journals!  I will probably enroll in Limor's online sketching class once it comes available, just to force myself to sit down and draw.
 
We then managed a little bit of sightseeing... the Murray River is beautiful any time of year, but sunset in winter is particularly lovely. 

After a crisp start (it was below zero degrees Celsius overnight), we headed off to do our second class: 5 hours of art journal making.

This was interesting for me as it was utilising products I don't really use a lot of, and it felt more "scrapbooky" - which I just don't do!  The base of the journal was from Prima and was pre-made.  What I really found interesting in the class was using the Whipped Spackle, the Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays, and rediscovering my Gelatos.

Here's the cover:

The whipped spackle is fantastic - you can see it clearly on the top right of the cover.  I have long been a fan of Grunge Paste, but this product is heaps better.  It's flexible like the grunge paste but much lighter so its faster to dry.  It also takes the Lindy's embossing powders which is AWESOME.  I will carry out a few comparative tests between the two products and blog the differences in detail for you all.

I have decided that the Flat Fabios from Lindy's are the way to go.  Some of you may have watched my video (here) on my first play with Lindy's sprays.  I wasn't too impressed with the depth of colour I was achieving. However, on the very porous surface of the Prima journal (its raw canvas with a resist pattern on it), the colours were much stronger.

I was able to get my hands on some flat shots as well, so I will do a bit of a product review on those after I have had a play.

The next page we tackled was a background of gelatos on the Faber Castell Gel Medium.  I found the gel medium very thin, but it still did a decent job of sealing the surface of the page.  This meant that (of course) the gelatos smooshed around gorgeously.  This is where your colour theory knowledge comes into play.

What I didn't realise before I did this page was that gelatos can be worked into canvas - there are little Prima canvas stickers that have resist patterns on them adhered to this page, and all were coloured successfully with gelato.  That's a handy thing to know :)

The final page was some more sprays on a resist background - a repeat of the techniques used on the cover. 

All in all it was a very successful weekend!

'till next time

~Liz