Painting Faces at CREATE Mixed Media Retreat

Small sample of drawings from entire class.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with the family to New Jersey and take a class at the CREATE Mixed Media Retreat. I signed up for the "Explore Faces" class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer almost as soon as registration opened a few months ago, because I'm a big fan of Julie's work and trying to improve my drawing and painting skills.

There were about 18 of us in class, and Julie got us feeling comfortable with out "can-barely-draw-a-stick-figure-much-less-a-face" preconceived ideas about drawing a face. She broke each lesson down into simple steps and the basic shapes that form the foundation of a face. 

 A bit of my own work from the class. From pencil sketches to painting a whole face!

Julie is very laid back and reassuring in her teaching style, she insists you cannot make a mistake, anything can be corrected with some gesso and paint (true!) and I couldn't believe how awesome everyone's work was after the first hour!

 My faces are the top 3 from the right...yes, even the ugly green girl LOL.

I'll admit I had some serious drawing envy going on at times, and it's so true what they say in an art class: the person's work next to or across from you is ALWAYS better than yours (perception not reality of course!) LOL. 

But I was there to have fun and learn the techniques, not necessarily make ready-to-frame art that day. I am so excited to put what I learned to work in my art journals and even my quilting! If you're not already familiar with Julie's blog (and podcast!) I highly recommend you check it out..... so much fabulous inspiration there.

CGM