DRAWING LESSONS ANYONE?

This post definitely comes under the and-now-for-something-completely-different category. Today, I want to celebrate creativity in a different way. Many don’t know it, but I’m also a professional artist. I have done line drawings for 3 novels, commission work, have visited schools as an illustrator, and am now embarking upon my first picture book. The book is called Growing Up In Wild Horse Canyon, written by Karen Autio and will be published by Sono Nis Press in 2016.

(The above is a commission I did about 15 years ago of a friend and her horse.)
Over many years of associating with creative people, I’ve noticed something about them: they often express their creativity in many ways. They may also be musicians, actors, decorators, architects, fabulous landscapers, painters, sculptors, gaming wizards, or even think-out-of-the-box mathematicians, engineers and scientists. (Have I missed anything?)

(The above was inspired by a trip to France. I do love horses, so had to paint another couple!)
And with drawing, many of you may have had discouraging experiences in school years of not being able to draw as well as the next kid, so you backed off completely. Now, though, many have a hankering to try it out again, but don’t know how to go about it.

(The above was done with water colour pencil crayons, one of my favourite mediums!)
Well, have I a deal for all you closet artists! I would like to offer all our Scriblerian followers a chance to learn to express yourself in two dimensional art. I will teach you some artist’s secrets that have been known since cave art and have been used throughout history in architecture, sculpture, paintings, and drawings. But the cool thing is that these same secrets are even now staples in decorating knowledge of landscapes and homes. I teach a few of the same things in my school visits, along with my different approach to drawing that enables anyone to learn to draw. And what you learn will enable you to draw anything, not just the object we are working on. The only things you need are patience, an open mind, and a pencil and paper.

(The above is a sketch from my fantasy WIP Orion’s Sword)

(The above sketch is from one of the books I illustrated called One Thing I Know For Sure coming out soon)
What I ask of you is to reply with your email and name. I will put them all together in a bag and choose 5 people to be my students, and will notify you with an email that you have won. I will send you the 5 or so lessons via email and you can scan your drawings (or take a picture of them) and send them back to me. We will have a back and forth correspondence until you have finished your picture. This is of course meant to be fun and you will be free of knowing how well ‘the next kid’ is doing in comparison. Perhaps if you’d like, we can post your picture on a later post. Remember though, we all learn in different ways and at different speeds.
After the lessons you will never look at artwork the same again. You will be able to spot artwork done by a professionally trained (or unprofessionally trained) artist from 10 paces, and will be able to appreciate two dimensional and three dimensional art as you never have before.
If you’d like to see more of my artwork, go to http://www.lorainekemp.com or http://www.facebook.com/lorainekempartist
So, if this is what you’d like to try for a sideways expression of your creative spirit, let me hear from you! Don’t be scared! Let the games begin!!