Exploration

For a couple of years Strathemore Paper Company has offered a series of web classes.  Over the duration of these offerings, the sessions (for the most part) have gotten better and the delivery of the instruction has become more sequential.  The sessions have ranged from mixed media and journalling to urban sketching and painting, but the underlying focus of all has been the promotion of the Strathmore product line of papers.  As you have probably surmised, the topic of each of the offerings aligns very specifically and deliberately with one type of product that Strathemore offers for sale.

I do not find this troubling because they are pretty straight forward about the context of the classes.  Descriptions are embedded in their product newsletters and access is free.  At the beginning of the classes, the participant had to jump through some hoops to enter, but that has gotten better over time, as well.

I have to say that I have not participated, or even viewed all of the sessions that have been offered.  In fact the first two sets of 4 were pretty dismal.  The first set I found engaging was lead by book artist Roz Stendahl, who is a Minnesota artist.  I knew Roz several years before she created the lessons she offered through Strathemore, and have always found her to be talented, highly demanding, spot-on when it comes to materials evaluation, and a pretty good teacher.  I did enjoy her sessions and found them engaging and motivating.

Recently I checked in to the Strathemore website (www.strathmoreartist.com ) and found I was just at the beginning of the first session of the third set of workshops for this year.  I found the topics listed for this set of four included "Keeping a Sketchbook," People Sketching," Coloring with Markers," and :Marker Paper Illustration." The featured artist, Will Terrell's bio seemed  to be credible.  When I went to his own website, I found quality art work and a nice range of images, so decided I would do my best to give the set of four sessions a try....well, at least the first two, then......we'll see....markers are pretty "young people" materials!

In the first session he talked about going into the community and drawing various people as they passed by.  He did not feel that would work for the web offering, however, so referred participants to the website "IAMCHICAGO.net"  He had my interest right away because he offered a resource accessible to many.

The website contains dozens of photographs of people, grouped by neighborhoods, in the Chicago area and "burbs."  His first lesson included a quick, overview of a materials list, examples, then a view of sketching with a red pencil featuring the Strathmore tan toned 400 series drawing paper in the bound 60 page sketchpad.

I grabbed my own red pencils and started to use the site to do some sketching.  Since I know that drawing people is a weakness of mine, I thought this would be a good way to push myself and keep the daily "quick-sketches" in check.

Below is one of the sketches I started, although not the first (nor the second or third, etc.) that I worked on.  Over the next few days (yep, and probably weeks,)  I will be sharing some of those sketches with you as well as some of the joys and frustrations.....hope you see an image that makes you think of someone special OR someone that makes you smile.

Nick - Prisma red pencil on Strathmore tan toned 400 series paper - spiral bound 5.5" X 8" sketch book

I just checked, and all four session of this workshop series are still accessible if you are interested in observing or participating.  I have found this set to be "good food for thought," and I have sketched some things I would not otherwise have tried.  The sessions run between 14 and 20 minutes each, and you can pause or stop and return to them at another time.  There is not a cost (other than Strathmore would love to have you use their products,) however if you want to post your own work in the online gallery, it must be in the format established by the instruction.  For example, to post a sketch, the person must be from the Chicago file, and in red pencil on a tan toned paper; most that are posted actually reveal the binding of the sketchpad.......don't know if that is a posting requirement, but.........looks suspicious!!!

I think the other two sets of workshops for the year are also accessible - check it out at www.strathmoreartist.com if you are interested!