Sad to leave friends Mary Beth Shaw and Joanne Sharpe after Art Unraveled but so glad I’ll be seeing them again soon at Art Is!!!

School is starting and I’m left scratching my head as to where the summer went?! I’m sure a lot of you can totally relate to that feeling.

BFF Nancy Lefko and I met for the first time IRL at Art Is last year after being online buddies for years!

I feel the same way when going to teach at art retreats. There is so much planning (already sending in proposals for next year) and build up before the retreats then you get there and have such an amazing time with art friends that you only once or if you’re lucky a few times a year, and the time is over in a blink.

It leaves you looking forward with great eagerness to the next venue when you can see your friends again!

Hamming it up with Kecia Frazee Deveney and Michael DeMeng at Art Is last year

Art Is…You is coming up in October. I’m looking forward to it with both eagerness and a touch of sadness as it’s the last big retreat of 2012 and I know I’m going to have an amazing time there.

On the subject of ‘making’ new friends, I’m really excited to be teaching my Busting Out-Self Portrait Journaling workshop at Art Is. This is the only place I’m offering this fun and personal workshop. Not only will we explore journaling techniques in 3D, we will also learn how to shade portraits in the easiest way possible. All of the face painting techniques can be applied to flat work but working on an actually dimensional face will allow you to see where shadows fall from front, side, and 3/4 views. It’s a great way to learn as we start with some cool long-necked wig forms and build layers similar to that of a journal page and then continue on to paint a portrait with all of the facial features already in place!

There’s still room in this workshop and I hope if you haven’t yet decided which workshop you are going to take, you’ll consider joining me for Busting Out!

You’ll also have a travel buddy for the trip home;-)

I’m also teaching Get the Lead Out! with some cool techniques using my Liquid Pencil Sketching Inks. This workshop is loaded with fun products (that you’ll get in your class kits) and fun new techniques to do everything from still life to portraits to journal pages!

If you haven’t yet stopped by to leave a comment to win one of my new stamps from my Poetic Portraits line there’s still time! I’m giving away 1 stamp for every 50 comments, giving away 4 so far and I want to give away more so spread the word!

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