Mexican Riviera Cruise and Colored Pencil Workshop

SOLD "Just Peachy!" 3.5" x 5" Colored Pencil on Black Letramax Board

My first day of blogging, thanks to some inspiration from a dear new friend I met on my latest adventure...teaching colored pencil on a Mexican Riviera cruise the first week of Nov.

It was my first cruise and I just fell in love with the whole experience. A little too much food, but it was sooooo good. Especially the "artwork" at dinnertime....in other words, the desserts! If you take the stairs instead of the elevators, and walk around the Promenade Deck (3 laps = 1 mile) you might just come home missing a few pounds.

I was one of three instructors and I taught my workshop the last day at sea. We had a grand time, and they were a great group of artists....some very accomplished. I haven't taught for awhile due to some family issues, and I had forgotten how much I love teaching.

Above is my version of the finished product that my students worked on. All of their "sensual" peaches were gorgeous and I was so pleased with their results. Part of the instruction was how to create circulism with colored pencil. It is a technique that I first learned while reading about Maggie Toole, http://www.maggietoole.com/

Many colored pencil artists have tried circulism, some call it something else, but I think everyone that tries it finds they have their own look to the circular stroke. It's a bit like handwriting. Your "a" is the same as my "a" but they are definitely recognizable and attributable to the writer by those with a discerning eye.