Big News!

Welll......................

Now, I can tell all of you because she has posted it to her site (until then, I kept thinking I had been dreaming!), but I have been invited to teach a colored pencil workshop with Ann Kullberg and Gemma Gylling on a Mexican Riviera cruise this fall!

When I returned from Bolivia, and had to wade through all 500 e-mails (350 of which were in my junk box), there was a message from Ann Kullberg asking me if I wanted to teach with her on a cruise..... Mmmmm..... Let me think about that..... for half a second! I am a blonde, but not stupid (most days). What an opportunity! Of course I said yes!

Ann has asked me to teach students how to use colored pencils to draw on three layers of Mylar (I use Duralar) to create the illusion of depth in a drawing. She had seen my use of this technique with my marble drawings, one of which, Blue Lucidity, was accepted in the CPSA Explore This!4 show in 2007.

Ann Kullberg, who is noted for her portrait drawing ability, will be teaching students how to paint smooth, glowing skin tones, beautiful expressive eyes, and realistic looking hair. Gemma Gylling, whose animal portraits are fantastic, will be teaching techniques on drawing believable, touchable fur and (this you need in any pet portrait) how to really get the expressiveness of the eyes in your pet portraits.

Needless to say, I am honored and thrilled to be included in the company of such wonderful artists. Yes, I'll be teaching, but I plan on doing a bit of learning from these gals while I'm there, too. No matter how long you've been an artist (or writer, doctor, teacher, dog groomer), I believe you can always learn something new at every opportunity. These ladies, I'm sure, have a lot of knowledge which I plan on soaking up while I'm soaking up sun and fun on this trip!

And for those of you who set goals for yourselves, I have to share, too, that my one "reach big" goal for 2008 was to be invited to teach at a workshop. Scary, huh?