Tag: sketchbook skool

Inspiration Monday: All aboard!

dannygregory9 Comments

I’m just back from a trip to Grand Central Station with two artists I really love: France Belleville van Stone and  (former President of Urban Sketchers) Jason Das. The weather outside was frightful but the airy spaces and poetic architecture were a delight. We began with a visit to the Apple Store on the mezzanine to check out the new iPad pros which are zippy and powerful and a pleasure to draw on with the new Apple Pencil.

Then France gave Jason a lesson in how to use Paper, the drawing app for the iPad, and the two of them settled in to draw the information booth and the massive chandelier beyond. It was great to hear how they tackle the space, what they feel about drawing digitally, how to contend with spectators and finally, to see the beautiful art they made.

If you are as entranced as I am by these artists, join them and four other great teachers) in Stretching in the new term at Sketchbook Skool. Find out more here.

Inspiration Monday: Printing with Penelope

dannygregory21 Comments

After crawling from my sickbed, I finally finished my homework for Penelope Dullaghan’s klass in Expressing at Sketchbook Skool.

It was a bit messy and I managed to completely screw it up at one point, but her assignment got me to thinking a lot about one of my other favorite artists, Andy Warhol. In this rather adenoidal video, I explain what I was thinking, and then make three different pieces that I like quite a bit.

Field trip: Twingley & Picasso at MOMA

dannygregory6 Comments

One of the many recent cultural highlights has been the Picasso sculpture retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Another was undoubtedly Jonathan Twingley‘s klass, Stretching at Sketchbook Skool.

If you missed either or both, I’m sure you are quite bereft.

Last Friday, Mr. Twingley and I braved the snow to see the Picasso show one last time. I brought along my camera and Jonathan brought his sketchbook — he has visited the show a dozen times and drawn virtually every sculpture in the show.

Unfortunately, the MOMA show ended a few days later. Fortunately, however, and by popular demand, Stretching is set to return for an encore performance at SBS in just a couple of weeks. I hope I’ll see you there. Enroll now before it too is but a memory.

 

Inspiration Monday: watercolor lunch

dannygregory13 Comments

This week, what I learned from Felix Scheinberger‘s klass on watercolor techniques. Actually, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I keep studying Felix’s work and learn more and more each time. As he says, watercolors are the fastest medium to paint with, but the longest one to learn.

 

PS I inadvertently posted this article twice. I have been sick for the past few days and am not my usual fastidious self. 

Planting one more seed.

dannygregory28 Comments

I know, I know. You are good and tired of me nudging you about the new kourse at Sketchbook Skool. Message received.

But I want to just give you another taste of what has me so worked up about Expressing, how inspired I have been in making it and working with these new artists. And how you — even though you have never taken an art kourse and never will (yes, yes) — will be fired up too if you join us.

I won’t say any more I just want you to watch this.

Did it melt your frozen heart? Good. Now, click to enroll.

Happy New Kourse!

dannygregory13 Comments

One of the many fun parts of my job is that I get to meet cool people and work with them on films about their art. We have long in-depth conversations, I’m allowed into their studios, hear their ideas and histories, and watch them make beautiful things. Today, after several months of traveling and filming, I get to share those experiences with you and all the other people who enroll in Sketchbook Skool.

The real idea behind SBS is that each week’s klasses are an opportunity to share that experience of hanging out with fascinating creative people for a day. Each Friday, you watch a dozen or so films that capture all the aspects of this experience. The result is that you learn some new techniques and tools but also that you are inspired to make art of your own by rubbing up against other great creative spirits.

The new kourse we are launching today is called “Expressing.” It’s about how art conveys not just pretty pictures but deep feelings, information, experiences and sentiments that can’t be captured just in words.

Here’s a little taste of what the kourse will be like. I hope you’ll join me in the audience for six weeks of art, inspiration, wisdom and fun. Roll film!

Click here for more information about Expressing

Here are some of the wonderful people who Koosje and I have brought to join the fakulty:

There’s Felix Scheinberger who I first met several years ago when I was working on An Illustrated Journey. Felix is one of Germany’s top illustrators and an art professor in Berlin. He’s the author of one the most inspiring watercolor books in my library with the deceptively prosaic title, Urban Watercolor Sketching. His work is witty, expressive, a little grotesque, and watching him work makes you itch to grab a brush and join in. I recorded a great conversation with Felix a while ago and you can watch it here.

I have known Michael Nobbs for even longer. I think we first start corresponding more than ten years ago when he was first starting to draw and joined the Everyday Matters group on Yahoo!. Michael has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome but, in spite of that, he has a strong creative habit and has published a lovely book on drawing and created a daily podcast and a special, subscription based creative community, called sustainablycreative.com. He is an inspiring and lovely fellow and shares my passion for tea drinking.

Penelope Dullaghan is another of my old pals and I featured her work in An Illustrated Life. I met Penny when she was getting ready to quit her career in advertising and step out as in independent illustrator. I love her work, her bravery, and her long-term creative community project, Illustration Friday. Her weekly creative assignments have encouraged thousands to draw regularly and many of them have gone on to become professional illustrators too. I think she’ll be equally inspiring to the folks at SBS.

I met Jill Weber when she illustrated several books written by my old friend, Julie Salamon. The Christmas Tree was a huge international bestseller, then they went on to write Cat in the City (which includes a character based on my late wife, Patti) and their newest, A Mutt’s Promise. Jill grew up in a creative family, then went to RISD, worked in the New York publishing world and lived in Bohemian SoHo in the ’70’s, then moved to a self-sustaining farm in New Hampshire. She is full of wisdom and stories and talents and we captured many of them in our films.

Sabine Wisman is Dutch, a writer who started to draw and soon became a full-time illustrator. I love the way she combines simple line work with witty text. She packs a lot of meaning and feeling into light whimsy. I look forward to learning how I can make my own work more effortless, clear and direct.

And the final teacher is my partner and pal, Koosje Koene. KK is going to focus on lettering and how to make it a part of your journal pages. I think this is a crucial lesson — I see all too many beautiful drawings and watercolors in peoples’s sketchbooks that are marred by hasty captions that seem like afterthoughts. I love the way drawings and calligraphy reverberate off each other and Koosje is a master.

Anyway, this is a long, round-about way of telling you that our new kourse is finally ready for you. You can sign up right now and the first lessons begins on Jan 15.

Happy New Year! See you in klass.

A Christmas Karol

dannygregory17 Comments

For the last few months, I have been engaged behind-the-scenes in new and exciting things at Sketchbook Skool. Koosje and I have been joined by several fantastic new staff members and together we are rebooting the ol’ Skool for 2016.

If you like the sort of things I write here, you’ll like what we are planning to do at SBS. It’s not a run-of-the-mill art school, nor is it like the many platforms that seem to be popping up to offer online courses. Sketchbook Skool is first and foremost a creative community of over 10,000 people around the world who meet to encourage and inspire each other.

Our plans for the new year revolve around building and engaging this community. That means new kourses but also things like webinars, ebooks, drawing projects, visiting artists, real-world get-togethers, and many more free forms of inspiration. We are reinvigorating Q&Art, our YouTube chat show. We also hired an amazing new editor for our blog, a former senior editor at Oprah and author of a dozen books. And we have a new COO and marketing guru who is streamlining our operations and making things run so, so much more smoothly.

Our reorganization means I have more time to do fun things like write blogposts and books, give talks, and make videos. Like this one — to announce our new year, conceived shot and cut in two days in NYC and Amsterdam. I hope you enjoy it and will join me at SBS in a few weeks.

Shooting Penny

dannygregory11 Comments

We just wrapped up filming the latest klass in Indianapolis with Penelope Dullaghan. Here’s a peek behind the scenes.

Shooting Jill

dannygregory17 Comments

The best drawing teacher.

dannygregory4 Comments

A couple of days ago, I filled out the Sketchbook Skool survey we placed at the end of our most recent course, Playing. I shared it on Facebook but because FB is such a temporary place to store important thoughts, I am reproducing it here.

| Please fill your details below

What’s your name?
Danny Gregory

How did you find out about Sketchbook Skool?
My friend Koosje told me about it.

‘Playing’ | Your Experiences

Why did you sign up for this Kourse?
I have been worrying so much about perfection, about ‘getting better,’ about ‘making art’ that I was losing the pure joy of making. The idea of playing for a few weeks seemed like it would be fun. I didn’t want to just learn more new techniques, I wanted to reconnect with the spirit of creativity I had when I was six, a spirit that burned the hottest I’ve ever experienced and that made Picasso great.

Was the kourse what you expected?
Yes

What did you expect?
I expected some people to like it and some to be disappointed. I expected some people to let loose and dance the hootchy-kootchy and some to complain it was for kids and grumble that they had paid $69. I expected some people to grumble right off and then do one assignment that opened their eyes wide and they would go back and look back at the assignments they had just skimmed and suddenly find delight. I expected some adults to share their new found creative energy with kids, making sure that those kids never forgot how much fun art can be. I expected to be inspired by the enthusiasm and freshness I saw in the galleries.

Do you prefer the more shorter lessons, which is the style of Playing? Do you like more emphasis on projects than on lectures?
I thought the change was good. I’d heard a lot of people say they didn’t have time to do the more complex assignments they got in ‘Stretching’ and ‘Storytelling’ so I thought just screwing around with crayons would be a nice break.

If you’ve taken a Sketchbook Skool Kourse before, was ‘Playing’ a welcome change?
I loved learning from the great artists who teach at SBS. But the parts of the klasses that stretch me the most are the homework assignments. I learn a lot from doing them and from seeing what others do. I thought a kourse that was all about making stuff would be a cool change.

I have been drawing for twenty years and this is how I learned. I believe that it is the only way — to be inspired and to take my lit fuse and blast off in my own personal direction.

Sketchbook Skool | How do you feel about it?

At Sketchbook Skool we believe that the best way for you to learn is to be inspired, rather than giving you a lot of step-by-step instructions. How do you feel about that?
I have been drawing for twenty years and this is how I learned. I believe that it is the only way — to be inspired and to take my lit fuse and blast off in my own personal direction.

How do you experience Sketchbook Skool: Is it about exploring yourself or about community?
SBS inspires me to start and the community keeps me going.
The lessons make me challenge my assumptions, make me marvel at what is possible with just a pen and a book, and make me accept responsibility for my own creations and education — I am my own best teacher.
The community stretches me further, shows me more of what is possible, supports me when my monkey gets me down, pushes me to keep getting better and insists I stick to my creative habits.
I could draw alone. I could learn alone. I could evaluate my work alone.
But passion is so much better when it’s shared.

If you want to continue this face-to-face, come meet me in Phoenix.   I’m heading there now.