News from Roz Stendahl: What I'm Looking Forward to in 2016

Left: 15 minute sketch at life drawing—costumed model at the co-op. Color pencil. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Each year brings new challenges and currently I am excited about the new online classes I’m going to be bringing out in 2016.

But as the new year starts I’m most looking forward to a new offering of my "Drawing Practice: Drawing Live Subjects in Public" class.

Each day from January 31 through March 5, 2016, I’ll be in the class looking at student work, answering questions, and helping the students build a durable daily sketching habit. 

We will begin with a strong foundation and lots of skill building demonstrations and assignments. These include sketching demonstrations made at Como Zoo and the 2014 Minnesota State Fair. (It doesn't get more public than the Fair!) New lessons come every Monday and Thursday throughout the month.

We will add sketch out dates to build a tolerance for working in public with moving subjects. And through it all I’ll be helping students silence their internal critics, make friends with their editing eye, and learn a new way to talk about their artwork that is positive, honest, and supportive. My month-long involvement with the class wraps up with strategies for goal setting. The class includes two live webinars during the first month. Students have access to all the videos and the classroom for a full year. And there are quarterly live webinar check-ins throughout the year so that they keep their daily drawing practice going.

I’ve been teaching a version of this class live for about 15 years. In 2015 I went online with this class. I was overjoyed with the response. Students from around the world joined with me to work on their sketching and observational skills. They dug deep and worked on longstanding issues of resistance and procrastination that were holding them back. They created amazing work and supported themselves and their fellow students in their creative journey.

In over 25 years of teaching, I’ve heard every excuse and seen every type of resistance there is. Nothing is more gratifying to me as a teacher than helping students break through the barriers that hold their drawing practice stagnant.

While this is an immensely rewarding class to teach, the intense teaching involvement and feedback I provide means I can only offer this class once a year. I believe that by offering it at the beginning of the year I will be able to help students start out strongly.

And by offering the class at this time of the year I won’t have it run right up to the Minnesota State Fair like it did last year! (I wanted students to finish lessons before the Fair, but by running the class in February they will also be able to practice for several months, should they elect to go the Fair. And you all know I believe everyone should come to the Minnesota State Fair.)

This means that I’ll also be able to focus on the new classes I’m filming and still get to the Fair myself. The new classes cover bookbinding methods, art journaling techniques, and a design class.

Left: Finch sketches made at the nursing home Aviary. Sakura Pigma Sensei Pen on Rives Lightweight. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I appreciate the interest this blog’s community has taken in my move to online teaching. I’m grateful for the hard work that Kate Johnson has done to create this community and encourage people to share their work. She makes it look easy.

I will still be blogging here and on Roz Wound Up. And I hope also to post additional videos on YouTube about my art adventures. I live in a beautiful city where the possibilities for sketching in public are many and varied. And I’m blessed to have artist friends who love talking about their work. I look forward to sharing their work with you in 2016.

If you would like my help to improve your drawing skills and build a durable drawing habit you can read about  “Drawing Practice” here.
You can register here.

If you’re interested in learning about future classes as they are made available you can use the Class sign up form on my blog to get on a mailing list.

I hope that you have already had a moment to sit down with yourself and think about your goals for 2016. If you haven’t, I suggest you take a moment now, before the year slips away to have a little chat with yourself.

I believe it is important that we clearly state our intention for the new year. And I also believe that we have to nurture our creative lives through planning. I hope that this new year brings you opportunities to sketch and fill your journal and sketchbook pages with the details of your life.