Classes? Slim Pickings!

For such a creative town, LA doesn’t have a vast choice of Art classes to choose from. Of course there’s Otis School or Art and Design, and the classes offered by the local community colleges, but it’s slim pickings out there if you want to hone your creative skills.

I’ve been dabbling in the creative space for years now – hopping between different mediums; jack of all trades and master of none. But I’ve recently discovered a love for pen and ink drawing – and have a vision of sitting in a beach-side cafe, sketching the scene in pen and ink, and then adding a dash of colour with a fountain pen or watercolour wash.

Drawing with Alphonso Dunn

I scoured the internet looking for local classes – but ended up at You Tube, and found a fabulous instructor called Alphonso Dunn.

He has a whole slew of art instruction videos that provides tips and techniques for honing your sketching skills.

Illustrate my Bodrum Travel Guides

I’m going to work my way through Alphonso’s video to pick up all the tips I need to be able to sketch Bodrum images during our next visit there.

The ultimate (lofty) goal would be to add illustrations to my guide books — but for now, I’ll settle for practicing my skills in a sketch-book journal.

Learning from Alphonso

Here’s links to his various You Tube Channels:

• Tutorials on Drawing Basics & Fundamentals

• Tutorials on Drawing Portraits, Heads, & Facial Features

• Tutorials on Figure Drawing & Anatomy

• Tutorials on Drawing Animals

• Tutorials on Drawing Landscapes

• Tutorials on Drawing Other Subjects

Roving Jay Lesson Plan

Alphonso has created so many You Tube Videos that it can seem a little overwhelming. So I’m creating my own lesson plan based on the fundamentals, followed by the subjects that will be the most useful for illustrating my Bodrum Travel Guide.

Let’s kick it off with a Fundamental Video about Shading Principles:

• Pen & Ink Drawing Tutorials: 3 Shading Principles you should know

• Pen and Ink Shading Challenge | 9 Ways to shade an egg

I’ll post the results on this blog. Why not join me in this adventure, and post your practice sketches on your blog and add the link in the comments section below.