This Saturday I will be giving a workshop for CPSA DC115 titled "Evoking Mood with Neocolors and Colored Pencil", and I've got an area in my studio filled up with all my prep materials.  Like laying out pieces prior to a show, it's always fun to see everything all at once, together.  Here's a few snapshots:

On Friday in Seattle at the CPSA 16th Annual International Exhibition I took John Smolko's workshop. I've always admired his work, and his distinct use of colorful, energetic lines in his pieces. John has been an award winner at the Annual shows multiple years. An experienced art teacher, he led us quickly through the basics of scribbling - a form of crosshatching used to weave together colors - and then into our morning exercise of creating block letters against a glowing background. In the afternoon we were able to choose from a range of subjects - pictures of John's students, still life objects. I chose a student's picture, and decided to keep in the theme of the colorful palette I had used for the morning exercise. With about 2-3 hours of work, the piece isn't completed yet - but I'm really happy with the progress on the piece. I plan on working on it further and finishing it. Here's a pic of the demonstration, and a scan of what I completed during the workshop: