Sketchbook Club Training Day

I have just returned from a lovely day with Jennie Maizels at her studio near Winchester where the franchise team met up for our second #SketchBook Club training day.

I love visiting Jennie's studio as I find it so inspirational, we have the same love for colour and this shows in every corner of her rural studio.

All the signs are hand painted in Jennie's trademark fonts, usually using a rainbow of colours, I must try this at Butterfly Bright!

There are dozens of books that Jennie has illustrated dotted around the room and sketchbooks pegged up on pretty washing lines

Shelves carry stocks of creative and colourful products that Jennie sells to retailers

and the famous Jennie Maizels "Clothes Plasters" adrorn garments and bunting around the room.

There are shelves of colour as you climb the stairs

plus vintage tins of coloured pencils everywhere you look

and the table is laid beautifully for the day ahead as we arrive! 

An added bonus of fresh coffee and biscuits to start the day. Perfect.

Then it was down to the business of the day - Sketchbook club training for our summer term of fun!

Jennie had all the reference materials we needed and sample sketchbooks painted beautifully to explain the techniques for each module.

I don't want to give away too much detail as some participants who attended the first term like the modules to remain secret each week but I will share the first week as that is what we spent the most time on today and I think it is a really great one to start the term!

We painted these henna hands and played around with collage for the bracelets and rings and other adornments, such a brilliant idea from Jenny and a lot of fun to work on today.

If you would like to join us for the One Day SketchBook Club on 1st June 2016 you need to book soon. 

During the day we will use pen, pencil, watercolour, gouache and acrylic paints as well as collage and more to create a wonderful and unique sketchbook for you to keep, take away and be inspired by.

It is a fun and sociable class and some say a source of mindful relaxation as you can really get lost in some modules which are almost a form of meditation.

You can have a look at the fun we had in SketchBook Club Term 1 in a previous post - I think the circus module was my favourite.

oh, and do watch Jennie's  inspirational video about Sketchbook Club on her homepage!

See you soon!

Ali

Applique Houses and some Sketchbook Club inspiration!

I love teaching Applique and enjoy coming up with new samples for workshops.

I started this piece last year and as usual it sat unfinished for months before inspiration finally struck on a last bit of detail that it needed.

I had completed the houses with windows, doors and roofs.

I added some freehand machine embroidery for detail and left the edges uncovered to add texture as they fray.

Then I was inspired by an image I saw via the Jennie Maizles' #Sketchbookclub instagram feed, 

I had already started doing the Sketchbook Club at Butterfly Bright but this wasn't actually one of our modules but I loved it and knew immediately what my applique picture needed!

Clouds!

and not little white fluffy ones but deep blue paisley ones

I think they add real drama to the sky..

What do you think?

I also had a chance to try the sketchbook version myself and was rather pleased with the results!

If you fancy joining me for an applique workshop please check the website for forthcoming dates, our summer term of Sketchbook Club starts again on 21 April so do book early to avoid disappointment!

Enjoy

Ali

x

Sketchbook Club is off and running

We launched the first Jennie Maizels' Sketchbook Club Franchise back in January and as the weeks have gone by the participants have grown in confidence and tried as well as improved on several skills. The course is designed for anyone who thinks they can't draw and we have converted the non believers.

We started with a basic colour wheel lesson learning the art of mixing primary colours to achieve different and new colours,

then we had some fun with letter printing to try more colour combinations.

Week 2 was the doodle lesson - a great sense of calm washed over the group as they immersed themselves in doodling!

Week 3 we moved on to painting bird using watercolours and pencils

Week 4 was fashion week and the ladies used a special transfer technique to get the images of some tremendously well dressed beauties onto our sketchbooks, we then dressed them to the nines using paint, collage and pencil crayon

In Week 5 we went intergalactic with our spacey rocket scenes using a mixture of freehand drawing, transferring from reference and then paint and crayons to finish off.

Tricks and techniques have come directly from Jennie herself and we look forward to the new inspirational topics and reference materials she provides us with each week.

You can join us for the Summer Term Sketchbook Club which will contain ten new topics!

We have an evening class starting on 21st April 2016 which will run for 10 weeks and include a break for half term week. Please check the course details for exact dates.

All materials you require are provided during the weekly class but you may wish to purchase an art material starter pack and a set of beautiful colour pencils to carry on your work between classes.

Come and join the fun!

Jennie Maizels Sketchbook Club training day

On thursday I spent a truly amazing day at Jennie Maizels' studio near Winchester!

Jennie was hosting a franchise training day for new tutors to run her amazing sketchbook club.

Firstly it was an honour to be in the presence of such an incredible lady after following her on social media for so long, check out Jennie's inspirational Instagram feed here. I have always admired Jennie's work and after being tempted to join her online sketchbook club I was thrilled when the opportunity came up to actually go to her studio for a day to get tuition from her directly.

I love the idea of being able to draw and paint but haven't ever had the confidence or knowledge on where to start!

Jennie takes all the fear away firstly talking us through all the materials we might use on our sketchbooks, from paints and pencils to newspaper and old maps. We are surrounded by materials all the time and really anything goes.

The whole studio is so inspirational too with sketchbooks, drawings, books and clothes plasters decorating every available wall and surface. We barely stopped for lunch as we were so keen to try out all the different modules for the first term starting in January (although we much appreciated the freshly made salmon sandwiches and other delicious offerings!).

So now we are all prepared to host one of the first of Jennie's franchised "Sketchbook Clubs" here in Sherborne, Dorset.

As you know we will be in new premises from January and the beautiful new surroundings will be the perfect place for launching Sketchbook Club in 2016

Why not book your place now!

If you would like to watch a video about Jennie's sketchbook club please do visit her website, the video describes the online version of the sketchbook club but we of course will be hosting the club and providing all of the materials that you need including a sketchbook, pens, paints and pencils and of course the printed materials for each week's module. Working with a group often provides the encouragement and support that a lot of people desire when it comes to having the confidence to try something new!

The course will be 10 weeks long, with a two hour session each week during the term, with a break for school half term. Modules are all different to the online course so even if you have done the online version this course will be different.

I am going to start by offering a day time course but if you would be interested in an evening course please do email me at handmade@butterflybright.com

You know what to ask Santa for now!

Book your place here: January 2016 Sketchbook club