Sunday, November 26, 2017

Build your own Master Class!

It's upcoming to winter here in the S.E. of the USA....that is if we have a winter at all!  Last year we had about 6 weeks...and so far I still have impatience blooming in the garden - left over from last summer.....

I'll be starting my 2018 Masterclass on January 1st.
It's a yearlong commitment to improving your quilt designs (or other fiber media for that matter, I have had weavers, stitchers and embroiderers in the class).

Each month I issue a new assignment which addresses a key design concept such as the importance of good value patterns, how to achieve the illusion of depth or motion, how to work from a photograph, how to develop good color schemes and so on.  Each assignment can be interpreted by representational or abstract work and if you veer off the assignment a little, I won't mind! (Recently I took an online course where pretty much the only feedback I got was "you didn't follow the instructions"! - very hard for an iconoclast to do that!).

My principal interest is helping you make stronger work, and in avoiding the many pitfalls there are in designing and creating art.   I'm fortunate in that I have many art friends here and we can help each other with critiques but many don't have that.   Research in improving one's performance rests on two things: the amount of time you give to it PLUS informed help along the way.   It's not just the 10,000 hours....it's the hours plus the personal help.
I think it's important to give critiques that focus on the strengths, but also address any weaknesses and suggest solutions.  I've always enjoyed problem solving and this is a great way to help others.  I used  to do a lot of traveling and teaching, but (as I'm sure you know) travel is just not much fun anymore...plus I was frustrated by not being able to follow through with the students for a significant period of time to help them move forward.  Having decided to get piano lessons after having failed to teach myself (for some time! ), I realize the huge importance of the regular contact with the teacher and mentor over a period of time.




I offer a year long Master Class with a blog and 10 assignments. I critique these at three stages: design sketches (need not be fancy!), blocking out, and finished work.
If you're at all interested please email me at elizabethmasterclass@gmail.com and I'll send you full details, feel free to ask any questions.

Also, since I have more time now as I'm not travelling very much, I would like to offer a "Build Your Own MasterClass" - write and tell me what you personally would like: suggested assignments, or self-chosen ones, frequency of assignments, amount of responses from me and I can see what I can arrange and what the cost would be. A "personalized" course!


For the year long Master Class with the Master Class blog where you can view other students' work and my comments (this is as anonymous as you wish), please email me by mid December.
The strength of this class is twofold: the timetable helps to keep you on target!  And secondly, you can learn a great deal vicariously from seeing how I respond to other students' work.

  For a Build Your Own Class - just email me any time!  Let me know what you are interested in....and I'll see what I can do.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
If you have been, thanks for reading!!   Elizabeth

NOTE: I've had several queries about more details for the Build Your Own class...
please go to the special blog    for more information!  Thank you.   Elizabeth

or write to me directly: elizabethmasterclass AT gmail    for details of my regular master class.


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