A Moment of Anxiety- Patreon Newsletter April 3rd (Patreon)

Hey Artnerds!

Today (Saturday) I taught two classes with the Ascension Parish Library at their Galvez branch.  I spent the past couple days brushing up and revising Volumetric Drawing to work better in a 1-hour class, creating a version aimed at kids and one aimed at adults.  Although I was tired from leaving the house at 8:00 am this morning, I was ready to teach kids and adults how to think volumetrically.  We pulled up to the Galvez Library and began hauling in stuff when I stopped to take a photo of the adorable hand-drawn chalk sign promoting my classes.  That's when I realized...

I wasn't teaching Volumetric Drawing to two audiences today, I was scheduled to teach Cartooning Basics, a new class I'd pitched but haven't officially prepared for or created a presentation for.  I'd originally pitched it as a cartoonier version of how to draw chibi figures- a class I've taught a couple times for NPL in a room with no projector, so it was all live demos, but due to Covid, I wanted to make sure everyone could see, so I'd planned on creating a new presentation with new printables and a few new demos.

Last-minute scrambling is not my preferred mode of class prep.

Cue flashbacks of being in 4th grade, working super hard on an assignment, only to find out when it's time to turn it in that I'd worked on the wrong one.

If you've ever read Dune, you'll know that fear is the mindkiller.  And as someone who struggles with anxiety, I can attest to that.  My fight or flight definitely leans towards flight, but instead of running away or panicking, I hunkered down in the ten minutes I had before Volumetric Drawing started, and in the thirty minutes after it ended, and cranked out Cartooning Basics.

I had a little help.  None of the kids had taken Manga Madness before, and I heavily copy and pasted from that and From Stick to Figure.  And Google Slides allows you to copy batches of slides and convert them to the style of the current presentation, so no one needed to know how much lifting I did from Past Becca. 

Something else that saved me today was the fact that although a bit tired (I'm a night owl, not a morning dove), I had good energy, and I've found when teaching kids and teens that if you offer them lots of energy and encouragement and excitement, they'll meet you halfway.  Adults are often not the case- this would not have worked with a class of older teens or adults.   But with kids and some teens, if you have a lot of enthusiasm, they'll assume you've got your act together.

I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, I'm proud of myself for staying calm, creating something that worked, and giving the kids a good class.  They seemed to enjoy it and didn't know how last minute I put it together.  On the other, I'm a little embarrassed that I'd gotten confused- my liason with the APL system and I had discussed creating Kid and Adult versions of some of my popular drawing classes, and had talked about doing that with Volumetric, but so many things got changed, I'd forgotten that we'd switched the Adult one out for Cartooning Basics.  And while I knew I'd eventually teach that class, I hadn't done any of the pre-prep I normally do.    But sometimes it's nice not to spend two weeks preparing for something or hunching over a drafting table recording a video version of the class.  

So while I'm proud I was able to deliver, I don't want this to become comfortable.  Last-minute and I generally do not mix.  Cartooning Basics definitely needs a little clean-up work, but I think for a first draft, it's happily passable.  And I think considering I didn't do any additional prep for the class, the class went quite well.

I have taught under all kinds of conditions.  Mechacon refused me a table during TWO panels, meaning I had to draw and paint on the floor while wearing a dress.  Library projectors have died, refusing resurrection, mid-presentation on numerous occasions, and I've had rooms switched on me, and even audience age ranges magically age down from tweens to toddlers, at the last minute.  I have seen some BS, and have worked through all of those conditions and far more, so when the BS was on my foot, I was emotionally prepared to step it up and crank it out.

That's the silver lining to bad experiences- you have enough of them, you eventually learn how to deal with them.

Early Access and Backer Exclusive:

Only one early access video has gone live so far, but I've got a lot scheduled, and a bunch more in the works!

Easy Easter Egg Watercolor Bookmark: https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-egg-64714608

In the Works: 

Wrapping up the Shi Yun fieldtests and getting the review edited:

Unbox & Swatch of the MozArt Komorebi Metallic paints

Kara on the Mushrooms watercolor illustration (footage has been recorded, just needs to be edited)

Unboxing & Swatching Derwent's new charcoal watercolors

Unboxing & Swatching Seamiart Candy and Skintones mini palettes

Unboxing and Swatching DeDeDePraise watercolors

New to the Public: 

Tuesday, March 29th: Golden Stars Easy Watercolor Tutorial- Stashbuster!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztdbejftrEE&t=17s (watercolor, watercolor tutorial, easy)

Saturday, April 2nd: Liquid Charcoal and Blockx!  St Louis Art Supply Haul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqsyfu_T2H0