At Everything Art we're all about celebrating. Whatever the occasion, I'm always organising a party with drinks, snacks and disco balls. Even if it's only for me, Jamie and the kids :)
So when we realised that in April was a World Creativity and Innovation Day, we obviously had to get the Champagne glasses out! And since this year's theme is Collaboration, Amy on the Everything Art team, came up with a great idea to look at some of the brilliant Wanderlust Teacher - Student Collaborations.
Wanderlust is all about creativity, and in our introductory video I encourage everyone to interpret the lessons their own way. It's always a good idea to infuse a little bit of your own personality when following a tutorial. The result will feel YOURS and much more unique!
Here are some brilliant examples of how our Adventurers allow their own personality shine through their course inspired artwork.
One of my favourite lessons I’ve ever taught was the week #1 of Wanderlust 2021. This mixed-media spread was all about self-expression and learning to work with layers. The result is on the left. And on the right is the mind-blowing spread from Satu Järvinen. Satu followed the techniques that I have demonstrated and added her own very personal message. She expressed that through image, her loose writing and very dynamic marks. I absolutely love the looseness of Satu’s artwork.
LaQuisha Hall is one of the most enthusiastic and encouraging Teachers that we’ve ever worked with. Her energy is so infectious that her lessons are always incredibly popular. On the left is LaQuisha’s spread from her of Wanderlust 2022 lesson.
On the right is our Adventurer, Chris Mahieu’s take on it. Can you see how brilliantly different both spreads are? Chris very cleverly took LaQuisha’s techniques and changed the composition, colours and the subject. The result is a personal, unique piece. Well done!
One of our Wanderlust 2022 Guest Hosts - Laly Mille never fails to provide us with a lesson that’s incredibly well explained and super encouraging. And so we always know that there will be lots of Adventurer’s artwork shared in the classroom on that weekend. On the left is Laly’s final project from one of her lessons. This one was all about telling a story and using your imagination. On the right is a spread from our lovely Adventurer Zhanna Indyushkin. Can you see how cleverly Zhanna made this process work for her unique, vintage style? She added her signature elements and colours to make it express her voice.
I love this painting from Melissa Fink who’s taught a lesson on Wanderlust 2022. Melissa’s style is incredibly inspiring and we’ve had an unbelievable amount of artwork shared by our Student in the classroom after her lesson was released. And yet each and every piece was so different. Have a look at the piece from Erin Bishop (on the left) and Arlyna (on the right). Same subject, similar supplies but two completely different pieces. Both Adventurers made it their own by choosing different colours, tweaking the composition and creating different texture.
You can see one the techniques presented by Melissa during this lesson here.
The truth is that we learn really fast if we allow ourselves to follow a step by step process. But art, and art journaling in particular, is all about expressing our own personalities and voices. And so it feels super good if your piece, even though it’s done following another artists instructions, includes elements of your own story. This is what we always encourage on Wanderlust. So the next time you follow a mixed-media lesson, see how you can tweak things a little to make it your own. Do whatever feels good and if it means changing just only one thing, then that’s absolutely good enough.
Big thanks to all of our Adventurers who allowed us to share their work in this post. Lots of love to you my gang, and see you in the classroom!
And if you’d like to join Wanderlust 2023, the classroom is now open for enrolments! You can learn more about the course and sign up here.
