Katerina also drew an octopus (but she is in different age group, so it would be in a different set of images), then she couldn't stop and drew another fish when everybody left. She was enjoying it so much that I got jealous and also drew a fish :) So now you have a bunch of pictures to look at :)

Here is the link to Facebook album

We played a Word game. How to play? Easy :) You shuffle some (prepared) words and choose two without looking. When you get your two words you need to think about the ideas of how to combine those two words – don’t choose the first idea, write down 4-5 of them, and then choose (now you can choose the first one if you still like it most). And then – draw!
You would be surprised – but sometimes real illustrators use very similar process to find an idea for the illustration! I mean not the game (who knows, maybe that as well) – but writing down different ideas, brainstorming them with other people and choosing the best one!

This Sunday's Taster class was intended to be for children 11 to 14 years old. But this is a dead season in Boston - everyone is on vacation - so I could get only two children of required age to participate. But my friend called and asked if she could come with her 8 year old son and my husband also decided to join :) So we had a mixed-age group, which worked out great!
The class was about drawing an animal and I have chosen quite an unusual animal - an aardvark. They are African ant-eaters, "earth pigs" (translation from Afrikaans)  and pretty amazing animals. Google them - you will enjoy what you see!
For the first part of the class the participants were drawing aardvarks from the photo-references, then they draw couple of animals from imagination (on the photos below they are all mixed). On the pictures you might see some skeletons - that's because we had a photo-reference of aardvark's skeleton as well (to understand how it moves and how the legs are positioned).

So, after the students got used to drawing aardvarks they were assigned to draw or paint aardvark in the media of their choice. We had colored marker, black marker, gouache, colored pencils and oil pastels used on white paper, white carton, carton covered with gesso, and black paper. Check out the results! They are beautiful!

During this week's Fun Thursday Drawing we had a game developing the imagination :) See the Facebook album for the pictures www.facebook.com/kouzzaArt/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2073641966194143

Scribble creatures:
This is not even an exercise – it’s a game! My kids and I play it for fun, for example on the plane, or when we have some time. It’s simple – you draw a complicated scribble for each other, then you are supposed to find a creature, or a person, or a face, or something else – in it. Outline what you've found with a thicker pen or marker, add color, details (eyes, texture, whatever) – the result is usually a lot of fun and sometimes even looks like a piece of art! If you don’t have a partner to play with you can draw the scribble for yourself – not a big difference, using other person’s scribble just adds, how to say… intrigue!
This artistic game increases your imagination, teaches you to find interesting stuff around you, and makes you more relaxed – and all this is good for the artist!

Here are some examples of Katerina's and my creations from our flight to Alaska:

This game is a lot of fun, you can involve quite young children in it. The youngest participant this Thursday was 6. She was shy at the beginning and told that she cannot see anything in the scribble, but then got involved and kept herself busy for good fifteen minutes. Her creation is really expressive. That's the "waves on the beach" - see the Facebook album. I'd say people starting 4 years old and up to 100 years (or even higher) will be entertained - and all you need is some paper, pens and pencils. For us it's usually at least two-three rounds of the game, so it could be pretty handy on the plane with kids :) You are welcome ;)

We had an adult taster class in July which I haven't written about yet. Four wonderful artistic people came to my house. One of them is my neighbor and three others we had met during the Fun Thursday Drawing Night (as part of Natick Nights).

The task was to draw a poster-style self-portrait in gouache. The process was fun and interesting, we talked a lot, not only about art but life in general. That's actually how art classes usually are - people get to know each other and have really nice time together.

I want to claim that the first words I have heard from Philip when he approached our table on Thursday were - "I don't know how to draw" :) I told him - "Maybe you should try and see if it's true?" And - see the pictures ;)

All the works are impressive and beautiful! Thank you, guys!