We are dedicated to making these subjects understandable, and the learning experience fun and inspiring. Some students call our workshops “life-changing”. Come see for yourself.
ONLINE WORKSHOPS, are offered in a private Yahoo Group “classroom” so you can learn in your own comfortable environment, at your own pace, and participate in classroom critiques and conversations only according to your comfort level. Some courses are all PDF based, some are all video, and some are a mixture of both.
You upload your assignments to your own folder in the Yahoo Group (if you want to), and learn from the instructor's comments about your work and that of the other students. Sharing is a very enriching part of this type of learning.
The Instructor is available daily through the Yahoo Group Classroom.
As hard as we try, there are many of our photos that turn out less than perfect, and that is to be expected, even if you are a very accomplished photographer.
But many things that go wrong with a photograph can be fixed in Photoshop/Elements in a subtle way that does not change the essence of the image, and that is what we learn to do in this workshop.
This is not an image manipulation workshop. We do not combine images or distort them with filters. We simply fix them - much the way a good mechanic fixes your car when you take it into a garage.
This workshop provides 10 lessons in five weeks, with the instructor present for questions and guidance.
Photo at right: "Frozen Roses" © 2010 Jessica Wesolek
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PanPastels are new and very different from the soft pastels on which they are based.
When I first heard of them, I literally ran out to get them and I have been having a love affair with them ever since. I have learned a lot about using them outside of the traditional pastel paradigm, and how to combine them with other media. In this workshop. I will share that information with you.
5 Lessons/5 Weeks
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The only requirement for the workshop is that you are eager to learn and that you have a fairly recent version of PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements and a stash of digital photos that you like.
This is not a photo-editing workshop for fixing photos. It is a digital design workshop which will give you the means to do great things with your great photos.
8 Lessons presented in aan 8 week workshop.
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Once you learn how to pull memorable detail out of your everyday environment and how to commemorate that detail visually on the pages of a journal, your art life will never be the same.
An art journal created with loving care and meaningful content is a treasure that helps you commune with your muse on a regular basis and actually have a little personal "art" time everyday.
This is an all video workshop in which we create a page together every day for 20 days - long enough for you to form a wonderful new and creative habit. And we take weekends so you can catch-up if you need to.
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Drawing is easy. And you already know how. We will show you where that knowledge is hiding, pull it out and dust it off, and put it to good use, while having lots of fun in the process.
This 6 Week/6 Lesson, video online workshop will not only teach you how to draw paint, and sketch things that look like what they are, but also how to add some creative thinking along the way.
Working in a journal or sketchbook removes the intimidation of blank canvases and serious intent, and allows you to explore possibilities without fear of failure.
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Use any pocket camera (even your phone) to capture photos of everything everywhere and use PhotoShop/Elements to turn them into artistic images for your projects.
Create your own contemporary stock of images for your blog, journal, collages, handmade books, etc. This type of photography is so much fun and is so rewarding that it may turn your everyday actvities into art excursions before you know it. Never anoither boring moment as long as that camera is in your pocket!
6 Lessons presented in a 6 week workshop.
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Photography is an art form, and now that we all have affordable digital cameras that can do magic tricks, we can learn the art of photography.
Our emphasis in this workshop is to make the most perfect photographs we can *in* the camera, not to shoot any old thing and hope we can fix it later in the computer. We use editing software only for resizing this time around.
Beautiful photographs were taken for a long time before there was a PhotoShop or computer - and with cameras that had a lot fewer features than we now take for granted. The same techniques still apply, and once you know what they are, you will be able to take advantage of all the creative potential you hold in your hands, when you hold that digital camera.
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© Jessica Wesolek, 2006
But most of us don't know why we are pleased, exactly, or how to produce artwork of our own that has the ability to please others, and also make us feel pleased with ourselves.
You do not have to know photography nor have a fancy camera to take this workshop, but we feel photography is the best vehicle for exploring the elements of design, and the intricacies of why design elements work together the way they do.
It is much easier and less time consuming to shoot photos to practice composition than it would be to create multiple pieces of other types of artwork, but in the end, the same principles apply. Enhance all your art endeavors through this workshop, and perhaps add photography to your creative tool box at the same time.
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Art of Digital Photography
Learning Composition and Design through Digital Photography
or equivalent working knowledge of photography and your camera (must submit a portfolio for review to be admitted)
You do not "take" a great photograph,
you "make" it!
If you take your photography seriously, this is the workshop that can take it over the top.
8 Lessons/8 Weeks
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"Canyon Iris"
© Jessica Wesolek, 2009
PreRequisite: Love This Journal, Level 1
This workshop offers 20 more creative challenges for daily pages, continuing where our first workshop leaves off with new drawing and painting skills, and new page techniques.
The supply list is the same as the Level 1 workshop with two additions.
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