ALL NEW
Mark-Making as Practice
PLUS

A year of Drawing, Discovery, Support & Practice

What if drawing became as natural a part of your day as having your morning coffee? What if you no longer had to wait for inspiration, find the perfect subject, or feel ready to begin? What if you simply showed up, made a few marks, and allowed the process to take you somewhere unexpected?

The mark adds the lifeblood to your art which sets it apart from anyone else's. Your personal mark or gesture is literally as unique as your signature and practicing making marks everyday is the only way to find that mark.

I have been including mark-making in all of my workshops and courses for 22 years, no matter the subject matter of the course itself. Many of my workshop attendees know that I emphasize the importance of a daily mark-making practice to grow as an artist. Regardless of your artistic discipline or medium, spending 5-15 minutes each day drawing and making marks helps ignite your creativity. To illustrate this point, I often use the analogy of exercise. Before you go out for a run or any exercise, you must warm up to avoid muscle strains and injuries. Similarly, when you enter your studio, not warming up results in wasted time organizing and cleaning, staring at the walls trying to force inspiration, or even avoiding the studio altogether out of fear or uncertainty. How many of us do that? I’m thinking there are lot of nodding heads right now.

Take the exercise analogy a bit further-when you continue to exercise on a regular basis, you become stronger, faster, healthier and it becomes a practice in your life that you must do to feel complete. The same thing happens with mark-making…When you practice moving those parts of your body and brain required to make a drawing, everything else in your art making process flows much more smoothly. The more marks you make and the more frequently you make them, they become indelibly written on your brain, your movements in the studio become more practiced and you will approach the work with confidence and knowing.

This course is designed to help you begin and to keep you in the practice of daily mark-making, all you have to do is show up. Drawing everyday wont’t rid you of all the struggles us artists face in the studio, but I absolutely guarantee that it will get you moving faster and in the right direction toward your goals.

3 Distinct Learning Experiences

Only 1 hour a week for 8-10 weeks will change your creative life…guaranteed...

Session 1 (8 Weeks)
January 18-March 29

Building a Daily Drawing Practice

Participants establish a sustainable daily practice and begin recognizing their natural tendencies.

  • Gesture and movement

  • Drawing without judgment

  • Tools, materials, and experimentation

  • Drawing from intuition

  • Repetition and rhythm

  • The freedom of making mistakes

Session 2 (8 Weeks)
April 5-June 1

Expanding the Language Through Collage & Marks


Participants expand their visual vocabulary to include collage, Becoming more adventurous & intentional in mark-making.

  • Line, gesture, and expressive movement

  • Pattern and ornament

  • The grid as a mapping device

  • Repetition, rhythm, and variation

  • Texture, density, materials and scale

  • Unconventional drawing tools and surfaces

Session 3 (10 Weeks)
September 27-December 6

Finding Your Own Mark: From Daily Practice to Personal Expression

Participants begin to understand how their daily drawing practice can inform, enrich, and transform their larger artistic practice.

  • Recognizing personal gestures and visual language

  • Developing a body of drawings

  • Working with limitations and constraints

  • Drawing as a foundation for painting, collage, printmaking, and other disciplines

  • Moving from the sketchbook to the finished work

  • Building a personal archive of marks

What’s Included

  • Former Mark-Maker Members pay a special price.

  • 5-15 minutes of daily drawing.

  • Weekly drawing prompts.

  • Two live gatherings per session.

  • One downloadable workbook per session.

  • Access to a curated library of existing demonstrations and lectures.

  • Weekly community check-ins.

  • A year-end reflection and celebration.

  • Content building, materials demos, artists of interest, Q&A and personal reflection on progress.

  • Access to ALL previous It Begins With a Mark Lectures

  • Group accountability support via Google Classroom.

  • Class recordings are available for a full year.

  • Your choice of 1-3 independent 8-10 week sessions.

Pricing

$349

One 8-Week Session

Choose between Session One: Building a Daily Drawing Practice or Session Two: Expanding the Language Through Collage & Marks.

Returning Mark-Makers $299 per session.

Learn more

Receive both Session One: Building a Daily Drawing Practice and Session Two: Expanding the Language Through Collage & Marks.

Returning Mark-Makers $579 for both sessions.

Learn more

The complete course. Session One, Session 2 & Session 3: Finding Your Own Mark: From Daily Practice to Personal Expression.

Returning Mark-Makers $799 for ALL sessions.

Learn more

$649

Two 8-Week Sessions

$899

All 3 Sessions

Suggested Supplies

You could start out with a piece of paper and pencil for the first six weeks, I just want to see you drawing!

For a more detailed idea of supplies, please see link to the complete list below.

See the List

FAQ’s

  • You would like to develop a cohesive body of work, but don’t know where or how to begin.

    You exclaim repeatedly that you can’t draw.

    You have tried to develop a daily mark-making practice but you lose momentum.

    You make marks, look at them judgmentally, feel ridiculous and burn your sketchbook in effigy.

    You feel that mark-making is a waste of time when you could be doing other things in your studio.

    You had a horribly insensitive teacher in 7th grade who made disparaging comments about your drawings.

    You really want to begin mark-making and purchased a lovely sketchbook, fabulous drawing tools and then the fear of the white page left you paralyzed.

    You have no confidence in anything you do creatively and just feel that you should pack it in and quit.

    You’ve been away from the studio for a while and want to get back into it, but don’t know where to start.

    You’re a painter or a sculptor, what do you need with drawing anyway?

    You feel your marks don’t look like anything and therefore, are useless.

    You would like to develop your own unique artistic voice.

  • You could start out with a piece of paper and pencil for the first six weeks, I just want to see you drawing!

    I will send out a detailed list of supplies well before the first class begins so you’re all ready to go. I will also treat you to a video of all of my favorite sketchbook and mark-making supplies.

    If you’d like to get an idea, a basic list of suggested materials looks something like this: a mixed media sketchbook, a basic watercolor set, a water soluble drawing tool (ex. ink, water soluble graphite, caran d'ache crayons, etc) and a non-water soluble drawing tool (pencils, pens, gel pens, etc), white acrylic paint/tempura paint/poster paint-doesn't have to be expensive, found mark-making tools like combs, plastic lids, etc and a application tools like brushes, spatulas, silicone artists tools, brayers, Catalyst wedges or something similar.

    For a detailed list of Suggested Supplies, please see the link to the supplies on this page.

  • The recordings will be available for the duration of each session plus 1 year following the last class.

  • 1. The weekly prompt

    One interesting prompt or drawing challenge. Something that can be completed in 5–15 minutes a day.

    2. A short lesson or inspiration

    A brief written introduction, a short video, a demonstration, or an artist reference.

    3. A reflection question

    One question to encourage you to consider what your discovering about your marks, habits, and artistic tendencies.

    4. Community check-in

    Post a photograph of your work, a thought, or simply a check-in. Participation is encouraged, never mandatory.

    • A brief PDF Lesson

    • Weekly prompts.

    • Space for observations and notes.

    • A few reflection questions.

    • A place to document discoveries.

    • A simple practice tracker.

Smart Warehouse Retrofit →

“A huge take away is the power of marks, randomness, serendipity, chaos = the acts of creating abstract work. Like a new language, I am practicing.”

-- Lauran, Recent Mark-Maker

Testimonials

  • “I discovered so much about myself and the direction I need to follow. It was especially surprising for me to enjoy drawing as I never sketch or draw.”

    Recent Mark-Maker

  • “I am especially happy to have new practices like mark making exercises and daily writing into my day.  I have never done that and was astounded by how helpful they instantly were!”

    Katie

  • “The lessons were well thought out and had variety which helped introduce various ways of playing and exploring."

    Jill M.