Hello everyone, I have been a member since last year and I think I may have signed in last summer but was still working full time. I have worked on some drawings over the last year but want to spend more time focusing on improvement of basic skills.
I retired in May and have been working on home improvements the last few months. Currently, I want to focus on creating art. i want to start drawing on a regular basis as I enjoyed photography and drawing over my lifetime but haven’t made time to improve and develop my drawings as I would have liked.
I am so inspired by this site and look forward to setting up a space to create and time for learning more on a daily basis.
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Hi My name is Mona from Western Australia, and I joined Matt’s Virtual Instructor course about 3 months ago. I’ve done a few of the courses and found them to be excellent. I did Art at school but haven’t done much over the years. With the onset of COVID-19, I took to opportunity to continue my art journey. I’m mainly into colour pencils, graphite, ink and wash and water colour mediums. I really enjoy the courses and they have helped my art improvement considerably. Thank you Matt. I look forward to learing from this community.
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Hello Everyone
I just finished the 25 days to drawing course. Really enjoyed it. Like Matts teaching style. I like to draw, pen and ink, oil ,and watercolor. Betty Mounce
WOW!!! Beautiful; love how you captured the fur and the eyes are intense. I am going to be doing a picture of my oldest granddaughter’s chocolate lab. I cannot decide if I want to paint her or use colored pencils. I am not sure I have the time to do it in colored pencil and be able to get this effect. How long did it take you?
The tiger took about 30-40 hours to get to the point where I was happy with it. In the next few days I will send you a comparison of colored pencils vs. oil using the same piainting of a grey heron and you can see how the two mediums vary in appearance. I love both. I actually appreciate pencil more but I am of the opinion that most people don’t hold that medium in as high of an appreciation as they do oil. I would really love to hear other opinions. Please comment.
And thank you for such nice comments.
I got back to this page of posts; but now I am not sure where I am going. Watched the ‘navigation’ lesson from Matt. I want to post a picture I did of my youngest son and his wife, kissing in the sunrise for y’all to comment on. I apparently I submitted it to Matt for a critique. But, cannot figure out how to get it done here.
Hello all!
Though I’m about 10 years from retiring, I’m new to art this year (yes, I have wasted my life). I spent it writing professionally (I’m a professor) but never really thought anything about images, though I do love color. Suddenly, this year, it’s all about the visual for me. It’s a consuming, completely new world, and I’m interested in everything. I’m SO excited to join after watching Matt on YouTube for months. It seems incredible to me that any person can have professional-level skill in so many different mediums.
Arty things I especially like: art nouveau, 18th century French (all of it!), Maxfield Parrish’s blue (was there ever such a blue???), Lempicka’s curvature.
I’m mainly interested in line and wash and pen and ink, and really looking forward to using my Inktense and pastel pencils, though I have a few types of watercolor (tubes and pots). Tried acrylic and did not like it (though I’ll try again) and oils just seem out of my league. Very scary thought for a beginner!
I do have a question about this site: if I do more than one course simultaneously, will it remember where I was? Is there someplace on the site that will give me a list of where I’ve been, or do I have to keep track of that myself?
Greetings from NE Tennessee and Happy New Year,
Wendy
(If there are other Wendys, I’ll be WendyD)
This is like the ‘What do you’? ‘A vase or people’. Scrolling down I first thought it was a picture of an elephant then I saw a person, then I saw trees. Amazing picture! I painted my son & d-n-l a picture that showed them kissing in silhouette in a sunrise. I also did a picture of a camper with looking forward and then a smaller shot looking at the rearview mirror. I have been posted here under the name if ‘lilnora’
ArtistLittleNora
a/k/a "lilnora’
I am about 20+ years into retirement (never thought I would get used to it but I am. I always enjoyed painting at my pleasure at my leisure. Most of what I do is for presents for friends and family. I have been commissioned for 2 portraits. I was on a long hiatus after art school, but we had projects all the time and a lot as if the professors [apparently] thought he/she was the only one giving us work to do at home or to come back to the school to do so. After I retiring on a disability and moving out in the country husband found the box I used in art school and asked me why I stopped. I assumed that I had told him because we met while I was there. A few years ago he asked if I could do something that would help supplement our/my income. I told him that I could but did not want to. If I had to then I would do it. Before art school I had taken private lessons and learned so much there, Matt teaches exactly as the man I took lessons from, so it has been so exciting. I joined in August but it seems like how much I was excited to find this on the Internet. As for whether or not it will keep up if you are taking more than one course, you can do so as long as you know which lesson you are on. I don’t really think that it does bring you back to where you were when you stopped. I thought I had to do more than one course at a time, and I wanted to ‘catch up’ with the class(es) and tried to print out all the eBooks and modules for each class. There will be courses you can take by going along with those lessons (drawing, painting and two other ??? (cannot remember what the other two are) Then by chance, I saw that was unnecessary as the Member Minutes and the ‘live lessons’ show what had been done ‘before’ you joined. You can work at your own speed. Once a week or so, he has something that is call ‘Sketchy ???’ and that is with another artist, and you can work on it at your leisure. It might take 3 lessons to finish the picture. Up at the top of the page, it will tell you the time it will be held. I think that they will and you can post them on the Members Minute and get critique from others. They will be kind and not judgemental and they might have suggestions about what you submitted. Matt also does critiques as well. You can go down and pick out a course to work on and maybe keep up with it that way. In the emails, he sends out he tells you what had subject when they give the lessons and you can work on it at your leisure. This next one is with a bee I saw them just under the Members Minute when I scrolled down the blocks of blue. Matt also had a lesson about how to navigate the site and that really helped me. That was done a few weeks ago. That really helped me. You will find it under something like ‘Introduce yourself to others’ as you did here. Just scroll down a little because I did see it under the list of comments made. You can go down and look at and comment on others work, I did this and it also helps. You can ask just about anything and most times someone will reply to you and answer questions you might have. I hope this makes sense. LOL!
ArtistLittleNora.Mitchell@gmail.com
Lenora a/k/a ‘linora’
Thanks so much, Lenora! I appreciate the explanation, and I think it’s great you’ve taken up art again! I’ll probably keep a notebook of what I’m doing just to try to keep things straight. I hope it will be less overwhelming that way. 
Wendy
Hello All,
I’m Jeff Reynolds. I’m 67 years old and live in the hills of TN. I’m a retired Firefighter/Paramedic originally from Florida. I’m also a 50-year musician/guitarist/songwriter. My wife and I turned our dreams into reality by relocating to our small ranch in Tennessee 7 years ago. My wife and I have spent 10 years exploring 1700 and 1880 historical reenacting as a hobby. During this time, I’ve become an Artison Blacksmith/ Bladesmith. While building my historic black powder rifles engraving captured my attention. Several of the online engraving instructors suggested that engravers should be able to draw. So, I began drawing to help with reaching my engraving goals. I had no idea how much I’d love drawing. I thank, Matt for his contribution to our education and a place to exhibit our drawings. I hope that my attempts at cowboy and frontier drawings are appreciated. Thanks, Jeff
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Welcome to this site. You’re right - Matt is a very special person to have dedicated his life to helping artists in various stages. Tonight they having a live lesson. If you actually paid for the subscription for the year, then you can click on the ‘live lessons’. I think ‘new’ artists have a way to sign on for a period of time (maybe 3 months).
ArtistLittleNora.Mitchell@Gmail.com
Hi Wendy,
Greetings from Port Stanley, Canada
How are your studies going? Did you hone in on some lessons and move forward? I have zeroed in on watercolour but try to keep up with Matt’s live lessons if I have the medium - I don’t have oils and acrylics yet - trying to keep it “light”. I am surprised at how much confidence the drawing lessons have given me.
m
Margaret, this is Lenora Andre, and I wasn’t sure this email is for me. Is it or directed to Wendy? I don’t want to answer something that was not meant for me.
Hi Leonora,
Thank you for responding to my mis-directed note.
I was searching for a way to introduce myself to the bulletin board. Every time I clicked on “introduce yourself”, I ended up in an odd spot, so I responded to a few posts. Have no idea where the posts ended up (well, now i do….) It is lovely to hear everyone’s story, though. I have seen you on Matt’s live shows as well, correct?
Thanks for responding. I will watch for your posts.
I may try to introduce myself again sometime. Right now I am online trying to book an appt for a vaccine (yay!).
Margaret Voorhaar
Port Stanley ON
ps I have taken a sailboat through the intercostal in Georgia. Was magnificent. Been to a hat stiore in Savannah. An eye-opener - who knew?
Hi Jeff,
I think starting with the “25 Days to Better Drawing” will be the best way. I think it makes it easy to follow and I heard a lot begin to get better. Get a sketchbook and keep on drawing anything and you will get better and better each day. This is one of the things we did in art school. Each day we had to turn in 10 drawings. Feet, lamp across the room, and other subjects. Don’t look at the previous day’s drawing and then you can see your progress at the end of the 25 days. It is fun to see how you have progressed.
Lenora ‘lilnora’
a/k/a as ArtistLittleNora
Hi, Margaret
That’s - is my sister’s name. Don’t tempt me, I can get so involved and then see it is long, but when I really want to say something to somebody it gets longer but typing is something that I do to relax. But, if I think I have something to say, they can get long, and I just won’t delete or edit them. Most times you can’t do anything about it. But anyone who wants not to go there, you can just end it. Hopefully without naming names. Which I would not ‘think’ of doing, I have pretty thick skin. 
Yes, we really do have a lot of intercostal islands in and around the entire coast of Georgia. I think we’re the state with the most islands and isn’t Savannah a fun place to go? We’re on the other side of the state.
Hat shop?
Did you buy a hat or two? 
Chat here and describe it. I am sure you picked the one that was very ornate.
Lenora
Hi Lenora,
Well, I was in Savannah in 1990, passing through with our sailboat. The hats I had seen “up north” were much more conservative than the one I saw in the hat store. The hats I saw were epic - purple, red, very brilliant colors. They had ribbons and feathers. In awe, I asked the sales clerk who wore these hats, and I was informed that it was a church thing. The clerk told me her mom bought fabulous hats (and suits) to wear to church. Apparently her tactic was to wait until the last minute before the service to enter the church, so that everyone would see her finery when she walked to the pew up front…
I discovered the online instruction after COVID hit - last March, joined Sarah Cray online for her fun watercolour tutorials, then found the hyper talented Matt.
How did you discover him?
m
I’m not sure but someone sent the link to me and I opened it and decided I would try this site and I have been here since (August, I think of 2019 it could be 2020) and joining it the next day. I watched and the printing out his eBooks. Thinking I must ‘catch up’. Now I realize that it was not necessary to do that. So I started watching his videos. He teaches just like the man I took art classes for 5 years before going off to art school in Atlanta, should have gone to school in Sarasota, FL but I just did not want to get that far away from home and friends. I met a boy who had transferred from there and he hated that he did. He transferred back and I heartbroken. I should have followed him. But then, I would have my husband of 50 years. I hated the school in Atlanta, too. I guess there a freaky professors’ everywhere’ not just in art schools. But when I fell in love I fell hard.
I left an email for her to tell me how to join since I am not on any social networking sites other than here.
When I tried to join it went to an Instagram site, as I said no longer on Facebook, Twitter, or any others. But, I know that this site does have people who want to make it that way.
Sorry. gotta go and let hubby wash the blood out of my hair due to a fall, Just love it. UGH!
Lenora
.
I saw them on the Sarah Cray site by putting in google the name and came up with the posts.
Lenora