Basic Drawing Online Workshop!

I am excited to announce that on the September 18th I will be starting teaching my first online drawing workshop! It is a five-session workshop with weekly classes, presented on blog format, designed for beginners and intermediate artists. That will not be a simple “buy my classes and learn on your own” package, it is an interactive workshop where you can exchange information and insights with your fellow virtual classmates, and get personalized orientation by me, by email or Skype. So, basically, you will have: access to the class materials (text, images, videos), at any time, for as long as you need; access to a Yahoo list created specially for the workshops, where you can interact with me and the other students, and upload images of your progress for evaluation; personal guidance by me whenever you need it. The whole workshop costs $100, and there are only ten spots available, so, run! You can grab more information and take a look at a sample class here.

Workshop + Haiti help

two announcements today. first, is about the Creative Astrology workshop. I've been receiving inquiries from people interested in the workshop but unable to commit to 7 straight weeks of classes. I then decided to split the program in shorter workshops, of 10 days each -- same as the first one, Living the Four Elements. to start, I am releasing two workshops: The Sun's Pathway (starting on Feb 8th) and The Moon Within (starts on March 8th.) Workshops' content will be richer than in the first version, since we'll have more time for each one,  and the price dropped: $30 per workshop. by signing up for both classes, you pay only $50. spaces are limited to 12 people.

Haiti Relief help. UPDATE: yes, my design was accepted yesterday on the CafePress Haiti Relief Store. happy here. they didn't give me the credits (maybe because I have no store set up there?), but it doesn't matter. the good thing is that they have more marketing power and i hope that they are able to sell a lot of stuff. as for the RedBubble products, I'm afraid I'll have to put them on hold now. pity, since the t-shirts are so lovely!


since my design was not accepted on the CafePress store (they got too many submissions and were unable to use them all), i decided to release it on my RedBubble store. it is available as greeting cards, prints and those adorable t-shirts (I particularly love them.)
all the profits I get from those products sales will be donated to a Haiti Relief organization. it seems they will need it for a long time, situation is critical there. of course, RB profits are not that amazing, but every bottle of water bought with donated money counts, so, let's help, folks, even with your minimum. thank you!

blue me + workshop preview

when I got home last weekend and signed in to my Facebook account, I came across to this beautiful thing:

this artwork was made by my lovely and powerful FB friend Lyse Vaille, using one of the pictures of myself I use as a reference for my own work, and that I posted on my page some time ago. it's so delightful and interesting to see ourselves through the perspective of other artists. I particularly enjoyed the blue skin and being surrounded by birds, it's so me! thank you again, Lyse!

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focused on the Creative Astrology workshop. initially I was planning to run a different workshop a month, approaching different themes, but after putting some things together I realized that the best to be done is a whole workshop lasting several weeks and covering different, sensitive and important areas of development. each person will have then the opportunity to participate in the whole process and watch his/her own creative development, instead of opting for separate themes. we want wholeness and not fragments.

then this morning I finally got to build the main structure of the workshop, which will last 7 weeks. sounds juicy to me!

Week One:
THE SUN'S PATHWAY: myself as the hero of my own story

Week Two:
THE MOON WITHIN: revering the child and the feminine in me

Week Three:
FROM WHERE I COME, TO WHERE I GO: the Moon Nodes and my life purpose

Week Four:
FOLLOWING SATURN'S STEPS: facing fear, building growth

Week Five:
URANUS CALL: the art of reinventing myself

Week Six:
THE WATERS OF NEPTUNE: going with the flow of my spirit

Week Seven:
PLUTO, THE PHOENIX WITHIN: healing and transforming myself

besides the lessons and usual discussions and art making, I'm also planning to make videos, so you'll have the chance to spice up your lives with a bit of South American accent and eventual broken English. :) hopefully starting this January. excitement!

Busy busy + feature feature

A long absence, I know. I've been busy with commissions + workshop, and already planning the next ones! Very refreshing being back to my teaching activities after so long. I must say that I am very very happy and feel very gratified and energized. Thank you to wonderful group for the great energy and insights! I'll be soon posting the mandalas the group has been preparing on my workshops page.

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My piece The Divine in Me was featured in the new edition of the Presence journal. Thank you to the publishers, I'm very proud to be part of such an inspiring magazine.

Solstice Giveaway + Workshop

Giveaway
my next Solstice Giveaway is going to be a little different from the last one. prize continues being a 8 x 11 color portrait, but from now one I'm asking for a symbolic $3.00 for your participation. why? because I decided to make of this a good occasion to collect donations for a charity organization or even a person in need. so now you can buy as many numbers you want, increasing your chances to win, and also transfer the prize to another person, as you wish. :)

charity still to be announced. it may varies between a donation in money to an organization and a bag of groceries, depending on the amount of money I will be able to collect. again, overseas winner will have only the digital version of the portrait, at least willing to pay for the shipping (sorry for that once again, folks..)

I will be soon placing a link on the blog's sidebar to my PayPal account, so numbers can be safely purchased.  drawing will happen on December 8th, so you have plenty of time to participate.

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Workshop
If you enjoy astrology and have interest to know a bit more about how it works,while finding out more about yourself and  yet sparking your creativity, you may enjoy Creative Astrology. this workshop was designed to help you understand the astrological language in an intutitive way, taking your own birth chart as a reference, and learning how to recognize the astrological symbolism inside yourself and in the world around you. this workshop is not intended to be a complete course on astrology, which would demand many months of apprenticeship and a different learning approach, but to give you a glimpse of how it is based upon and how you can see it in action in your life. as a complement you'll learn how to build a mandala journal and connect the mandala imagery to your chart and personal experience. more details here.

Creative Astrology is an online workshop, and can be attended by anybody with a computer connected to the internet and a device for capturing images (camera, scanner, cell phone, etc) The first edition will approach the four elements in astrology, and, as it is an experimental workshop, is being offered for free. however, only 12 spaces are available. if you are interested, please leave a comment here with your name or alias and an active email to enroll. workshop starts on November 2nd and lasts 10 days.

Tree of Life: third attempt

guess what: I rejected the second attempt of the Tree of Life.for some reason I found the background a little too messy and thought that the figures should occupy more space in the picture.

here's my new sketch, subject to further improvements:

 

I didn't pay too much attention to the size of the sketch, and it ended up too large for the boards I have available around here. had to order larger ones. that will be the largest painting I ever made so far (20 x 30 approximately.) hope I don't screw up again.

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an almost act of impulsiveness made me open a basic store on Ebay. the first and only experience I had with them was not very positive, but since I am a persistent girl, I decided to give it another try. no auctions his time, though. it's hard to compete with artists that are practically selling themselves out.

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mandalas are now my new thing. I have always enjoyed them very much, and got to run a few workshops in Brazil in geometrical mandala making. however, my experience with them was purely intellectual. but since I decided to try it in a more emotional level, so to speak, they have been pretty much intriguing me and I decided to start a production of mandalas. it's just the beginning and we'll see if they keep my excitement going like my regular art does.

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speaking about mandalas: I'll be very soon running an online workshop joining astrology and mandala making. first edition will be experimental and free of charge. space will be very limited (only 12 persons), so stick around for new announcements!