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In A Pandemic Crisis, taking drawing lessons ONLINE.

6/4/2020

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I invited my students to a zoom meeting, It’s session 7 of my short course titled Travel Sketching. Ironic that now I am teaching how to travel sketch through my screens into other people’s screens at home. The isolation is what has gradually been happening since the beginning of February. A Covid-19 virus outbreak starting in China causes a global pandemic shutting down most airports and cities incrementally and Singapore shuts down as much as they can to try stop the outbreak getting worse, by slowly shutting down all non-essential businesses and schools too. Everyone is in a slow burning panic and anxiety, washing hands, wearing masks, staying home, hoarding essentials and inundating all the usual delivery services.


LaSalle college of the arts finally told all their staff to take all the courses ongoing and teach online. I have the privilege to be one of the first few to do an online class. We all join into the meeting room I hosted, and I check that everyone can see me and my other screen of hands on paper to do demonstrations, and I check that everyone can hear me. Time becomes inconsequential, and three hours fly fast. The lessons I give are not that different except showing how to do something like drawing a head of a person using a reference has to change and is based on new visuals, that is either something in a magazine/book at hand, or it is my student’s heads showing on the screen, in the case of learning how to draw people.


I also use my own travel sketchbooks as a reference, and a lot of the materials are covered through giving multiple examples and demonstrations on the screen. This seems to be a well received method, because all they have is the screen to watch, their attention becomes more focused, and they can see every strokes I make with less distractions compared to when in a classroom. With demonstration on a screen, everyone has the same view of my hands and paper. In a classroom sometimes people are obstructed or on a strange angle when I am demonstrating. 


The not so good part of online class is the lack of feedback that I am getting as a teacher to what my students are actually doing. There’s a lot of silence that I feel I must fill with more examples or more talking that is not necessarily useful or effective. However I am glad we have addressed that before we ended the class, and I’ve told my students to give me a bit more feedback during the session. 


In the midst of the online broadcast one of my ipad stopped working so I had to work with just one view which is of my hands, and toggle the screen when I need to show my face. It’s not the worse situation even tho this didn’t help smooth broadcast in my opinion. 


I ask myself what is my expectations for this online class, and the TOP answer seem to be more interactions from the students to me so I can tailor the instructions according to their needs. The other answer is for me to give them the best lesson content that I can and showing as much as possible the techniques that I use. I realise I tend to give too much information too fast, so every so often, I check in with them if I needed to adjust. 


To summarize, an online class for art lessons is better than in a classroom for the purpose of teaching and showing how to do it, but requires participants and students to give more feedback, either in sound, or in facial expressions such as a nod, or a noise. It requires the teacher to be more hands on in showing examples and for students to participate more with their voice and head body language than in a classroom, and as long as this is clearly communicated, I think the class is beneficial for all.
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7 Free Activities you can do AT HOME, and have a wholesome ISOLATION time.

23/3/2020

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Hi All, 


I hope you are coping well with this crazy time of lockdowns, self-isolations and keeping your distance with social distancing.
I’ve been enjoying myself with so much less noise and busy-ness and I have been very creatively productive. Some of you have been asking for suggestions on activities you can do while you’re at home. Here are 7 No Money Fun as Mike Myers used to call it, that’s actually doable and fun. A fuel for our curiosity and good vibes producing. 


1. After listening to Audible.com for years, I am so happy to hear they’re giving away Free audible books of stories, classics such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and fairy tales from different parts of the world. There is enough free audio books to last weeks and weeks of isolations. There are even books in French, Spanish and Japanese. Is it time to re-up on my Spanish comprehension? Maybe    https://stories.audible.com/start-listen


2. Brooklyn Art Library #thesketchbookproject is offering this 28 days challenge with a prompt sent to your email daily. It’s a challenge and great for artists who’s really want to get their critical image thinking going.  https://brooklynartlibrary.org/28daychallenge


3. Do you own a house plant? Here’s a list of hard to kill houseplants that you might already have but don’t know much about. I’ve started this new hobby when we moved into our new house, it gives me a nice morning rituals while the kettle is boiling, to water the plants and then see little baby shoots coming up, is such a fulfilling experience.  https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/advice/g1285/hard-to-kill-plants/


4. If you’re like me, I’ve got a pile of ‘to be mend’ things including shoes, and Jewelry that is waiting for me to have time to take care of them. When I’ve done a mend to my clothes, it felt like new again, and if you like, you can even try visible mending, I wrote all about it here. If you’re into fixing electronics, hey, that has the same kind of satisfaction.  https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/www.refinery29.com/amp/en-gb/clothing-repair-alteration-sustainability


5. Mindfulness meditation with Mark Williams on Spotify.   
Mindfulness meditation is a big trend and apps such as Calm or Headspace has been helpful to maintain a mindfulness meditation rituals. I’ve used Headspace for many years, and now on the daily, I listed to Mark Williams guided mindfulness meditation as part of my morning ritual. So being at home, gives you the opportunity to try this too. I’ve felt the benefit when I’m anxious and impatient in my day. It’s more beneficial ofcourse if you can do it every day. 
https://open.spotify.com/album/67uxFWx39wI8frDJuF2InX?si=y-DxoXg7R6KZtgX4Gp2vDg


6. Learn to cook a new recipe or two. Recently I’ve found this YouTube channel called The Avant Garde Vegan, even though I am not vegan nor vegetarian, I like to eat plant-based meals a few times a week. Gaz is very cute to look at, and says the word ‘Nutricious’ multiple times in every video. A few recipe that he has inspired that I make is the Moroccan recipes with chick peas and I end up making my own Harissa paste from watching his videos. Making a big batch of really ‘nutricious’ meals, that you can freeze, makes life so much easier and eating out unnecessary.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-ACPYNN0oXD4ihS5mbbmw


7. Instead of Pandemic focus, lets “Pandemake” and focus on being creative. The idea began on the day Singapore announced a travel restrictions and countries such as the UK and USA are all slowly panicking and locking down their borders and European cities all doing similar things. It’s a highly unsettling time and all I could see online was all content only about this pandemic. It becomes unhealthy as my anxiety and panic starts to rise just from reading the news. All other news not related to Corona Virus seems trivial and uninteresting, so I thought this is what I’ll do to help myself cope. You can join me as I am drawing daily objects, from pantry essentials to fresh produce, as long as the items is in your house, and you’re drawing it life, it’s an be anything. Have a look at the video process I post on my IG stories. https://www.instagram.com/olijstudio_travels/ 

Enjoy what you can, Stay healthy, and may new healthy beginnings come soon. 

Susan 

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Procreate-ing

8/3/2020

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I have been playing with Procreate since I got the IPad Pro, and It’s been hand and arm ache-ly fun. One of my artist friend said Procreate is game changing, and I now understand what she’s talking about. It is addictive as well as Super Fun, when it can be combined with actual watercolour painting.

Here’s an example. I am back to sketching random mundane things in Singapore, there’s unlimited source of inspirations everywhere. This is a snoozing uncle in a hot afternoon in Tiong Bahru, the hipster area of Singapore :) 

Process videos are fun to make because it also shows my process, my thinking and my ideas in one few minutes episodes. This whole painting took around 2 hours and over the course of 2 days, a slow progression of layering and then finishing off with Procreate to add details. 

I think this is one of the better videos Ive made so far. What do you think? 

Susan 
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I am going to Margaret River to Travel Sketch with Emergence Creative Festival.

10/2/2020

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Exciting news y’all! I won a trip to Margaret River during their wine harvesting season to do my travel sketching there! I’m going to travel sketch the slow traveller style for 4 days from 24-27 of March. 


I have never been to Perth or Margaret River! Thank you @emergencecreative for including me so I can continue travel sketching the slow way in Western Australia. 


This event is part of WA’s premier festival called Emergence Creative Festival, 
an annual gathering for the international creative industry, and to capture the beauty of the famed wine region during harvest season.


About a month ago, mid January, I applied to this open call, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was short -listed and invited to their wine and grazing table reception where I met a few of the other short-listed artists. The next day I was one of the 16 shortlist artists to get interviewed. I brought my travel sketchbooks, we talked about road trip to Mexico, and the travel sketching around the world that I’ve just finished in 15 months. Brianna and Erin were very complimentary about my sketchbooks which is exciting. I was hoping to get to go to Margaret River, because that’s a whole new continent, and a whole new place I have not travelled sketch to, and the pictures they showed me of the wine region was magnificent. I cannot wait to see that all in real life. 

Here's the link to the article on their website. 

https://www.emergencecreative.com/newsitems/singapore-based-content-creators-win-trip-to-emergence/

Thank you Brianna and Erin for picking me. 

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Patreon, Support me and my first Book

13/1/2020

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I finally make the jump. I am in Patreon now as I am embarking on the book about travel sketching I realise I need help and support to make it happen. The working title of the book is "The Slow Traveller's Sketchbook". I like this title because it is what the book is going to focus on. In a very distracted world, parents fearing their children turning into tech zombies, adults addicted to mindless scrolling and lack of sleep becoming a normal thing. I felt the way my sketchbooks and travel experience can be helpful is to write and advocate and crusade about Paying Attention. 

There is just not enough attention given to anything these days, I struggle with distraction as I am sure a lot of people do. Artists with a wandering mind and explosive creative energy knows this struggle well. 

Travel sketching is a way to help improve attention, and slow everything your mind is racing you to do and feel down to a place of clarity, and simplicity. 

So, if this is something you want to be a part of, please support my Patreon at a tier you're comfortable in. I will be super grateful and you will see me rock and roll and make the book and the E-book and everything else happen in 2020. 

Yay! 

Thank you so much,

​Susan 

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Made the Sunday Papers

2/1/2020

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Hey, that's me, looking really serious and involved in teaching travel sketching in the Tekka Market food court. The article was published in Straits Times, Sunday Times, Life section on 29th of December, 2019. Just in time to put a check mark on 'making the papers' as one more accomplishments before the decade ends. Sor Fern, was supposed to try out just the first two sessions of this short course courtesy of LaSalle College of the Arts but ended up doing the whole 8 sessions. I am pleased that she got so into it she bought her own sketchbook and watercolour set after the first class. 

Yes, I travel sketch for fun, and also for something more serious. What's that you ask? 

It might sound reaching, but I want to make some kind of difference in how people see the world, one bad and runny sketch at a time. Like Sor Fern, who is such a diligent students even when she's on a writing project, drawing with pen and watercolour insists on experiencing mistakes, and no going back on it. It's something I challenge myself daily and developed a strong muscle for drawing mistakes and mishaps. You don't have to like all your work, but you do have to like you as the person making the work, no matter if the work is good or bad. 

I am so grateful that most of my students gets this, a ridiculously obvious advice, yet so so hard to do. 

Welcome to my world. 

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Freehand Lettering

2/12/2019

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Recently, I did this freehand lettering, posters for the Make-A-Wish Face painting charity I've done for years for their annual Christmas Party. It felt very good to know I've not lost the skills,  I've not done large freehand lettering in a long time. I am happy with the result. This took about 4 hours, using MDF foam board and a bunch of wide tip markers. I like the slightly retro, slightly steam punk circus circa 1920's fonts and the star burst effect that made the poster pop. 

Maybe this is a good fun way to spend some of my drawing for fun time. 

Who's next? The freehand lettering service for cafes, restaurants, art studios and more is open. 


Susan 
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Travel Sketching short course,  New at LaSalle College of the Arts

6/11/2019

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Who knew that I'll be travel sketching so much during the sabbatical year of travel that a year and a half later, I have 5 sketchbooks full, 16 countries worth of drawings, and be confident enough to say, hell yes, I can definitely teach this.

​On 9th November 2019, I start teaching a small group of new sketchers. The course is broken down to an evening in class learning fundamentals, and Saturday mornings on location around Singapore to apply and practice those fundamentals. 

Thoughts on how I design the module comes from the experience of travel sketching on locations. Most of the time, I have no control over what I'll see and whether there's time and comfortable spaces to sketch. I could be in a bus station and it's empty, or I could be in an airport lounge I've never been before where it's not conducive to sketch.  In any case, the key to continuously drawing in any location, is energy. An example of energy, is when I had a good night sleep, and we arrived early enough in this transit place that I find myself sitting down with a drink and looking around for interesting things that catches my eyes. Observing my surroundings comes easily when I had a good rest. So first that. 

Second thing, curiosity comes when there is time to observe, and sometimes this comes rarely when you're in a rush. So I thought of finding a place that we can stay in, with lots to observe and not much moving around required. 

Finally, deep seeing, this is what I call it when there's energy, and curiosity, and a blank paper, and the more you observe, the more you see things that you didn't notice before. The best condition for travel sketching isn't beautiful sceneries or palatial buildings, it is the mundane, the every day places that usually gives the most interest to travel. It's the things that everyone misses because they're going from A to B, going about their daily business, and have errands and people to meet. For travel sketchers, it's all about intentionally meandering and aimlessness. Deep seeing comes from aimlessness first, then the deep seeing happens when we are curious. Roman Muradov wrote in his book On Doing Nothing that " Every place we visit, for years or for an hour, imprint itself on our minds. Without much effort or intention, we keep refining these mental maps for as long as our brains can manage".  

So that is when I decided for beginners,  one class to learn the techniques, and then one class as an excursion to apply the techniques, is the way to go. 

Feedback from the first group of students has been positive and encouraging and some find the short course is too short. It does feel quite fast for 8 sessions twice a week. Perhaps there's something we can do there for the next one.

​We went on location sketching to Tekka Market, The park in SMU campus near the National Museum, the food court under the Flyer, and then to the airport. 

Most of these places are chosen so that comfort is not ignored, when we have art supplies we need to use, first, comfort and space, as this encourage the quiet, and the deep seeing. The locations was chosen to balance offering just enough things to see and observe, yet not overwhelming with crowds or heat. On hindsight, the last excursion that included sketching while on the MRT train, did not go as I planned because the train ended up being too crowded and too uncomfortable both to draw and also attracting too much attention. So this I'll change for the next course. 

Funny things seem to always happen when we go on locations. There's a lot of people quite curious about what we're doing, lots of gawking and looking, which is normal, but for new sketchers, this can be awkward and slightly uncomfortable. But mostly, we had a laugh, we got some free snacks and a good exchange with random onlookers. 

I really enjoyed myself, and I think the module works for the most part. With some adjustments to make it better next time, this can be quite a good short course for people who wants to start sketching while travelling. 

For post course practice, I offer the students to come with me when I go on sketch walks. There are some interesting places in Singapore that I want to go myself, this included the Singapore Zoo, Haw Par Villa, The Natural History museum, and a lot of unusual places, back alleys of Little India, Fishing areas near the Park Connectors and more​. 

I would love for these students to continue their practice and if I can encourage it by participations, why not. 

​Students can join Ostudio artist community on Facebook, which I started not long ago, I hope to be more active there. 


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Workshops Success Story in Barcelona. The Flow Painting Launched in Spain

5/11/2019

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Part 1: Intention 
My intention before we left to Barcelona to spend two months there is to spend time on working on my travel sketching book, and to test out my Flow painting on anybody who are open to it and are willing to try something completely new. I was in discussion with one art space called Cercle De Sant Lluc to introduce this workshop there, however the timing was not great because Barcelona is dead between August and September
for their summer break. I said to no one in particular but to the universe and the gods of timing and movement that "I wish to teach this workshop twice, just twice, and I'll do it anywhere, for anyone who's interested for free., I will leave it up to you what this will look like, ok, Thanks in advance Universe!" 

​Part 2: Action 
I packed about 16 pieces of the Water paper, a bunch of brushes and I was determined they will be used. I plan to develop this workshop and use it on a regular basis for myself, and to record the findings from that. Arriving in Barcelona, I began to catch up with friends, and made new contacts with groups of people I've met before, and I brought this paper everywhere and I showed and demonstrated it as often as I could. I started a morning rituals of meditation and stretching that included using Flow painting techniques on the floor with a yoga mat. 

At a summer social gathering I was invited to, my friend Michal was impressed by the paper, and told me he will connect me with his friend Jaime, and that Jaime has an event space I might be able to use to conduct workshops. I met Jaime on the chat group Michal created and before that week was over, I had a workshop called Mindful Drawing scheduled in. Thank you Jaime!
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Part 3: Manifesting
First workshop in Barcelona, was hosted by Jaime Mitchell, she's an American who has lived in Barcelona for many years and is one of the organisers of the Barcelona Burning Hub, and this event I am so thankfully included in is called The Urban Playa, Coinciding with the actual Burning Man annually held in Black Rock, Nevada, This group is organising their own event that follows the code of Burning Man, and streams the video live from Black Rock on the daily. The Burning Man Code applies in no money exchanged, and people are giving services and things for free in exchanged for other services and things they need for the entire duration of the event. Jaime organises the week long program and my Flow Painting manifested through it, and is called Mindful Drawing. It was scheduled along with other workshops such as Chakra Therapy, South Bath, Silent Disco, and other quite interesting self improvements workshops and fun ones like DJ 101 workshop. 

​5 people joined the workshop, and English was mostly understood, although not fluently. The workshop was two hours long, starting with very simple warm up and understanding the water paper and the brush materials. The feedback from the participants were very positive, mostly very curious and impressed with water paper, and not at all phased by the challenge of drawing a portrait. I must add that they all seem to have had a drawing interest so that is very helpful to enhance the enjoyment of the workshop. I was pretty pleased with how it went and so very grateful for the opportunity. Thank you Jaime for the opportunity! 
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The second workshop was called Eco Pad drawing, and was hosted by a good friend, Pau Cata who runs an artist residency called CerrCa, I mentioned to him that I am looking for space and people to test the Flow Painting on and he generously offered his dwelling and studio space in a very trendy area of Poble Sec. The power of Pau's word of mouth, and a few social events where I met people including joining Urban Sketchers group, resulted in this small workshop success. Thank you Pau! 

​4 people joined this workshop and I charged €6 per person to cover costs of materials and some refreshments. It went very well again. This workshop was also 2 hours long, and the feedback from the participants was how wonderfully relaxing the meditation part of the workshop was, and the small size of the class was very welcomed. Pau's uniquely designed space added to the general vibe of the workshop with its high ceiling and minimal interior. 

In this workshop I met Blanca Navas who runs Coco y Pincel, after she's experienced the workshop, she asked me if I could do another workshop at her studio in two weeks time. She's only done workshops for kids so far, and wanted to launch adult workshops. She suggested to charge full price so the space rental, as well as for a Spanish speaking translator could be covered. I am so super chuffed for this opportunity, I did not expect it but we move ahead to plan my third workshop. Thank you Blanca! 
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The third workshop at Coco Y Pincel was titled Drawing Faces, it was joined by 7 new participants. Blanca gave a small welcome speech to everyone and to inaugurate her first Adult Workshop. Blanca is an artist herself and she has works hanging in the studio. Clared did the Spanish translating, she is currently an artist in residence there. Most of them could understand English but the Spanish translating helps smooth the process or the instructions if it was not that clear in English. I really appreciate this.

Because this workshop is still at it's early stage of development, it was most excellent to be able to charge €20 per person on my third session, where the space rent is covered, translator paid, materials are covered and I feel the risk of running a new workshop is paying off. I included the same meditation and also mindfulness warm up before they attempt a more risky portraits. This workshop was 2.5 hours, and included painting on actual paper with black watercolour paint. I kept the paint colour to a single colour to maintain the simplicity, and at the last 5 minutes, added a red colour so they can add one impactful accents on their final drawings. 

The feedback for this workshop was very positive, and I learned that most of these participants are quite chilled out. Like most people, they do have some fears of being judged, for being new at drawing, and a few people has literally never ever drawn before. The general class dynamic seems to go with the "Flow" and an enjoyment of the process instead of focusing on the result. In my 7 years of teaching experience in Singapore, I find the stark difference here was that there's a lot less anxiety to produce something perfect, and these participants seems to be more gentle on themselves than some of the adult students I've taught back in Singapore. In this workshop, the participants attempted to draw Male and Female faces, and learned how to work with a basic structure of a head. I used black and white references of very strong images of quite famous people. Because I taught in Spain, I included Javier Bardem and the actress with such an amazing nose Rosie De Palma. When I taught portrait drawing in Myanmar and Singapore, I also used a Local celebrity as a reference. I think it's important to maintain fluidity and familiarity when introducing a new technique, and that can be done through the image guide. 

Final thought: 

I am very grateful for the way my two months in Barcelona went. For the three successfully launched test of Flow Painting, and I learned a lot from the participants. As always, as an instructor, I always learned a lot while teaching.

My biggest take aways from these workshops are: 
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- Spanish participants are less of a perfectionists and their attitude is more relaxed overall while learning. 
- A lot of curiosity of new materials and new methods was explored as well as enjoyed during the workshop, this shows in their line work, and their bold strokes. 
- Participants are beginning to feel more bold with their strokes and eventually thought it would be great to not  have their brush strokes dissapeared. 
- Everyone loved the freedom of making mistakes that the water paper allows. 
- They took home the water paper with such glee, because they can now do Flow Painting anytime on their own. 
- I sold all the Water pad that I brought, and some wanted more. 
-  These workshop would not be possible without the support of my friends. So grateful for all the generosity and collaborative vibes I've received in Barcelona. It feels very satisfying to share a very new kind of creative workshop, with all its risks and unknown elements with groups of new people. These workshop would not be possible without the support of my friends. 
- Feeling very fortunate to meet all the new people during the workshop. 

Thanks to everyone, hopefully I could employ the same kind of gusto of Intention, Action and Manifesting for this workshop to develop even more so it can help reduce stress, reduce anxiety, rejuvenate people and help reduce mistake phobia. 
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Travel Sketching Short Course & Studio Reopening whispers

26/9/2019

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Hi everyone,

My travel sketching short course has launched in LaSalle College of the Arts on the 9th of October, 2019. The course schedule of twice a week, once on wednesday evenings, 7-10pm and then on saturday morning to lunch time, an excursions to practice the theory learned, has so far been very well received. 

This group of students seem to be engaging with their new skills and materials quite well. They've started to learn how to use water colour to paint and to sketch directly, draw thumbnails on location, and feel the challenge push them out of their comfort zones yet it's not too difficult or overwhelming. Some told me that because we use a pen directly, they cannot avoid imperfections and realise that it's actually survivable and okay. Mistakes doesn't kill them and is actually something they can cope with. I think this is the success I am looking for in travel sketchers. 

For updates on the next short course starting in 2020, Email me

In the news,  I am in the process of re-opening my home studio and workshop space, it is still a secret till we finalise everything else but one hint is, it will be in town, really easy access and is going to be beautiful. So stay tuned for more exciting updates! 

Let's keep in touch and keep the practice going together. Studies says that group workout is more beneficial and more effective than solo workout. Do you think this can be applied to a group drawing practice too? 

Yours,

Susan 


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