30 Dogs 30 Days - Paint With Me

Photo courtesy of Vivos Images, Nancy Gutelius.

I love teaching - there's nothing like sharing all I've managed to cram into my brain with a group of like minds. And when those ah-ha moments happen, it's glorious - goosebumps, joy, pride - it's a great time all around. Because learning is most successful when the environment matches the students' needs, I offer three different ways for us to work together: in person, one on one via Facetime, and a new online community.

I travel once or twice a year and teach multi-day workshops. A host group sponsors, markets and sells the event, and then I show up to do my song and dance. I will be doing so in Saginaw, Michigan (this September) and in the Hudson River Valley of New York (next March). Links to the Saginaw workshop are on my website; the New York event will be added once they begin accepting reservations. Workshops are priced based on the various groups' overhead and the number of days we get to paint together.

I also offer online mentoring and one-on-one sessions via Facetime. These sessions are scheduled at each parties' convenience; all a student needs is a means to Facetime/Skype. Goals are established at the onset, and our conversations build upon progress with exercises, suggestions, recommended reading and deeper discussion. Sessions are $45 for 45 minutes - reach out to me for more information.

And there is one final, spanking brand new online learning option: Patreon, a subscription based service that enables me to send digital content direct to student subscribers. From a developer's standpoint, it grossly simplifies the whole aspect of providing online instruction, which until now was my biggest learning curve - hosting digital content, building a private classroom space, dealing with billing and distribution challenges. Patreon does all of that for me, so that I can focus on creating meaningful instruction and guidance while working directly with you, the student subscriber.

Patreon student subscribers stream content at their convenience - these are videos and musings not available elsewhere - inside our own virtual (closed) classroom space. Several times a month I will post painting sessions/discuss the germination of an idea/talk about tools and process/host a q&a/field your suggestions regarding content.

One of the things I particularly like about Patreon is, as the subscriber base grows, there is flexibility to add functionality based on the community's needs such as critiques or small group sessions. However, right now I want to start out with a simple structure, get to know the student subscribers, and build a sense of community for us.

To start us out I've created a sampling of posts, at the moment all public (meaning all can see) - please come take a peek. Credit cards will not get charged until May 1st, so you have a bit of time to poke around and decide if this space is right for you. Starting in May, all of the content I share on Patreon will be for subscribers only. The public content is there for new student subscribers to get a taste of what the service is all about.

Visit and learn more about my Patreon here.

I hope to get to paint with you in some capacity soon.

And thanks, as always, for following along with my artwork and journey.
Warmly, Kim

“Katie’s Moustache,” 6x12, pet portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, $90. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . One glimpse of Katie’s face, and I was hooked. Not only did she fall into my beloved “black & white” category, but she came with a full moustache and doe-like eyes. I first covered the canvas with a variety of blues and purples, using a (mixed) light green and pink for the highlights. (Right now my palette has been expanded to include the following: pthalo blue red, azurite hue, cad red dark, alizarine crimson, cad yellow dark, and then for graying/hazing out I use light green yellow and ultramarine purple.) I lighten with titanium white and darken with one of the blues and a touch of one of the reds. As a side note, at this time last year I was really struggling with my limited palette (I went from about 60 pots of paint to 3), but I have lived the benefits – I am so much more familiar with what I can mix given just this handful of colors. My paintings are also m...

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