Mixed-Media Girls with Cori Dantini

Self-Study Class Includes Lifetime Access, Online Community & More!

6 Lessons – $72

Cori Dantini has a gift for making magical story portraits using vintage papers, watercolor, inks and markers. In this class you will learn her process of  layering vintage paper to create a different type of an underpainting, one that will reveal its own message as you draw and paint — a delightful process filled with its own kind of surprise.

Now available as a self-study class.

 

TEACHER: Cori Dantini

Class Description

Mixed-Media Girls
with Cori Dantini

You cannot imagine how excited I am to be sharing my own little world of mixed media painting with all of you! By layering vintage paper, we will create a different type of an underpainting, one that will (typically) reveal its own message as you draw and paint. We’ll spend time looking for our own illustrative style of faces/people and will become familiar with using a pen nib and ink as our drawing implement.

We will create a series of mixed-media paintings and will talk mediums, color pushing, line, pattern making and — for our final hurrah — we will use white paint to hold everything together.

Oh! and I almost forgot…  we will discuss the magic of all the layers and how they push and pull each other forward and backward, not to mention all the tiny little written details floating around, which help to create a different kind of story.

It really is a delightful process filled with its own kind of magic. I hope you will join me!

OOx, Cori

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Class Itinerary

Lesson 1 – Finding your Face and Pen Nib Handling
We will start with a quick exercise on faces, with an eye towards finding “your” face style. Next we’ll work on a series of small ATC’s (artist trading cards), sketching and then inking the images in with the nib pen. We will then add a little bit of monochromatic watercolor to add interest.

Lesson 2 – Papering the Cradles
In Lesson 2 we will be adding the first layers of vintage paper to three wooden cradles using PVA glue, along with learning some trouble-shooting ideas for when the unexpected happens.

Lesson 3 – Drawing and Inking
Next we will be idea gathering and considering what will work well compositionally on the different sized cradles. Then, you will commit to your designs with pencil and ink on all three cradles.

Lesson 4 – The First Layer of Color
We bring in our first layers of color, using watercolor and Copic markers. We are thinking of ourselves as color “pushers” not painters.  In other words we are not after perfection here, we are after suggestion; this is how we keep things loose.

Lesson 5 – Detail Day
Think horizon lines, building your backgrounds, asking yourself fun questions like, Where does this person live?  What is happening right now?  This is your painting, your world.  You are making it… so if boats fly through the blue sky in your world, put them in the air! If trees are always pink in this world… by all means make them pink!

Lesson 6 – The White Hug
Finally, consider your composition and determine what you want to call attention to.  Find your secrets, decide what your main object is, and then carefully (or loosely)  surround it in white paint. Use your white gel pens to place a circle around a word or an object, add in white lines, dots or flowers to add interest.

Cori Dantini would love to dress like her paper ladies and explore the world in their skirts and buns and neat little boots, but she is far too practical for that. In fact, she spends much of her time in her studio, covered in a mosaic of ink stains and glue dabs, bits of wordy paper clinging to her slippers.

After earning a BFA in painting from Washington State University and spending a couple decades fiddling with brushes, oils, pencils, markers, and most recently, the mouse attached to her computer, she has discovered an organic process involving layers and language. Any meaning found in her work comes from this process. She never begins a project with a message in mind. Rather, the materials and her process are what do the talking. It is this mysterious, reciprocal quality of art that intrigues her and makes her think of her works as visual poems.

Cori has licensed her work for fabric, greeting cards and numerous other products. See more of her work at www.coridantini.com.

• Pencil (hb)
• eraser (soft)
• waterproof black ink, waterproof colored ink, pen holder
• spoon nib (Example: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176450568345/)
• no. 4 round paintbrush
• watercolor paints
• a sheet of hot press watercolor paper
• one of each, 4″x4″, 4″x6″, 6″x8 (3/4″-wide) wooden cradles
• PVA glue
• x-acto blade
• 3/4″ (inexpensive) flat brush
• wax paper
• a selection of vintage paper, plain and various kinds of patterned paper.  Think handwriting, lined papers, music, old journals or chapter titles from old books.  Look for interesting marks and words, lovely pattern, maps, lists, old dictionaries and books.  Just always keep in the back of your mind that we will be drawing and water coloring on top of them.

Here is a link to a Pinterest page that Cori put together to help clarify some of the supplies (though please remember that you are welcome to substitute supplies that you already have on hand)!

https://www.pinterest.com/cori_dantini/class-with-carla/

Nuts & Bolts

This class is now available as a self-study class! When you purchase this class, you will have instant access.

A private Facebook group is available for you to (optionally) share your artwork and enjoy and learn from the artwork of others. You may also email your teacher directly with questions or feedback.

You will have indefinite access to this class.

“You have helped me transform my mixed media style, thank you for sharing your process!!” — Kay M.
“I never thought I could draw faces, but Cori's freestyle method is giving me confidence” — Karla H.
“This class was my favorite of all time and I’ve taken dozens.” — Marian M.