Playing With Poscas

 I recently took a workshop with Shawne Cooper called "Playing With Poscas." For those of you who are not familiar with Posca markers they are acrylic markers, fast drying, and come in an assortment of colors and nibs from very thin to outrageously wide. Luckily Shawne had a great assistant in Mel Barranco, who helped her carry around the materials and sketches she brought along to share with us.

We joined Shawne outside the entrance to Little Island, one of the newer NYC parks perched along the river. After Shawne showed us a few samples of her Posca works, we were told to work on our own sketch using BIG shapes first and to only use two colors. A white or black thin liner could also be used for additional details. Shawne discussed some of the benefits of working with the markers and the #1 benefit in my mind is that the Posca markers can be used over another color and will cover completely...even over a very dark color!

We moved into Pier 57 where we worked at large tables for a while. Shawne made her supply of Poscas (and it was quite a supply, let me tell you) available to us to try. She had some great really wide tipped markers that covered a page easily. We tried blending colors, using a waterbrush, and adding watercolors and other materials like colored pencils and Neocolors. Since it was getting close to the time the food stalls were opening, we left the tables to the public and headed upstairs to work outside.

The second floor provided an area where you could stand and have a ledge to work on too. Of course there was a great view of Little Island and the skyline too.

Since I'm height challenged I decided to sit and work, and I had a view of Laura in front of me. The suggestion from Shawne was to work in not more than 3 colors, but I broke out and used a few more. For those who know me, using such bright colors that aren't the normal colors I was seeing is a big challenge for me.

I did a second sketch of Little Island using some of Shawne's suggestions...big shapes first, 

then the details. Using unusual colors for parts of the sketch was fun!

Later we gathered up on the third floor to do a "show and tell." Each person told a bit about what they did in their piece/pieces and told about any materials other than the Posca markers that they used. It was interesting to see what people had sketched and what materials they had used. 

We learned from each other too.

Look at the wonderful work that we were able to create in this workshop! Many thanks to Shawne for a wonderful time and another different way to be creative!