THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Carla Sonheim:
I came back to art with this very strong kid influence and I didn’t have the baggage of art school to make me feel embarrassed about that, so I was able to, really, at 29, 30 years old, just go with where my interests were. I feel very fortunate.
Speaker 2:
It’s The Inspiration Place podcast, with artist, Miriam Schulman. Welcome to The Inspiration Place podcast, an art world insider podcast, for artists, by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman:
Well hello there, passion maker. This is Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration. You’re listening to episode number 189 of The Inspiration Place podcast. I am so grateful that you’re here.
Today, we’re talking to an artist who hasn’t always been an artist, and her mother didn’t encourage her to be an artist, as might be the story for many of you listening. I know for myself, my own mother didn’t believe I could make a living as an artist and definitely discouraged me. For today’s guest, her mother was an artist and probably struggled with her mental health, so part of her own journey has been healing that and learning to trust her inner voice and not the imaginary voice of her mother who didn’t encourage her.
But before we get into today’s interview, I wanted to make sure you knew that I have a free masterclass that will help you get started painting portraits in watercolor. When I first started trying portraits, I used to struggle to get a likeness using academic methods until I learned what now I call a taboo technique that easily captures people’s likenesses. I discovered it’s actually the dirty secret behind many professional portrait artists. They use this forbidden technique, but they don’t want you to know what it is because they’re worried that you’re going to think they’re cheating.
After completing dozens of commissioned portraits that make my clients ooh and ah, I folded this technique and other shortcuts into my 5 P Portrait Painting Process. I taught this process to hundreds of my students so that they too could create portraits of their children and their grandchildren and their loved ones that they could be proud of. In this free masterclass, you’ll discover the five PS of this painting process, and believe me, the third P is a total game changer. You’ll also learn the watercolor advantage, this allows you to use the special shortcut that I teach that makes the whole process that much easier, as well as uncover that taboo technique I mentioned, that those portrait artists don’t want you to know. This one technique will definitely help you get past your doubt that you can do it. Plus, the best part is you’ll get to watch me demonstrate live, to see these principles in action. To sign up for this free masterclass, which by the way, it’s less than an hour and you can choose between a bunch of different times and days, go to schulmanart.com/demo, as in D-E-M-O. Now, on with the Show.
Today’s guest is a painter, illustrator, and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students rediscover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. She’s the author of three instructional art books, including Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop, and The Art Of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone. Together with her husband, Steve, they produce online art classes in drawing, painting, and mixed media through carlasonheim.com. Please welcome to The Inspiration Place, Carla Sonheim.
Well, hey there, Carla. Welcome to the show.
Carla Sonheim:
Thank you so much for having me.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, I’m so excited to talk to you. First of all, where in the world are you?
Carla Sonheim:
I live, right now, near Seattle, Washington, in the town right south of Seattle. We’ve been here 12 years, but I’ve spent my adult life moving from different states every 10 years or so. I’ve landed in the Seattle area, our grandkids are here. We love it, so we’re here. We figure our next adventure, when we hit 10 years, was to stay where we are.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s so interesting.
Carla Sonheim:
We’re going to stay in Seattle for at least another few years.
Miriam Schulman:
My childhood was all about moving around, like every two years. When my husband and I got married, I said, “We’re staying in this house forever.” Actually, forever just ended. We are selling our home of 25 years.
Carla Sonheim:
Wow.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, and now we’re moving to New York City. It almost feels like preparing for the afterlife, since I had always thought we’d live here forever.
Carla Sonheim:
Right.
Miriam Schulman:
It’s like, “No, there’s a whole nother life after this one.”
Carla Sonheim:
Oh, that’s exciting. New York City is wonderful.
Miriam Schulman:
It’s kind of cool getting older. When we were young, we always thought … I don’t know, maybe you didn’t have this feeling, but to me, it’s like I always feel every decade, like, “Wow, I’m just getting started. Wow, this is so exciting.” Do you feel that way too?
Carla Sonheim:
Totally. I felt like my twenties and even my thirties were the most pressure I put on myself for not getting enough done, like not being further ahead. It’s sort of like I just kept living and working. I’m 58 and when I see myself now, I’m like, “Oh, I’ve done some things,” but it never felt like I was doing enough. Now, in my fifties, I’m feeling like it’s good. Enough years have gone by, enough drawings have been made, I have something.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s cool. I’ve been aware of your art for a long time, I’ve always admired your whimsical cats.
Carla Sonheim:
Oh, thank you.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, I bet that’s a popular class too.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah, yeah. I’m really lucky because, I think, even though at the time I didn’t think I was lucky, I wasn’t encouraged to follow art when I was young, going to college.
Miriam Schulman:
Join the club.
Carla Sonheim:
I took sort of a wrong turned into law office stuff. Anyway, I didn’t come back to art until I was 30-ish and had a five-year-old. By that time, I was very, very inspired and in love with his style of art. There was something so raw and beautiful about his little animals or cars or airplanes that he would draw. His name is Christer. I came back to art with this very strong kid influence, and I didn’t have the baggage of art school to make me feel embarrassed about that. I was able to, really, at 29, 30 years old, just go with where my interests were.
I feel very fortunate, because I think I’m the kind of person that it might have taken a lot to overcome the rules that I met in art school that I learned. It’s been a better journey for me to try to just really go where my interests are and of course learn things and get better and take life drawing and do things along the way, but central, I think, has always been do I like what I’m making?
Miriam Schulman:
Carla, you started immersing yourself when you were 29 or 30. Had you taken art classes in college or high school, or it was more like you stumbled upon art when you were that age, when you were in your late twenties?
Carla Sonheim:
I was very artistic as a child like a young child. I was kind of known for it, like I was the artist of the family kind of thing. Then my mom happened to be a middle school art teacher. She never considered herself an artist, but I think that held a lot of weight for me. When I was 16, she made a very unfortunate and life-changing comment to me about something that I was working on, in anger, and so I quit art at 16. I had taken a few art classes in high school, but in my sophomore year I decided I was just too busy for art. I mean, I didn’t really link it to my mom’s comment until much later, but I think-
Miriam Schulman:
Until therapy?
Carla Sonheim:
But looking back, it was a little bit too coincidental that … What happened is she said something like, “Oh, you think this is so good?” I had thought it was so good, I really did think it was so good. I was making something for a contest and I thought I was going to win. All of a sudden the curtains were opened and I’m like, “It isn’t that good. I’m not that good.” It was almost a reality check that maybe I could have gotten a little more gently, like by not winning the contest.
Miriam Schulman:
Right. I shudder to think about what comments my kids are going to unearth in their therapy 20 years from now. It’s like, “Oh mom, remember that time you said this?” I’m like, “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Are you sure that was me?”
Carla Sonheim:
Right. My mom is gone now, which has allowed me to be able to talk about it a little more openly, but I think she would be very upset that she said that and sorry and everything. I just didn’t have the skills at the time to kind of … I didn’t have the confidence. Anyway, I put art aside for basically 15, well, 14 years, but I always dabbled in my twenties, making little zine books and little drawings, but it was always a source of a secret passion that I never really developed. But at 29, I-
Miriam Schulman:
You’re 29, you have a five-year-old and you’re starting to do art. Were you working outside of the home as well at this time?
Carla Sonheim:
Yes, by that time I was working as a graphic designer at a book publishing company. I had just gotten married and my husband, Steve, who I’m still married to, encouraged me to take art classes, and also my boss at the time, my boss at this book publishing company, both my husband and her said, “Go do it now. Go take a class now.” I took some classes at the city college.
Miriam Schulman:
So you were in New York.
Carla Sonheim:
Huh?
Miriam Schulman:
You were in New York, City College in Queens?
Carla Sonheim:
No, no, no.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Carla Sonheim:
A city college, so a junior college-
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. See, I’m from New York, so whenever you say city, there’s only one city.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Carla Sonheim:
No, we were in Chicago suburbs, in Wheaton at the time. I think it was called the DuPage College of Art. It was just a two-year college.
Miriam Schulman:
Great.
Carla Sonheim:
Actually, some great teachers there, but I really learned a lot about everything.
Miriam Schulman:
You were working in a creative field, you did get a graphic design degree and you were … No.
Carla Sonheim:
Sorry.
Miriam Schulman:
What were you doing for the book publisher? I’m confused.
Carla Sonheim:
Oh no. I majored in history, I thought I was going to go to law school. I ended up getting pregnant when I was 24, and at that moment I decided, if I’m going to be a single mom, which I was at the time, I need to enjoy what I’m doing, so I switched from law office work to publishing. For a long time, I worked as an editor/writer in publishing. Then when I got married, I decided to switch careers again and start with graphic design. I’m self-taught in just every aspect of everything.
Believe me, by the time I got into my forties, I’m like, “What have I done with my life?” I’ve been a beginner and a beginner and a beginner and a beginner, but looking back, it all was training ground to what I’m doing now.
Miriam Schulman:
When did you make the leap from, “I’m painting for myself,” or, “I’m creating for myself,” to, “I’m going to monetize this,” either selling your art, selling your designs or teaching. I’m not quite sure in your journey what you started doing first, you can tell me that as well.
Carla Sonheim:
Yes. Well, by this time I was working at a magazine as an art director and I had a very, very busy schedule. I was pretty unhappy in the job because office politics are very hard for me. I’m really an honest person and whenever there’s a little dishonest stuff going on, it hurts my heart. I was pretty unhappy and so we decided that my husband would support us for a while with his photography work. It was during that time I was more free to both do my own art and also volunteer at my son’s elementary school classrooms. I was a parent going in and teaching kids art projects. The teacher found out I was creative and so I started doing that.
For the next few years, I basically was just trying to make it as an artist, I was trying to get into little galleries. Then we moved to Colorado, a small town that was an artist town, and I really tried to make it as an artist. I had my fingers in all kinds of pots, but I was really passionate about the teaching. I loved to teach, I loved to teach the kids, and then I started getting asked to teach adults. When I was meeting these adults, they loved to collage and paint, but they were afraid to draw, and so I started teaching the adults in the same way that I taught the kids, and that is real drawing assignments, but in a fun way.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s what you still do now, right?
Carla Sonheim:
That’s what I still do.
Miriam Schulman:
You have a very accessible, whimsical style that I know the students love.
Carla Sonheim:
Thank you. Thank you.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, so when did you start teaching online then?
Carla Sonheim:
One of my sons was in high school and my husband was traveling a lot for his work, and then I was traveling a lot, teaching live. I missed a very key concert, where he was the solo trumpet player and I missed it, I just missed it. I thought, “I can’t miss the rest of his high school concerts.” Right at that time, online teaching started to happen. Also, my book came Out, Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists. In order to publicize the books, this was 2010, I decided to have this quick online class to get excitement up for the book and all my-
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, wait, I’ve got to interrupt you. You got the book deal before the online class, is that right?
Carla Sonheim:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
How did you get the book deal? How did-
Carla Sonheim:
Because I was teaching at these mixed media events, maybe five or six-
Miriam Schulman:
Like the Create Art … I forget the names of them, those really big ones that they had in-
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah. Well, at the time it was Art Fest and Art and Soul and Art Unraveled.
Miriam Schulman:
Right, yeah.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, got it.
Carla Sonheim:
Mary Ann Hall, who was the editor of Quarry Books at the time, she would go to these events and try to meet potential authors. I met her once and we hit it off. Actually, my first proposal to her, to do a drawing book, they didn’t want it because they said they don’t do drawing books, they’re a mixed-media, collage, painting kind of thing. But I showed them what I meant, that it wasn’t a traditional drawing book, that it was incorporating your own hand into your mixed-media work. Then I got that book contract and it did really well, which is why I do what I do now, because that book is sort of been the-
Miriam Schulman:
Still a platform for you.
Carla Sonheim:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes.
Carla Sonheim:
It’s been the seed.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s excellent.
Carla Sonheim:
Anyway, to market the book, I did an online class that was no video, just PDF-based. Then about a year or two later, I asked my photographer husband, who knows a little bit about video, “Can you just set me up with my iPhone so I can do a video?” He said, “No, I can’t,” and I’m like, “What?”
Miriam Schulman:
We need a camera, we need a video camera, right?
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah. He’s like, “We’re going to do it right if we’re going to do it.” I remember being so frustrated, like, “Why does he have to make everything so hard?” But anyway, of course-
Miriam Schulman:
But in some ways it makes it easier. Just so you and also the listeners know, I started my first online video class also around 2012, 2013. What I did was I got this high school student, I said, “Show me what video camera to get, show me what video editing software to use.” I still use it, and I still make the argument that it makes things easier to do it that way. Do you feel that way now, or have you switched to the iPhone for doing things?
Carla Sonheim:
Oh, no. It’s certainly easier for me because I agree-
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, no, which? Oh, no, yes, you still use the video camera, or oh, no, now you do the iPhone?
Carla Sonheim:
We still use the video cameras.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah, okay. Right.
Carla Sonheim:
Steve is a photographer through and through. He has the three cameras set up.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh wow.
Carla Sonheim:
He’s the production guy. Somewhere around maybe ’15, ’16, he came over full time to do the online classes with me.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, great.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah. At first, it was just me teaching online classes, and then about the time he came over, that’s when we started adding other teachers.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Carla Sonheim:
We’re kind of a production. I mean, we’re not producing all the time, but we do do about seven or eight new classes a year with guest teachers.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s awesome. From what I understand then is they come to you and you actually film and produce the class. It’s not like this-
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s awesome. Okay.
Carla Sonheim:
Yes. My husband, again, being so such a stickler for quality, we did try it once or twice to have an artist send a video that they had taken, but he couldn’t get his head around having such a difference in sound quality or lighting or whatever. He really loves the consistency and everything. We do it, we do it.
Miriam Schulman:
I agree with that actually.
Carla Sonheim:
That’s why we can only do seven or eight classes a year.
Miriam Schulman:
Wow, that’s fantastic. All right, so that leads me now to another question. You got your start doing these in-person events. I know in 2020, these have all sadly been shut down. In fact, somebody though messaged me today and said, “Do you know of any in-person things starting up again?” Are you still involved in those communities? Do you teach in person? Do you know that these things are happening again yet?
Carla Sonheim:
I believe the Art and Soul events are happening again. I don’t teach in those events anymore really because the online class. I can only do one thing well at one time, and online classes is a focus right now. Although, before the pandemic, I did always make a point of trying to teach one workshop a year and take one workshop a year so that I can remember what it’s like to be a student and I can remember what it’s like to be in a real-time classroom so that when I’m doing on video I’m remembering those questions or the problems that people are having.
Miriam Schulman:
I couldn’t agree with you more. That was something that when I was building my online classes, that I kept working as an in-person teacher. It definitely wasn’t for the money.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
It was a community thing, but it really helped my teaching, because then when I was teaching, I could anticipate what it was people would be struggling with, where if you’re only teaching online, you can’t do that. In fact, when artists come to me and they want to build an online class, I tell them, “Teach something in person first. Make sure you know what it is that people want to learn, want to do and what they’re going to struggle with.”
Carla Sonheim:
Exactly, yes. My live teaching in these past five years or so has been through some Art Escapes, which is a smaller … She does some classes in Washington State here, but I taught in Mexico. It’s a week-long trip that we take and we eat really well and we make art for a week. Until the pandemic, that was my teaching outlet every year.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s where you teach, not where you tape.
Carla Sonheim:
That’s right, that’s right.
Miriam Schulman:
The eating really well got my attention, by the way.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
It was like, “Oh, eating really well and art, that’s great.”
Carla Sonheim:
I know. Kathie Vezzani, she’s the organizer, or she’s the owner, and she used to work doing events for chefs. She knows all the great places to eat. Yeah, it’s kind of like it’s this double, art and good food.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay.
Carla Sonheim:
Very fun.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s really fun. Okay, how do you get inspired?
Carla Sonheim:
Well, I would say that if I’m in a good place mentally, which is not always the case, because I do have clinical depression and even though it’s managed so well now after so many years, I’m on the right medication, I have good support around me, everything’s fine, but there’s some days, chink, it goes down.
Miriam Schulman:
[inaudible] blues.
Carla Sonheim:
On those days I’m not inspired by anything, but most of the time I’m doing pretty well. I would say that I … Whew.
Miriam Schulman:
The last few years has been really hard for a lot of us artists, sources of our inspiration were dried up, now it’s only just beginning again. If travel was something that … I’m going to talk about me personally. For me, personally, I’m having lunch with friends, going into New York City, traveling, all those things were suddenly taken away. I know for me, personally, that took a huge toll on my inspiration and creativity. When you continue to be teaching, as I was and I assume you were as well during the same time, then you’re constantly helping other people get inspired and your own creative well starts to run really dry. I just want to acknowledge that challenge.
Carla Sonheim:
Yes, it did. Of course, when the pandemic, we all were so surprised in March of 2020 and we didn’t know what was going to happen. Suddenly we had to cancel all the teachers that were coming to film and I basically spent the next two years having to step up my teaching more than I had been to-
Miriam Schulman:
Right, so you were forced to output without getting as much input, right?
Carla Sonheim:
Right. It really did take its toll. Then also, in March ’21, my mother died.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, I’m so sorry.
Carla Sonheim:
Thank you. That put me into a bit of a tailspin, creatively, for the next six or eight months or so. Steve and I decided this year that I would pull back on teaching just a tiny bit. Usually I would teach my yearlong class and then also I would teach one or two other classes. We’ve dropped those extra classes and I’m only doing maybe half of the yearlong, my portion is about half because we have guest artists that are doing the other half. I’ve really been able to basically take a half sabbatical and I’m starting to really feel … I mean, it’s really important to take care of yourself and rest. It’s scary, because it’s like not as many people are going to sign up maybe for the class because it doesn’t seem as much. That happened, there was a dip in numbers, but it’s so worth it when now I feel like I have some space to innovate again.
As far as things that inspire me, I’m very inspired by other artist’s work. I love the Paul Klee and Picasso and that era. I love outsider art, which is a rugged folk art. I love children’s art, I love contemporary illustration. Artists really inspire me, other art. I also love faces and animals, and I also do some flowers too, but the flowers seem to be almost figurative in some ways, they seem alive to me. I’m definitely not interested in realism, what I’m more interested in is the emotions. Usually, the animals have a perplexed look on their face or a grouchy look on their face. The humans, I’m trying to sort of capture the moment when they’re not smiling for the camera, for example, but are just alone with their thoughts. Definitely, I mean, I’ve had lots of looking at my internal self and I do feel like my art is more about the emotions that these characters are having than anything else.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, Carla, I’m going to ask you a tough question. It’s okay if you have trouble answering. How did your mother inspire your creativity when you were growing up? Now, I know she had that made that tough comment to you, and so she clearly had a big influence on you and the way that you think and feel. When you were a child child, before that, how did she encourage creativity in you, or did she?
Carla Sonheim:
I think she was very proud of my artistic output. I don’t have really great memories of my childhood, but I do think she was very proud, almost to the point of being braggy about it, which would make me embarrassed. I do remember an incident, she was both really encouraging and also, unbeknownst to her, very non-encouraging, un-encouraging. I remember an incident when I was about maybe eight. She was divorced and had a boyfriend named Jake. I had spent a lot of time drawing a picture of them dancing at a party. I was so proud of this picture. I mean, he was in his suit and she was in her pretty dress and everything. I remember being in the car and handing her the drawing, she was in the passenger seat, and she burst out laughing. It was not the response I was hoping for, as a very sensitive little girl. It turns out that I had forgotten to put shoes on Jake. He was in his suit, he was all dressed up in his suit with bare feet. To her, that was hysterical, but not in a way that included me in-
Miriam Schulman:
The joke.
Carla Sonheim:
I wish I was the kind of little girl that would’ve just laughed with her and seen it as something good, but I didn’t. I saw it as a criticism, or whatever. My mom was really unfiltered and especially if her emotions were involved or whatever. I have to say that probably, just historically knowing who my mother was and everything, the messages I got were mixed. When she was happy and in a good mood, my art was wonderful, but if for some reason she felt threatened or she was trying to show off in front of somebody or something, then she would do things that were hard for a kid like me. I definitely feel that by the time that 16-year-old event happened, I must have been primed to quit. You know what I mean? It didn’t happen in a vacuum, just that one incident, I think that-
Miriam Schulman:
No, and I can understand that if you had a difficult relationship with a mother who was an artist and you wanted to distance yourself from that and you wanted to separate from your mother and was having trouble separating, because it sounded like there might have been a little co-dependency there, maybe.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
I’m not a psychologist.
Carla Sonheim:
No, there was.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay, well, just the one you’re describing, that would be natural for you to reject the part of you that was most like your mom.
Carla Sonheim:
Yeah, yeah. Right, and she was a teacher and I didn’t think I wanted to be a teacher.
Miriam Schulman:
Now you’re an art teacher.
Carla Sonheim:
I didn’t go to school to be a teacher, but it came through anyway. I have to say that I do remember calling my husband when I was teaching at one of these events. I’d had a really good class with eight people. Some people had come in and they didn’t draw at all and other people had drawn for years but they had lost their joy of drawing, and they all left so happy and I was so happy. I called my husband and I’m like, “This is my mission. This is just what I need to be doing.” It still feels funny that it would be important to help people get over the fear of drawing, but I feel like it’s been a gift for me as well.
Miriam Schulman:
Carla, this is airing, I think, in the middle of April. Why don’t you tell our listeners, if they want to take a class with you, I know your website is carlasonheim.com, do you have classes available all the time or do they start during certain times of the year?
Carla Sonheim:
Both. We’re kind of like a book publisher, maybe. We have this back list of classes that people can take at any time and get immediate access to all the lessons. That’s about 90%, well, more, about 90% of our catalog, or more even, are the self-study classes that people can just purchase. But we also do it like we try to mimic a live workshop when the class first is released. It would be as if you’re watching a television show and there’s a new episode every Tuesday, we have that happen. Most of our classes go over a two-week period, the classes are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. The lesson two video isn’t released until its day, so that forces people not to binge watch the whole class. It tries to replicate a little bit more what we would do in a live workshop.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m having people in a live workshop do things, I don’t necessarily tell them the whole story. We’re doing this section and then later this section will build on that section, but sometimes it’s nice to not know where you’re headed. It’s better to just do and trust and not try to plan it too much.
Miriam Schulman:
What I’ve found with my students is that if I give them all eight weeks of material on day one, they shut down, it’s too overwhelming. They’re more likely to complete the course when we drip it out the way you’re describing, because then they’re looking forward and anticipating each class, because something that can be done at any time is done at no time.
Carla Sonheim:
Right, right. That’s how we do our new classes. In April, we will be having a class by Laurie Rosenwald, who’s an illustrator and artist that I’ve admired for years. We share a similar mission in making a lot of work, of all that work there’s going to be these little gems. She works very quickly, so it’s exciting. We also have a class coming up with Henrick Drescher, who’s another illustrator that I have loved since the ’90s, when I used to work for the magazines. I’m feeling really excited now that I’m starting to work with these people that I’ve admired for so many years.
But we have classes in drawing, painting collage, mixed media, and then a few classes in off-topic things, we call them off topic but they’re not really, because creativity is everything and it all helps. All the classes are the same in the sense, but different. We have classes in weaving and book binding and in caustic painting, and I can’t remember, but-
Miriam Schulman:
All right, well, there’ll be a lot to explore when they go to your website. Carla, thank you so much for joining me here today and sharing so authentically and vulnerably. I really appreciate it.
Don’t forget, if you liked this episode, you’ll have to check out my free masterclass. If you want to learn how to create realistic portraits in watercolor that capture likeness, it’s not as hard as you think. Go to schulmanart.com/demo to learn how to get started. It’s totally free and there’s a lot of times to choose from. Again, that’s schulmanart.com/demo.
Do you have any last words for our listeners before we call this podcast complete?
Carla Sonheim:
I would say that every drawing, no matter whether you are beginning or experienced, has magic to it. In some ways, the more accomplished you get you might even lose some of the magic, so really if you’re new to drawing, really embrace that freedom that you have right now because it’s all beautiful. Also, go to your interests. If you don’t want to draw people, don’t draw people, or don’t draw people until one day you think, “Okay, I want to draw people because I’m ready to try.” But I really would say trust yourself, go with what you like and you will eventually be ready to do what you need.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for being with us today, we really appreciate it.
Carla Sonheim:
Thank you.
Miriam Schulman:
All righty, my friend, thanks so much for being with me here today. I’ll see you at the same time, same place next week. Stay inspired.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart, and of course, on schulmanart.com.
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