The following are “sketches”, captured in words, of some happenings during recent virtual studio sessions, which we began offering for artists in response to COVID-19. (Find out more about Make Studio’s response to the coronavirus here.)

Wednesday, May 20

Everyone on the call had EGGS for breakfast! 

While we drew our self-portraits together, the question arose:

“What about evil twins?” 

We (especially, Louis) listed famous evil twins in media: 

• Power Puff Girls // Rowdy Ruff Boys  
• Darkwing Duck // Negaduck 
• Sonic // Scourge 
• Shaggy // The Mirror Monster 
• ..and Margie Smeller // Her Evil Twin = a bunny 

Many of us added our evil twins into our self-portraits, to which Gary replied: 

“Diabolical!” 

[Afterwards, it was just discover that it’s Gemini season !!] 

Discussing our fellow studio ECF Art Center’s upcoming muppet event (find out more here to join in!) inspired many muppet drawings today. 

We discussed, “How do artists shape messages through their artwork?” 

• Emailing pictures of art 

• Using characters and color to show emotion

• Using figurines

• Telling about what they are drawing 

• Using visual jokes 

• Drawing facial expressions that show emotions 

• Sharing positive messages with direct speech bubbles that talk to the viewer 

Friday, May 22

We discussed, “What makes you feel relaxed?” 

• Watching tv shows 

• Reading books on Alexa 

• Rain (so long as you’re not in it) 

• Tension Tamer tea 

• Dark chocolate after dinner 

• PJs at midday 

• Going on a run or doing yoga – zone out, zen out 

• Exercising two times a day 

Erika shared words of wisdom on evil twins:

“Confront it, face it, become a stronger person. Don’t reject your shadow.” 

 Wednesday, May 27

We practiced documentation using ECF’s tutorial, which helped us choose a good light source and avoid shadows, and everyone took photos of their work. Here’s Margie’s test shot:

Margie: “I’m a flower girl. I like flowers.” Her favorites? “Roses.”What color? “Red.”

Louis was moved to pose the intriguing question:

“What’s a self-destruct?” 

He came up with a list of examples throughout the call: Sonic, Bugs Bunny and Marvin Martian, Jackie Chan, Power Rangers, and James Bond. Louis and Iragi both made some drawings on the subject. 

Iragi wrote Rosie later, to fill her on other thoughts on the subject:

“I know Self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred & mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people… And Everybody knows that in the Superheroes films & TV Programs that everything was about to blow in minutes & seconds left & the people are running for their lives and most of all, Every villian was always vaporized & Every Hero will always endure. That’s all I can tell you.” 

We closed by discussing, “What are your current creative projects?” 

• Gary: Clip art, printing, tracing, editing, and making them into a coloring-page format to color on Microsoft Paint. 
• Margie: Drawing flowers with gel pens. Coloring in my coloring book and sketchbook. Using stickers. 
• Iragi: Masterpieces of faces. 
• Louis: Using Microsoft Paint to “make everything I want.”