Programming

The official opening salvo of IX 2024 – kick off the festivities in fine style with art, friends, and drinks!

“Color, Value, and Line” with Anthony Waichulis will explore 30 actionable tips designed to grow your visual arts freedom and potential. With a focus on color, value, and line, this presentation examines the disparities between some of the commonly held concepts around these foundational elements and the reality of their nature. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or an aspiring novice, this information can significantly impact your creative journey. With practical advice and insights, this presentation aims to inspire artists to push their boundaries and refine their techniques, empowering practitioners to bring their artistic visions to life more deliberately for greater impact.

Join GoggleWorks artist Adry Eberhard for a life drawing session.

Join artist Halloran Parry for a look at her own experiences navigating the first six months of a full-time art career. “I got laid off in May. Now it’s October and I’ve been a full time artist for six months. Let’s take an unvarnished look at how that went. You’ll hear actual numbers, actual triumphs, and actual horror stories from someone who takes her art and business very seriously, and herself not seriously at all.”

You may be concerned about how you can seek to establish a secure future for yourself while
succeeding as a working artist. With over 80 years of combined experience in the financial
services industry, writers and collectors Russell Handelman and Susan Shwartz can help you
learn about a field you may have avoided. We talk about the importance of assembling the
documents you need, how much risk you can tolerate, and setting and revising near- and
longer-term goals. We discuss how to assemble a team of financial professionals, including a
financial advisor, a lawyer, an agent, an insurance agent, and an accountant with whom you
feel comfortable in order to free you to concentrate on your art. We also emphasize the
importance of building a creative legacy.

Join a veritable who’s who of Magic: the Gathering artists for a massive artist proof sketching event! Watch them draw, ask them questions, and buy the proofs – a perfect trifecta!

Join Mark Zug and his band, The Weathercocks, for an evening of music and merriment as only IX can provide as a wide range of artists and attendees sit in with the band for jams galore!

Acrylics are a versatile, beautiful medium often passed over when experimenting artists run into preventable obstacles such as a fast dry time, unwanted texture, or difficulty blending.  In “Exploring the Potential of Acrylics,” Sarah Finnigan will demonstrate various tools and methods that can be employed to extend and manipulate working time, prevent color shift, and create luminosity normally associated with oil paintings. She will demo an unorthodox approach to medium which will imitate the digital use of new layers to isolate work that can later be ‘deleted’ or ‘merged & saved,’  and will go through various blending techniques that can be used to bring your creative vision to life. 

Artist Matt Stawicki has gone from traditional to digital and back to traditional work again over the course of long, successful career. Join him in the Boscov Theater for a look at the tips and techniques needed to make a successful transition from the screen to the canvas.

Plants are often an essential part of establishing the mood, setting, and character of an environment. In this workshop, we will explore a variety of aspects of plant life (parts, structure, speciation, reproduction, and defenses) to enrich your landscapes and give your imagination fuel.

After that we will try designing plants for different environments and environments for different plants. A green thumb is not required.

Join Dobe for a figure drawing workshop where we take a live model and explore different ways to manipulate what we observe into an imaginative figure, This workshop will cover how to use observational drawing and real-life objects to create fantasy characters and creatures.

Join Seth, IX’s resident attorney-at-large, for an in-depth look at contracts – how to review them, what to look for, and how not to end up with the short end of the stick.

This seminar will explore the current business, legal, and ethical state of the generative AI landscape. Attendees will have ample opportunity to ask questions and learn how to navigate this rapidly changing technology. Due to the controversial nature of this topic, attendees are reminded to be respectful of differing opinions among their peers.

Historically, art has used narrative to explore surrealism, fantasy, mythology, and more. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to animals or other non-human entities, has been a powerful tool in these narratives, serving as a symbolic and communicative device. This practice speaks to the subconscious, allowing the imagination to soar and messages to connect with universal audiences.

In this seminar, I will share insights from my own creative, problem solving journey, particularly relative to my recent project, “Moon-Bather’s Chapel.” This piece, along with its studies and maquettes, serves as a testament to the power of anthropomorphism in art. I will present a slideshow of the work in progress, accompanied by an array of maquettes, images, and resources, and a lecture on the methodological and strategic lessons learned along the way.

Artist Dalton Zheng will give a painting demo from a live figure model using traditional ink and brushes with Chinese painting techniques.  

GoggleWorks artist Adry Eberhard will direct a life drawing session, working with nude models.

IX is delighted to announce that we will be presenting an invite-only test screening of a film that we can’t tell you about on the interwebs . . . . with a live Q&A by the filmmakers, who also shall not be named. You’ll have to come to the show to find out what it’s all about – but trust us, you want to see it. And everyone who attends the show is invited!

Enjoy rendering in graphite but want to avoid spray fixatives? Love watercolors but wish you had more control? Water-soluble graphite lets you combine precise rendering with the permanence of ink washes. It also works well as a waterproof grisaille and safe alternative to toxic spray fixatives.

This workshop covers the basics of controlling values, sketching on the go, watercolor techniques, and as a foundation for more richly detailed science fiction and fantasy paintings in acrylics. Presentation will include a slide deck, lots of physical examples, a live demonstration and Q & A.

Join a veritable who’s who of Magic: the Gathering artists for a massive artist proof sketching event! Watch them draw, ask them questions, and buy the proofs – a perfect trifecta!

VCU instructor Anna Karakalou will direct a life drawing session, working with nude models.