This past week my studio was full of surfer dudes and dudettes as waves of creativity and paint rolled through our class. Surf, sand and sea were the inspiration for each surfers beach inspired art. I invite you to grab a towel and a cold drink then sit back and relax as you review these awesome works of art.
SURFER SELF PORTRAITS
The background scene for the surfers self portrait was created by dividing the canvas into 3 sections: sand, surf, and sky which the artists then painted with golden yellow, laguna green, and turquoise.
Example of a figure drawing broken down into basic shapes. Circles for head, joints, fingers and toes; squares and rectangles for neck, arms and legs.
The artists drew their portraits using the shape example as a guide. They then added facial features, hair, bathing suits, a surfboard and beach scenery to their portraits and the background.
The finished portraits, hand painted with acrylic paints and outlined with a black sharpie, are a showcase for the individual creativity expressed by each artist.
POTTERY SURFING SIGN
Our next project involved drawing on and painting bisque tile and surfboard pieces with pottery glazes.
The artists drew a background beach scene onto their rectangular tile, painted the drawing with pottery glazes, then attached their surfboards.
The tiles were coated with an over-glaze and fired in my kiln. As shown above, the radical looking tiles include a ribbon for hanging.
PAINTED SURFBOARD
Mini blanks, hand cut from foam core board, are a killer starting point for designing surfboards.
The designs, once drawn and outlined, are given color with acrylic paint. A top coating of Mod Podge seals and protects the work, and a small piece of ribbon, hot glued onto the back, allows the boards to be hung when not in "use".
SURFING ON INTO THE KITCHEN
For snack we headed into the kitchen to create everyone's favorite dessert - cupcakes. Each artist took part in pouring, cracking, and mixing the cake batter, eggs, sour cream and water. The finished cupcakes were cooked then devoured by a very hungry group of surfers.
COLORING BOOK SURFING PORTRAIT
For the last project, I took a picture of the surfing artists posed on a surfboard. The photographed portraits were made into a coloring book image and printed onto a plain sheet of paper. The artists used colored pencils to color themselves and the surfboard, cut out their portraits and attached them to a piece of white cardstock.
The artists created a wave and ocean background around their portrait to make it look like they were surfing. The drawings were painted with acrylic paint and laminated once dry.
KAWABUNGA...
And we leave you with a surfers artistic interpretation of "Off the lip". Totally gnarly dude! 
