Workshop and Lecture Series

College level demonstrations require more time in front of an audience-an average demo lasts 4-5 hours (with breaks) and utilizes the exact mediums used in creating the book’s illustrations-acrylic airbrush and colored pencil. Elementary school demos, on the contrary, are created with tempera paint.

Demos last one weekend and follow an exciting schedule of events:

• Friday night: Intro slide lecture showing my high school, college and professional illustrations-all leading to The Monster Engine slides. Slide show and Q&A period lasts about 2 hours. The reason I show high school and college images stems from one student’s comment on my slideshow. “I was intimidated by your work until I saw your high school and college work---it gave me hope to improve my stuff as well.”
  My goal is to motivate not intimidate.
• Saturday: Mixed media painting demo of a child’s drawing--lasts 4-5 hours.
• Saturday evening: Student portfolio reviews.
• Sunday: Digital painting demo. This is invaluable in competing in today’s illustration marketplace. The demo uses the exact same drawing done on Saturday, as it’s base. I scan that drawing and paint it in Photoshop for comparison of speed and medium differences. Demo lasts 4-5 hours.

This workshop includes:

• Slides showing high school, college and professional illustrations
• Slides showing Monster Engine book
• Slides showing my studio space (Slide show runs 1.5 hours)
• A question and answer period
• A four to five hour mixed media painting demo
• A four to five hour digital demo from the same sketch as the mixed media demo
• Samples of my original paintings to view
• All prep work
• One full weekend of the artist’s time

Price: $1,100.00 (This does not include supplies, lodging, meals and transportation if necessary)

Elementary & Middle School: Ages 4-12

The Monster Engine demonstrations and lectures are crowd pleasers at school assemblies of 400 or less. Five days before Mr. DeVries arrives at the school, the art teacher instructs the students to create their very own pencil drawing of a monster. The day before the assembly, Dave picks a drawing via a lottery and transfers it twice-first to a 30” x 40” white board and then to a 30” x 40” black matte board. Each transfer will sit on its own easel on the day of the assembly.

On the day of the assembly, Dave starts with a slide show of the project that lasts about 10 minutes. After they understand the book's main theme, the painting demonstration begins. As stated before, two easels are utilized--the black matte board will become the finished painted version while the white remains untouched for comparison. Since their attention span is limited at that age--especially the very young--the demo lasts only 30 minutes.

During the demo Dave talks to the audience involving them with information and jokes all designed to increase their understanding of the painting. Kids will sit on the floor and interact with Dave--- often taking brush in hand to paint a small area. After the demo, a question and answer period can last as long as the interest persists. Children under the age of five are usually too young for this.

This process can also be repeated one other time during the day. After the program, Monster Engine books are available for sale.

This workshop includes:

• Slides showing Monster Engine book
• Slides showing Monster Engine kid photos
• Slides show of Dave’s studio.(Slide show runs 10 minutes)
• A 30 minute large painting
• A question and answer period
• Samples of my original paintings to view
• All prep work
• One full day of the artist’s time

Price: $1,000.00 (This does not include supplies, lodging, meals and transportation if necessary)