Get a lil treat! 🎁Sign up for a mystery box by TOMORROW!

What's going into those vials? What's going into the boxes? Will it be those test colors on the side, or something else??? Find out when you get this month's mystery box!!

New paint colors, new ink colors, new paper goods like notebooks, journals, cards, and more! What will it be? Subscriptions are available, but as always, you can just get a one-off box if you want! Sign up by the 15th for the current month's box! If you sign up after, you'll get the next month's!

Need whistles?

For a while, whistle kits were moving faster than we were getting resupplied, but we have a healthy surplus of them now. If you want whistles for your community group, friends, etc, feel free to take as many as you'd like!

Want us to bulk ship whistles somewhere? Let us know!

The news may have moved on to other horrors, but the kidnappings have continued in lower profile. Keep aware and prepared!

Call for Art: Cats of Ballard

Cats of Ballard is returning in June, this time as a group show!

Do you have art of cats in Ballard? Submit them by May 31st for consideration! 😺

Need some cats to draw or paint? We've compiled some photos of Ballard cat residents for you! (4/14: we just added a bunch more! look again and find even more inspiration!!)

TONIGHT, April 14, 5:00 PM: ONE SPOT LEFT for Acrylic Painting Cats! Paint your favourite feline, or perhaps you can paint a Cat of Ballard and then submit it to our show? 😽

Wednesday, April 15, 6:00 PM: This month's Drawing Techniques will cover drawing from imagination! Find inspiration in fun prompts as we work through stretching your creative muscles! 🐲

Thursday, April 16, 5:00 PM: Why ink with a dip pen when normal pens are right there? Explore different nibs, the strengths of each, and how nibs might benefit your drawing preferences at Inking with Dip Pens! ✒️

Friday, April 17, 5:30 PM: Make an Embroidery Book is one part fiber arts inspiration and "sketching" and one part secret book binding class! Make yourself a "sketchbook" to fill with stitch experimentation, thread and color tests, embroidery doodles and more! 🧵

Friday, April 17, 8:00 PM: Is it already time for our monthly Live Figure Drawing session? Bring your favourite drawing tools and settle in for poses long and short! The human body is a marvel; you can never know enough about how it moves or even how it holds still.

Saturday, April 18, 2:00 PM: What's up with watercolor's opaque cousin? How is it different anyway? Why is it such a weird word? Find out at All About Gouache! 🌲

Sunday, April 19, 11:00 AM: It's back!! Come Make Your Own Cursed "Lafufu" with Holly using thrifted toys, dolls, and more! Why buy into the latest hyped up manufactured good when you can get messy making something super weird with parts from previous hyped up (or not) manufactured goods?! 🦷

Sunday, April 19, 7:15 PM: News gets buried by other news. So much of it is impactful and horrible, it can be hard to focus on anything, but you can still do something. Take it one step at a time at Riff Raff League. We'll figure it out together. ✊ FREE MEETUP.

Come paint a Watercolor Landscape! January's session featured some snowy forests, but April will feature a seaside scene! 🌊

Monday, April 20, 11:00 AM: The trees are in bloom, but that's not all! Join us for Botanical Sketching at Ballard Locks as we capture spring into our sketchbooks, and learn about a variety of botanicals in the beautiful garden too! 🌼

Tuesday, April 21, 6:00 PM: It's time again for Ballard Sketch Team! Join us at Hattie's Hat for our twice-monthly casual artist meetup! Bring a sketchbook or something to work on, then kick back and enjoy a meal and a bev while catching up with other artists! FREE MEETUP. 🍔

Wednesday, April 22, 6:00 PM: This month's Watercolor Landscapes will feature a seaside scene... get in the mood for summer and those glorious sunny days by the water while honing your watercolor skills at this beginner-friendly class! 🌊

Friday, April 24, 6:00 PM: Dang, is it the last Friday already??? QU-ART is our twice-monthly queer artists meetup! Come hang out, work on something, and enjoy creative time in the company of fellow queers! 🏳️‍🌈

Saturday, April 25, 10:00 PM: TWO SPOTS LEFT for DIY Screen Printing! Learn the weird process of screen printing on a handmade mini-screen! It's a great way to figure out how it all works before committing to the materials and space for larger projects! 🖼️

Saturday, April 25, 3:00 PM: Get more familiar with watercolor and paint your favourite (we won't tell the others) friend at Watercolor Pet Portraits! Painting a familiar face is a great way to motivate yourself to try something new! 🐕

Saturday, April 25, 6:00 PM: Our bi-weekly Riff Raff League is hosting a zine release celebration for A Better World, which includes written and illustration stories to inspire pursuit of a better world... this Risograph-printed zine is FREE, so come pick up a copy! 🌎

Sunday, April 26, 11:00 AM: Were you taught that poetry has to have a rhyme scheme? Follow a rigid structure? Have this or that requirement? Test out more playful forms of poetry at Visual Poetry! Combining mixed media and collage practices, we'll bypass the blank page and play with words and images to create totally unique expressions of your (yes, really) poetic soul. 💖

Sunday, April 26, 2:00 PM: April's Gouache Critters will feature beetles! From lady bugs to stag beetles and beautiful, iridescent rarities you've never heard of, there's a lot to admire and inspire in this category of critter! There are TONS of beetles -- more than 10x the number of species than birds!! Wow!! ...also learn about gouache, how to use it, and spend some time practicing! 🐞

Beetles are very cool and so is gouache! Come celebrate and learn about both at this month's Gouache Critters!! 🐞