Testimonials of January workshop 2012 in Las Vegas

Dear BeLoose members,

I just finished a 7 day graphic workshop at South Point Hotel in Las Vegas. Wow, such a remarkable group with so many great people with great attitude. Nearly everyone left the workshop with big improvement not only on their graphic skill, but also with their confidence level.

I hope everyone will continue to draw and improve graphic skill daily, and will share the learned knowledge with others so we all will enjoy our lives more comfortably as designers.

Thanks for your coming to this life changing experience, it is truly my honor and privilege to have you, especially to three teaching assistants Kristin, Tommy and Pancho who have helped this workshop immensely to make your expectation possible. Please keep in touch.

Mike Lin, ASLA, ASAI
BeLoose Graphic Workshop

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Permalink Reply by Didi McMullen on January 26, 2012 at 12:36pm

Hi Mike!

Thank you so much for the invaluable experience in Vegas. I am so excited by the prospect of continuing to learn from everything that I was exposed to during this workshop. I have regained a TON of self confidence in my drawing and design abilities. There is now a drafting table in the living room of my apartment (which I purchased off craigslist of course), and I will be putting it to great use. Your methods and mentality have helped my nerves when it comes to rendering as well as on my overall outlook on life. I was just asked to do a rendering for someone who is proposing a project in Newark, NJ. I may be emailing you with my work! I will be sure never to forget: the 3 amigos, can I join you?, and the rabbits having fun in the trees.

Best,

Didi McMullen

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Paiz on January 26, 2012 at 3:11pm

Thanks Mike for an excellent class! Your teaching style and sense of humor made it easy to learn and retain all that you taught us. Thanks for teaching us all of your tricks, and doing so in a manner such that I will never forget my 3 amigos and "how 'bout me!". Your class is worth every exhausting hour and every dollar spent. I have walked away with skills I can use for the rest of my life. Thanks again for an awesome time and thanks to the TA's who were extremely helpful and always willing to help.

Andrea Paiz

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Permalink Reply by Morley Bankston on January 26, 2012 at 4:27pm

Hello Mike,

I wanted to thank you for the time that you spent conducting the Vegas workshop. Your tips and tricks were truly phenomenal. I have found my services as a Web Developer & Designer in high demand since returning and I can see a huge difference in the quality of my work. Your philosophies on life and work have made the merging of Architect & Web Developer flawless mainly due to your "Just Do It" attitude. I work harder and smarter now.

It was the best decision to attend your workshop and I hope that others can truly appreciate the value of your knowledge.

All the best,

Morley Carlisle Bankston

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Permalink Reply by Ulysses Valiente on January 30, 2012 at 8:10pm

First off, I want to thank you for all that you have done for us in the Vegas workshop. After taking your 1-day workshop in AIAS FORUM in Minneapolis, it was my intention on taking the 7 day course whenever the opportunity arose and it came. I was wanting to increase my confidence and tighten up my drawing skills and my goals were achieved. If you haven't heard of my story from your TAs, I was an architecture student that fell behind 2 years and that was a crushing blow to my confidence level and self esteem and for that I would overwork and overstress (my marks were good, I just would stress myself in order to push myself, even if the stress was a stumbling block to thinking and designing). I loved the "Linisms" and the personal story you gave us about one of your TAs - that really resonated in me and it made me really consider how we have one life to live so enjoy it and make the most of it. It reminded me that not all of life revolves around career - there are also important things to value (friends and family, faith).

I hope that as I finish off my last semester, that I will do it by being loose, having fun, and work hard (but not at a degree of overkill). Meeting everyone from the course and getting and giving feedback and encouragement from eachother really shown that all of us the potential we have when we work towards something. For my AIAS chapter, I plan to hold a 1.5hr Seminar on Hand Drawing, which alot of First years in my school want since our new curriculum at my university has reduced the amount of time to hand drafting and sketching.

On my Career and Academic pursuits, I hope to find ways to mesh the analog and the digital in my design work like Diller Scofidio and Renfro or like what your son, Brian is talking about on the website - the hybrid drawing. Another important lesson I learned was to learn how to be confident in the design decisions I made and stay firm to it. I know I had a controversial perspective drawing piece in the workshop with my own style and was too monochromatic, and I know that it was something you did not like, however the process of learning how to be confident and sticking to what I commit is something that I wanted to take from this. I usually would find ways to please professors for grades and their approval, but in the end it always lead to disappointing results. It was finding ways of learning when or when to break the rules and to please yourself first actually lead to better results. Not everyone will like my work, but at least it sparked a discussion.

Taking the 7-Day workshop was one of the best decisions I made. It gave me the opportunity to take a step away from Toronto, Canada and enjoy travelling and my passion to draw and sketch.

All the best,

Ulysses Valiente

Toronto, Canada

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Permalink Reply by Tommy Thurston on February 1, 2012 at 9:52am

Mike,

Give yourself a pat on the back because you have done it again. I never cease to be amazed by what you can accomplish in such a short amount of time. You took yet another random group of uncertain designers and transformed them into confident little Mike Lin minions! Now they truly have the attitude and ability to go out and change the world—and I think that’s pretty cool.

As far as the students go…WOW, what an extraordinary group! I can't get over how impressive the final set of perspectives turned out. I took some before and after pictures of my favorite drawings and I show them around to all my friends, family and coworkers—I always get the same reaction: H%LY $H!T, 7 Days?! No Way! So be proud kids.

I am sooooooo glad that I decided to be a TA for this amazing group. You guys were awesome! I have really enjoyed reading the feedback from the workshop, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when someone mentions the three TA's. [Shout out to my homies Kristin and Pancho] I am especially proud of a few students who struggled immensely—but never gave up—and emerged with a noticeably new sense of self confidence. Thanks for everything Mike! And thanks to everybody in the workshop for making my trip a blast--you guys rock!

Don’t forget to piss Y’all,

Tommy T

PS: somebody had the idea to teach an advanced workshop, I think it’s genius. You should think about it Mike.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin Landfield on February 24, 2012 at 9:20pm

I was honored to be a teaching assistant for architect and hand-graphic guru Mike Lin in his January 2012 BeLoose Graphic workshop. It was a pleasure to be a part of Mike and Joann's unique operation. It’s not your normal workshop, and Mike Lin is not your normal instructor. Mike's time-tested tricks and system of instruction distinguish this workshop from other skill-development courses. Mike’s marathon days demonstrate not only his devotion to these specific techniques that he’s perfected over the last 37 years; they create a bit of a bootcamp feel that sends participants home with a transformative experience. His entire method hinges on a somewhat unorthodox style, peppering his curriculum with plenty of irreverence and endearing catch-phrases. He teaches a series of principles and short-cuts that make hand graphics accessible to almost anyone. In so doing, Mike teaches about the appropriate tools, materials, and technique with these tools to be successful at hand graphics.

I first came to the workshop with essentially no experience in the discipline, so it was gratifying to return as a teaching assistant and find that I had absorbed and retained much from my workshop experience (though I have so far to go!). Mike’s often acerbic feedback is tempered by his palpable desire to teach as much as possible in a relatively short period, in the simplest manner, for his student’s maximum success. This generosity of spirit appears in many forms, most explicitly by his tireless hours spent before the class performing demo and instruction. It’s well worth the expense and time if you’re at all interested in developing niche design skills; it’s also a great place to meet and be inspired by designers in overlapping disciplines.

This group of students was an amazing group of designers--full of good attitude, perseverence, humility, exuberance, and experience. I learned not only from Mike, but from the community created by the workshop. How fortunate I am to have been a part and to have teamed up with Tommy and Pancho in the process!

BeLoose Graphics makes this previous elusive ability accessible...I hope to return to further hone my skills and participate in this life-altering experience.

Thank you, Mike and Joann!

Kristin Landfield

http://landfieldgardendesign.blogspot.com

Atlanta, GA/San Francisco, CA