* Bobby J edited this under protest
Journeys
See what the creative process actually looks like.
Most art courses show you how to make a painting.
Journeys is different.
For more than three weeks, I turned the camera on in my studio and simply worked.
No predetermined projects. No perfect outcomes. Just the real process—old drawings, rejected paintings, scraps, familiar subjects, new ideas, bad decisions, unexpected discoveries, and plenty of moments where I had absolutely no idea where something was going.
WHAT'S INSIDE
12 Journeys.
3½ Weeks.
No Predetermined Outcomes.
Self-paced · Instant access · Yours forever
• Failed Paintings → New Possibilities
• Progressions Becoming Studio Habit
• Painting Over Old Work + Rejects
• Knowing When to Push — And When to Stop
• Familiar Subjects, Unexpected Directions
• Drawing → Painting → Mixed Media
• Acrylics, Watercolor, Ink, Charcoal + Collage
• Repetition Without Repeating Yourself
• Letting Go When Art Gets Precious
• Changing Direction Instead of Forcing Results
• Finding Ideas You Weren’t Looking For
• Experiment → Failure → Discovery
No perfect process. Just the real one.
This is what happens between the idea and the art.
You'll watch paintings get covered up, flipped over, abandoned and revisited.
You'll see me repeat subjects, change mediums, return to familiar ideas, walk away when something isn't working—and occasionally stumble into something I never planned on finding.
Some pieces work.
Some don't.
They all move the process forward.
That's the part of being an artist I'm interested in sharing here.
Not just how I made something, but how one decision leads to another—and how staying curious gives you somewhere to go when the painting doesn't cooperate.
FROM THE LAB
Your video calmly prods you along from the construct to "capture the essence, knucklehead." That is the key for me. I now draw asking "what does it feel like" and make lines with expression not perfection. Eventually, the creative brain lights up and takes over because it likes repetition. The essence of the object is never lost in the process.
LARS WENTZEL · DECONSTRUCTION LAB STUDENT
ENROLLMENT OPEN
Drawing Is Everything
Welcome to The Deconstruction Lab
12 real journeys from my studio.
These aren't step-by-step projects designed for you to copy.
Think of them as a seat in the studio.
You'll see me work with watercolor, acrylics, inks, charcoal, graphite, collage, crayons and whatever else happens to be within reach.
You'll also see many of the ideas I teach throughout Crafted by Robert show up naturally in my own work:
Progressions. Repetition. Constructing and deconstructing. Working over rejects. Changing direction. Letting go of finished art. And treating failure as another layer rather than the end of the painting.
The system is there.
I'm just not standing in front of a whiteboard teaching it.
I'm using it.
The good stuff usually isn't planned.
One of my favorite pieces in this collection started with four forgotten watercolor rejects I found in a drawer.
One idea led to another.
And by the end, I'd stumbled onto an entirely new way of working that I'm excited to explore further.
That's why I keep showing up.
You don't always know what you're looking for.
Sometimes you have to make the work before the idea reveals itself.
Ready to come along?
If you want polished demonstrations with predetermined outcomes, this probably isn't that course.
But if you're interested in experimentation, creative decision-making, failures, breakthroughs and what an active studio practice actually looks like...
Welcome to Journeys.