ESİN DEĞİRMENCİOĞLU
Teaching Artist & Creative Facilitator
Founder, Drawn Together Kids
Middlesex County Culture Teaching Artist
Professional Profile
Esin Degirmencioglu
Founder, Drawn Together Kids & Drawn to Her LLC.
Esin Degirmencioglu is a visual artist and arts educator based in New Jersey. She is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and a mother of two, bringing both formal artistic training and lived experience into her educational work. She maintains an active fine art practice through Drawn to Her and develops structured youth arts programming through Drawn Together Kids.
Her professional background includes teaching and facilitating programs with Young Rembrandts, Inc., Yaymaker, Inc. (formerly Paint Nite, Inc.), and Girl Scouts of the USA. Through these roles, she has led structured art instruction, community workshops, and group-based creative experiences for children and adults.
She is the founder of Drawn Together Kids, a youth arts programming initiative developed under Drawn to Her, LLC, designing creative enrichment programs that integrate art-making with emotional awareness, confidence-building, and collaborative engagement. She also collaborates with Empower Soul Path to develop guided art and mindfulness-based workshops that support emotional development and community connection.
Her work bridges fine art practice and structured arts education, bringing accessible and thoughtfully designed programming into community spaces.
Specializing in developmentally structured art programming that integrates technical skill-building with creative confidence and emotional awareness.
Curriculum Development
Original curriculum design integrating artist study, observational drawing, structured skill-building, and guided creative application.
Sample curriculum excerpts shown below.
Artist Spotlight
Artist Spotlight Series – Marker-based structured drawing lesson inspired by master artists.
Artist study curriculum introducing historical context, visual analysis, and applied drawing technique.
Nature Spotlight
Nature Observation Study – Mixed media exploration of texture, color layering, and composition.
Observation-based curriculum exploring form, texture, and composition through guided study of natural subjects.
Process-Led Youth Programming
Emphasis on process over product, sensory engagement, and emotional interpretation.
Progression: Observation to Expressive Interpretation
Green Oil Pastel Tree, 2026 – Oil pastel blending study. Youth expressive art session.
Foundational mark-making and color exploration – oil pastel.
Drawing what you know becomes drawing what you see, and eventually drawing what you feel.
For example, moving from a symbolic sun in the corner and a horizon line across the bottom to observing light emerging from behind trees and a lake creating depth across the page.
Portrait Study & Color Development
Focus on layering, skin-tone blending, and building confidence through process-based exploration to develop dimensionality, visual awareness, and expressive clarity.
Wellness & Art Integration
Youth and Adult Programs
Co-developed programming framework in collaboration with Empower Soul Path (ESP), integrating guided art-making, breathwork, reflective practice, and foundational color theory.
Sessions are developmentally adapted by age group, emotional learning goals, and institutional setting. Curriculum structure is customized for youth enrichment, teen workshops, adult wellness programming, and community-based environments.
The Becoming Tree (Watercolor, 2026)
Guided watercolor study exploring seasonal symbolism, blending technique, and emotional interpretation.
The Guiding Moon (Watercolor, 2026)
Gradient wash study focused on light contrast, atmosphere, and controlled brush technique.
Community-Based Programming
Customizable art workshops designed for libraries, recreation departments, cultural organizations, and community centers.
Programming may include:
• Shrink plastic fabrication and wearable art
• Card-making and paper-based design
• Acrylic and watercolor painting
• Collage and mixed-media exploration
• Foundational drawing and marker illustration
Workshops are adapted by age group and setting, including tween enrichment, intergenerational programs, family events, and senior community sessions.
Projects may incorporate thematic prompts, seasonal themes, or institutional branding depending on host needs.
Partner & Institutional Programs
Professional experience delivering structured art programming across educational and nonprofit environments, alongside large-scale adult workshop events.
Experience facilitating workshops in classroom settings, community-based programming, and high-volume adult social painting events.
Young Rembrandts, Inc.
Structured drawing curriculum facilitation.
Implemented nationally standardized marker-based drawing curriculum for Pre-K through elementary students. Focus on step-by-step skill development, proportion, line control, and compositional awareness within a classroom format.
Marker work | Pre-K student work | "tools"
Girl Scouts of the USA.
Thematic mixed-media workshop facilitation.
Designed and led themed workshops integrating drawing, collage, and paint-based media for 4th–5th grade groups. Emphasis on guided instruction, creative interpretation, and collaborative engagement.
Mixed Media | 4th/5th graders | "Self Portrait"
Gauche Paint | 4th/5th graders | "Still Life"
Yaymaker (formerly Paint Nite, Inc.)
Adult acrylic workshop facilitation.
Facilitated high-volume adult acrylic painting events in structured workshop environments. Delivered step-by-step instruction while maintaining pacing, clarity, and strong group engagement across large audiences.
Media & Techniques
Experience across fine art media, structured curriculum tools, and fabrication-based workshops.
Fine Art Media
• Oil pastel (blending, layering, expressive color studies)
• Watercolor (gradient wash, controlled brushwork, atmospheric studies)
• Acrylic paint (canvas-based instruction, step-by-step composition)
• Gouache (opaque layering, color mixing fundamentals)
Drawing & Foundational Skills
• Marker-based structured drawing curriculum
• Foundational proportion and line control
• Observational drawing
• Mark-making development
Instructional Framework
• Process-led expressive art
• Skill-based progression models
• Developmentally adapted curriculum design
Mixed Media & Fabrication
• Collage and layered composition
• Shrink plastic fabrication and wearable art
• Alcohol marker illustration
• Assembly-based workshop design
Community Recognition
Recognized by Middlesex County Culture
Drawn Together Kids is listed on the Middlesex County Culture platform, a regional hub highlighting artists, cultural organizations, and public programming throughout Middlesex County.
Contact
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