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If you are physically and emotionally exhausted after a workshop, you'll know you've had your money's worth, even if it takes a while to assimilate the instruction.
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I'll second that.
In addition to Steven's excellent advice, just empty your mind and show up. Then, listen to everything you can possibly listen to. Listen to everything the instructor says. Listen to what the instructor says to everyone else during critiques. As grossly oversimplified as it sounds, the people who get the most out of the workshop are those who hear what the instructor is saying. This is very basic. If the instructor says, measure 2" down from the top of the canvas, you can bet half the class will measure down 5 inches.
The first workshop I took, my hands shook on the first day, I was so self-conscious. But I've always been able to force all external (and most internal) distractions from my mind.
You're very lucky to be able to meet in person some of the voices we're all so happily familiar with on this forum. Keep in the back of your mind that each day in a workshop is very intense for all participants: not everyone will be up for social time afterwards. All I generally want to do at the end of the day is go for a very long run; I need the down time to slowly sift through all the activities of the day.
Of course, I always seem to meet one or two artists who I feel a deep bond with; I still write letters to a couple of artists from a couple of different workshops, and if we lived closer, we'd be best friends....
You won't come out of it the painter you want to be, but you'll have more of the tools you need to help you grow for the next six months. Workshops are beginnings.