My students have been very busy this week learning the fundamentals of contour drawing. We have taken for our subject the ordinary shoe, and I have taken them on a brief tour of shoes in the history of art. Some of the highlights include, of course, Vincent van Gogh's many lovingly executed portraits of footwear: In addition to contour drawing the lesson included rules #1 and #2 of good composition: balancing positive and negative space and the rule of thirds. I encouraged them to "pose" their "models" in an interesting way that included some overlapping to create a sense of depth and space. Your shoes are a couple, not twins, I told them; and they don't always agree. One may see things this way while the other sees them upside down. Speculation ran wild as to why this image by Rene' Magritte bears the particular title that it does. A couple of students found it to be "creepy", but most thought it was "cool, like when Marty from 'Madagascar' couldn't decide if he was black with white stripes or white with black stripes." Score one for Surrealism. After wrapping up the project and discussing the Warhol above, everyone was ready to put their shoes back on....much Febreze had been sprayed. Stay tuned for an update on how our hand studies are coming along......
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It has, so far, been a wonderful semester. I had an extremely challenging group this past fall (only one; the other two were very talented and sweet), and it is so refreshing to have cheerful, enthusiastic students all day. In my Drawing I class, I introduced myself on the very first day with not only my name but also my philosophy regarding learning to draw, as stated here by my spiritual guru Jake: Don't be afraid, I told them, to be bad at this for a while. You will miss some free throws, play a few flat notes. So far we have been drawing small objects on large paper and large objects on small paper, and I have made them do all sorts of wacky things like use their non-dominant hands, tie their drawing tools to the end of a stick and draw without looking at their papers. As I progress through the year, I plan to continue to implement the wisdom of Jake the Dog. First and foremost, and most importantly, my new mantra: And speaking of my very talented students, many of them will have work on display in this exhibit. If you are in the Savannah area please join us at the opening and/or stop by to see the artwork:
Art is hard.....and showing other people your art is harder. Especially when those other people are mostly hypercritical teenagers. I have found that the most difficult thing to teach my students every year is the art of critique. We always start with some pieces that I have created....and in my new Drawing I class this semester, this colored pencil drawing of pearls will be the first item up for scrutiny.....
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