More drawing class

 

Another Saturday, another class.  Last time we agreed to push the class off to 11:00 am, which seemed to make life easier for everybody.  Everything is already worked out week by week, so it's just a matter of finding appropriate props for the day's plans.  Today we were going to work with ink wash, and when I've done this at colleges, we always start with white painted objects.  For this I mostly use things I originally purchased at the supermarket.  The plastic vessels that hold milk and orange juice are surprisingly complex, which few people realize until it is time to draw them.  I arrived around 10:00 am, and found the gate unlocked, and the alarm off.  At least I didn't have to deal with those today.  I brought in my small bag, and once again found the room full of stuff I don't need.  Went back and got my big bag, then got the room set up. folding tables and chairs, and bringing out what I needed.  Using a small wooden easel, I put it up against the back of the  small table, where it held my clamp light, and the white towel that is serving as my background.  The small wooden table as usual held my still life, a cracker box, the towel draping down, and three white painted objects.  This all done, I went and unlocked the front door.  Last I heard from the student who writes more, she was coming.  Heard nothing from the other one.  

My first student arrived as expected, and was given the opportunity to choose any seat she wanted.   She showed my some charcoal she had tried on her own, images of her own hand, something she had tried once before. She noticed that everything was white, but that is on purpose.  My plan is to eliminate local value and color, so the students only need to deal with light and shadow.  She has some experience with watercolor, which helps.  I gave her instructions, showed examples of student work and my own examples, and let her get started.  My set up included a milk jug elevated and back, and a juice container and funnel foreground on the draped table.  She sketched it out first with pencil, and then added darker and darker layers of ink wash as she went. In the end, she decided that the two foreground objects were the better ones, while the one further back seemed to be hard to see against the background.  I had to agree with her, pointing out that the third piece had such similar shadows to the back drop that it was hard to see in real life, and in her drawing there wasn't much value range, which didn't help.  She may decide to re-explore this set up, either with an actual still life or working from the drawing she did, but this time with watercolor.   Could be interesting.  I talked of palette choices, and told her something else I had learned from teaching- artists make the art they are going to make.  You can't stop them, so you have to just let them do it, and hope it works out.

The above student drawing is from one of my long ago college drawing classes, but it is a very good approximation of what we did today.  I let my one student know that we would not be meeting this week, as the building would be closed for the Independence Day holiday, but we would continue with ink one more week when we return, and we will have two weeks of conte crayon after that. Since I expect to see the person in charge of the next round of classes on Monday, I gathered some information from my one present student, then she took off.  

Later at home, I found an email from my missing student, explaining her missing class as a family emergency thing, but she plans to be back next time.  I advised her about next week's closing, gave some information about ink wash, and we'll see what happens.