Drawing Class again

 

Back to the basics, as in basic drawing.  My fourth class this year at the Jersey Shore Art Center, which is the basic drawing class again.  I wasn't sure if this class was even going to happen, as for a long time I had no students, then just one.  Jeanne agreed with me that it wasn't enough of a class to run it with only one person.  We had set a deadline of Friday, but still just one student.  We decided to wait and see what we had on Monday.  A few days ago we got a second student, but I wasn't sure, as it was someone who had taken the same class earlier this year.  Not that I haven't had people take the same class over, just to get the experience and knowledge again, but I hoped she realized it was the same class, and sent Jeanne an  email regarding my concern.  Her response was that the student probably knew what she was doing, and we should assume she wanted it again.  This morning we got a third student, so it was all moot, except for some more money for me and the building.  

The first day of class is always shoes.  I've probably said this before, but I like shoes as an opening drawing exercise as they are a very common art student starting point, but also very effective.  They are organic (designed to fit on a foot), so if you can learn to draw a shoe, you can learn to draw a foot, and if you can learn to draw a foot, you can probably draw any body part, and if you can draw a human body, you can draw anything.  That's why I skipped Drawing I in college and just went to open model sessions, and learned to draw that way.  It worked.

So not much to get ready today.  Had a small bag of shoes from the last time I taught basic drawing (several, more than enough for 3 students) and I brought a good example of a student drawing of a shoe using cross contour lines- sometimes it is easier to show than to explain.  That and my regular supply of stuff was all I needed. Got there a little more than an hour early, so just dropped off my stuff.  Lots of watercolor stuff in the room (Jeanne had a class this morning), including an opaque camera and a large monitor screen, I guess so she could show close-ups of what she was doing. I found her downstairs in a meeting, so I just let her know I was there, and to come collect it when she was ready.  The door was already unlocked (not sure why) so I just waited in my room.  She came up later and collected and put away all her stuff, well ahead of my students arriving.

I've taught this exercise (exterior contours, cross contours, blind contours, best line drawing) many times before, so no surprises there.  I don't know if they liked it, but at least one student mentioned that she learned about looking, which is what much of drawing is about. 

We were there for about two hours, as planned.  Besides all the shoe stuff, I explained the differences in pencil hardness as labeled, explained erasers, and described drawing boards to everyone.  (it was on my list of supplies as optional).  A few asked about hair spray as fixative, so I explained how that works, and that I used to use it for that purpose myself, as they didn't sell fixative in the bookstore at my school. 

I also talked about next week, to bring paper, pencils, and erasers, and that we will use the same for weeks 4 and 5.  Charcoal the other days, along with the appropriate eraser.  Everyone was ready to leave on time, so they did, I cleaned up, stopped down in the basement for a few things, then went home myself.