Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Becoming a Student Again


I tell my students that drawing is scary.

But on Tuesday nights, I remove my teacher's persona, and I become the student. It's hard.

I'm taking a life drawing class at Otis. My teacher is my colleague. And I'm exposing to him (and all the world) a huge gap in my knowledge.











In a life drawing class we draw from a live nude model. Everything in a life drawing class feels vulnerable, including me.








When I walk into his class I need to be willing to be terrible. I can't be there with anything to prove.


Drawing is scary, I tell myself.
But in the end, it's just charcoal on a piece of paper.
And I'm better for it.


(These drawings are 3 to 5 minute poses from our second class meeting.)

Friday, February 3, 2012

A Family of Charcoal Drawings

Most of my classes are for older students (high school and above) who are working on portfolios for art college admissions. But sometimes I also teach younger people.

I don't know about you, but when I was 9 years old, I was still drawing goofy hearts and rainbows. Look what 9-year-olds are up to these days . . .


In this class for homeschoolers at Excellence in Education, I have a whole family - including Dad! They are a talented group.



We meet for only one hour, once a week. And again, my students amaze me.

Note: I apologize - when photographing the work, I did not have the youngest son's drawing with me, or I surely would have included it!