It is said that the best way to learn something is by teaching it to someone else. Hard to do that if you don’t understand the process yourself.
Because my students get to know one another in group lessons, they often help each other. This thrills me, because I eavesdrop and get to witness that they are really and truly learning.
Finished! This was an ENORMOUSLY challenging drawing.
Next, it goes home with me to be scanned and Photoshopped for possible reproductions, either as prints or cards. All the color has to be removed before the printing will look right.
Speaking of ENORMOUSLY CHALLENGING, look at this little guy (also photoshopped for the purpose of good quality reproduction )
There is a one-day beginning drawing workshop planned for January 11, in Three Rivers. You can register at Stem & Stone. (Stemandstone.3r@gmail.com or 559-731-4881.) Class size is limited to ten people.
We don’t meet in December, so students try to get their work finished by the end of November. Some do, some don’t. Some need to finish by Christmas, so I’ve had them come to my studio for help. I’ve gone to their homes to help when we are off during summer, and I’ve had students scan or photograph their work and send it to me for help. They are wonderful people and I love helping them.
Obviously, this is a very experienced student. She came to me initially because she was a watercolorist who wanted more realism in her paintings. After a few graphite drawings, she moved into colored pencil. That was about 20 years ago!
This student picks Very Hard Very Detailed photos to work with, and she NEVER gives up! If we weren’t lifetime friends, I’d be sure that she just chooses these subjects to test my ability!
This student fights with perfectionism. Perfectionism is winning, for sure! She is never in a hurry and thoroughly enjoys the process. Every so often she will announce that she isn’t going to take quite so long or strive quite so hard for perfection. It makes us laugh.
This is work by my newest student. She joined lessons to learn how to paint better. Drawing is the basis for all art, and if you learn to see things realistically and learn the “tricks” of drawing, your other art will improve. This is her second or maybe 3rd drawing with me; I think she is close to finished with this perfect little face (yes, she has captured a likeness!)
I have room in a couple of classes, and if enough people (four) want lessons and can come from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons, I will add another class.
Did I mention that my students are wonderful people?
Have you heard that people prefer experiences to possessions? Some do, some don’t. If you know someone who does, here is an idea for a Christmas gift.
In case you are wondering, the workshop will take place in Three Rivers, at the Bequette House which is part of the Three Rivers Historical Museum. I am doing this workshop in conjuction with Stem & Stone, a little store here in Three Rivers. Hannah, to whom you RSVP, is one of the owners.
Check out work by two of my drawing students. The first one is finished, and the second one is in progress.
I teach people how to put on paper exactly what they see. It is the beginning of all art, in my opinion. (If a person can only see it in his mind, I cannot help with that.)
Lessons are $60/month, one hour per week with other people, all of whom are learning too, all at different levels of skill. I don’t know where you’ll ever find a better group of people to spend an hour with each week—the friendships grow, the encouragement flows, and we laugh a lot too.
We don’t draw together in December, July, or August. You are welcome to stop by and see what it is like!
Tuesday afternoons, 2-5:30, CACHE, 125 South B Street, Exeter
I guess you could draw with chalk or a paintbrush or your finger on a fogged up window, but drawing with pencils is what I do.
Student work
It’s also what I teach. A returning drawing student had one month free for lessons before embarking on a new chapter of life. We dove right in, and she stayed for several hours each time rather than the normal one hour weekly lesson. The final one took place in my studio, which is where we started about 12 years ago when she was a wee fourth grader. I made an exception to my usual 6th grade minimum age requirement because she was an exceptional child and private lessons meant much more help and attention.
Here’s a drawing she did in about 5th grade.
Here is the drawing she just completed.
She has become an exceptional adult. To quote another one of my drawing students who has known her through the years, “She’s all that AND a bag of chips!”
Protecting identity, because this IS the World Wide Web.
Central Calif. Artist Work
This is a commissioned pencil drawing I finished in July. I haven’t posted it because I didn’t know if the intended recipient reads my blog. (If you recognize yourself, please pretend to be surprised when you receive the drawing!)
Cats in the house
HEY! WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WEASEL YOUR WAY INTO OUR HOUSE??
The recent drawing workshop in Three Rivers was successful; everyone learned, and everyone had a good time, including your Central California artist, in her role as a drawing teacher.
We met at someone’s house on the river, a place full of beauty, so there are photos of things that caught my fancy along with photos from the actual drawing session.
This is a little store where the hostess and her husband sell their beautiful pottery.
Some of the pottery that did not make it intact out of the kiln is now stepping stones. Could you imagine stepping stones any more classy than this??
Ten students sat at a long table inside the house because the river made it too hard to hear outside.
I discussed drawing steps and tools, and they started on some beginning exercises to practice the techniques.
After about 15 minutes, 2 hours had passed. (That’s how one of the participants described the time.) The hostess fed us a wonderful lunch out on her deck.
Everyone began working on a drawing after lunch, and I circulated around the table, showing them how to see what is really there, rather than what they thought ought to be there. Weird, I know, but that is what drawing is, at least the way I teach it. I teach people to see, which is also weird, considering I am one of the most nearsighted people I know of.
People had such a good time that there is talk of a follow-up drawing session. Regular lessons, or another workshop? Where? When?
More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
Besides loving to draw, it makes me happy to help other people learn to draw. A friend named Anne Brown has been asking me for many years to give a workshop up here, and since she offered to host it and for whatever reason I now have some time, (OH, because I’m not preparing for a solo show since I still have paintings from the last solo show, phooey but yea), we scheduled this drawing workshop.
It is important that we are kind and complimentary to one another in drawing lessons. It is equally important that we are honest.
AH is my friend and also one of my drawing students. Since she owns dogs, she saw something a little wrong in my drawing on the dog with the black head. I own cats (or perhaps they own me, because they are certainly manipulative and bossy), and haven’t had a dog as an adult.
Her suggestion was accurate and helpful.
I made the correction and finished the drawing. (I bet you can’t even tell what was wrong!)
Someone I met through giving my How To Draw talk back in November expressed a desire to take an oil painting workshop from me. She is a can-do, git-‘er-dun kind of person (takes-one-to-know-one), so we set a date, and she gathered 4 other interested people. I learned that she is an art teacher, as is another attendee from the talk. They were joined by a third art teacher, along with a couple of family members for a day of oil painting.
I set up samples and my supplies on one end of the room.Covered with old drop cloths, these tables were ready to receive five students.
We sat together for some chit-chat (a talk about the tools and techniques), and then they chose what to paint from photos that I passed around. (One overachiever chose two.)
I was ever so slightly intimidated by these well-educated art professionals, but there was no reason for that foolishness. They concentrated, asked relevant questions, and we enjoyed the time so much that I forgot to take photos until the 4-hour session was almost finished.
The Overachiever also had the largest canvas size.
This painter used to oil paint regularly, perhaps 40 years ago.
This painter thought her pomegranate looked like a tomato until we figured out a little visual texture through color variation was the answer.
This painter admitted to feeling a little uncomfortable about learning publicly; I confessed to the same feeling with all her education and experience. We had a good laugh, and then carried on like old comfortable friends.
This first-time painter showed me some photos of her own art, —custom designed, beautifully decorated sugar cookies! (She didn’t bring any, boohoo, but I am glad I didn’t have to tell her, “It is forbidden.”)
Excellent start! Because my style of painting is called “glazing” (layer after layer after layer), it is my hope they will finish these paintings on their own. (And if they need help, I hope they will email or call).
THANK YOU FOR AN EXCELLENT PAINTING WORKSHOP, Maddie, Amy, Janeva, Angie, and Jeanne!
P.S. They learned about layering, working “lean to fat”, getting the design on the canvas without first drawing it in pencil, mixing colors from a double primary palette (2 blues, 2 reds, 2 yellows, + white), how to get the paint onto the canvas to look like what you want, how to put leftover paint back in the tube, and how it takes FOR-EV-ER to complete a painting.
A long time drawing student who has become a friend hit a metaphorical speed-bump in life. Her body has betrayed her; one of the symptoms is weakness and a tremor in her dominant hand. We’re not going to talk about diagnosis or the emotional wallop, only about our time together drawing. She is without a doubt the best student I have ever had.
When she stopped coming to lessons, she had 2 drawings that were almost finished. People who don’t draw, or who don’t draw as well as she does, might have thought the drawings were finished.
She asked if I would finish the drawings for her. My first thought was that I would be happy to help her in any way, and of course I would finish the drawings. After thinking more, I proposed that we work on the drawings together. She could do the parts that she is able to do, and then she could tell me exactly what else she would like to be done.
It was just like drawing lessons, except this time she was doing the instructing, and I was following the instructions. After many years of drawing together, this went like clockwork; we were like a well-oiled machine.
Almost three hours flew by, and these two drawings are the result.
