If You Build It They Will Come

I am amazed at my students, they make me very proud, daily. A new 9-week quarter has just begun. I have a new set of Everyday Students; a new set of non-believers. I've already had one say, "I can't draw, my drawings look like a kindergartener's!" So, my first response is: "There's nothing wrong with that. I will show you very sought after and valuable art that one might interpret as child-like." My next response is: if you can write a letter, or make a line or a shape -- you can draw! The work here illustrates this...I teach them and they grow. [On the bottom: contour line drawings of three dimensional foam shapes that they draw first as simple 2-D shapes, then I encourage them to see their depth and draw the arrangement. Soon after, (top left) students’ careful use of shadows in a drawing of a paper bag helps to establish the ground beneath it, its creases and interior. To encourage them to understand how to represent the highlights on creases, I used a peanut butter sandwich analogy: the light is the peanut butter in between the bread is the shaded areas that flank the light. Hey - I gotta do what I gotta do!