Winners of anatomy class students team game.
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching style is to facilitate a dynamic classroom learning community activated by interactive games and activities as well as project-based-learning assignments. The assignments develop responsibility and professional communication skills as well as fuel confidence in drawing and design.
Reflective Practice
I maintain a reflective practice and often write reflections on my teaching. I encourage my students to reflect on their own learning each day by assigning an activity to write a brief note to an imagined mentor about the day’s activity. I collect these short notes to give me insight into each students response to each lesson.
Student Work
Students add a background to their fashion drawings and have some fun.
Madison F.’s student drawing after lesson on chiaroscuro and light logic in Week 3 of Observational Drawing. Madison used pastel on pastel paper. She blocked in with value and color instead of lines and used vertical placement and size relationship to indicate space in the drawing.
Asking students to determine a professional use for the drawings gave them a professional mindset to discuss the work in professional terms and use the design fundamentals and observational drawing vocabulary we have been practicing.
Observational Drawing class pastel drawing on black paper by Ryan.
The student model loved it that other students said her portrait looked like David Bowie, which raises a question. Is it more important that a portrait looks like the portrayed or someone the portrayed likes to look like? I named this phenomenon the Art 108 Ziggy Stardust effect.
Spencer and his motorcycle helmet.
The first india ink drawing he every did.
This student was recently in a serious bike crash and this drawing reflects his appreciation for this helmet.
Angelo A.’s student drawing in Observational Drawing with focus on value and shape. Angelo used implied line and value contrasts to mold the edges of the bird figurine.
“Today in my observational drawing class I learned that using lines isn’t always necessary when working with 3-dimensional space.” Student comment. This lesson points out that contrast between two values is more realistic than a line to create the illusion of an edge.
Students attend a weekly Sandbox session to explore different drawing media. Can you tell that this is India ink day?