It's back to school time, and there's lots to learn. I've headed off to Emily Carr University of Art and Design for a continuing studies course in Fundamentals of Drawing.
No, this is not me -- unless in an alternate universe. (And if you'd like a mini-photo tour of my walk through Granville Island that brought me to this point, click here.)
Our instructor Frances (whose magnificent and large-scale drawings of trees are shown here) is passionate about drawing and reminds us that, "Some of the basics you might find tedious, but you must do them again and again to learn your craft. And if you find it too boring -- maybe drawing is just not for you."
Our utilitarian classroom has lots of good vibes from art students who have been willing to hunker down and get on with it.
In our first class, we experimented with making different kinds of marks with different kinds of media. Our first week's assignment was to select a simple object we liked and to spend three hours drawing it with different tools -- "Oh, maybe 100 drawings," Frances said. Gulp. What's more, each drawing was to express an adjective of emotion or line quality.
Back home, I gathered my forces and materials -- 100 smallish sheets of different kinds of paper,
...an array of drawing tools....
a Florida seashell I've had since I was ten years old and, oh yes, a list I developed of 100 adjectives.
Are you ready? I won't hit you with all one-hundred, but here's a start:
At about Drawing #20, I understood why Frances suggested we choose an object that we liked. It would have been grueling to do this with something to which one was indifferent.
Oh, let's do one more:
I hope this has been an intelligent and informative post. If not, I think it at least meets the specifications of the graffiti on the air conditioning unit outside our ECUAD classroom.
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