I took my first art class EVER (well, since 5th grade) last night, and it was pretty neat. It’s the first of six sessions, Monday nights, and there are five of us. Okay, there are nine of us, but four people are returning students who are well ahead of the rest of us. And based on what I could see of the other newbies, they’re all better than me, but hey – that’s why I’m taking a class.
The instructor is this old guy, Don, who shuffles across the floor, has a fairly dry sense of humor, and is pretty blunt. He had us all fill out some basic information about ourselves – what experience we have, why we’re taking the class, whether drawing has anything to do with our jobs, what level we think we’re at – and then he read them out loud to everyone.
“Zannah…she thinks she’s a beginner…NO experience since elementary school?!? Not in high school?” “I took the music path.” “Hmph.” Similar for the others, although at least one has more recent drawing experience. The others apparently just have more natural talent.
Favorite line of the night:
“I’ll ask you to tape down your paper. I will rip the tape for you because I teach children. I will repeat instructions multiple times because I teach adults.”
He started by asking us to draw vertical lines an inch apart, all across the page. Then he said to erase the worst ones and fix them. I erased all of mine. Then we progressed to drawing things we could see – angles, shapes, flower pots. He very briefly showed us shadows and then it was 9pm and time to go. But I get to go to an art store this week and buy stuff!
Exciting.
Butcher de Conejos
omg, he sounds hysterical. and that class sounds like fun!!
Zannah
Everyone seems to be taking his style well so far. He picked up someone else’s drawing and said, to everyone, “I’m going to show you what is bad about this. It’s very good! But I’m going to show you what’s bad.”
Looks like we can all take criticism.