student drawings (in progress)
March 15, 2010
My life drawing students did some amazing work today. Last week we were all set to start a big project for which they had bought oversize paper and prepared it in advance, soaking and stretching it out onto a drawing board, and then our model didn’t show up. So they improvised by drawing one of the skeletons instead, then worked the drawings up further outside class during the week. Or, rather, they were supposed to work on the drawings outside class, but some of them clearly did not, about which I was feeling somewhat pissy when I got to class. Then they totally redeemed themselves by doing amazing work today with the model, drawing the figure in on top of their previous drawing and doing a pretty good job of it despite their apprehension about introducing a whole new element so far along in their work. Thus is the peril in having such high expectations for both their work ethic and their product, because although they don’t quite always meet the former they’re certainly well on the way to meeting the latter and so I can’t be anything but totally pleased with them, which pains me a bit even though I myself struggle constantly with time management and so expecting better from them is TOTALLY HYPOCRITICAL. But I want them to learn good work habits, and I want them to surprise themselves with strong drawings they can be proud of, and if they don’t manage their time well and work hard enough to get those amazing drawings they’re proud of then I feel kind of offended like they’re blowing off all of my high expectations and hopes for them and also I beat myself up for not pushing them enough even though I’m probably a total hardass on them all the time. Which is why they shouldn’t let crazy neurotic people teach art but then who else would want to do it?
Ahem. So. Amazing drawings! Look! And keep in mind these are still in progress. After today’s session with the model, they have another week to pull these together so they make sense compositionally. I expect some of them will still change quite a bit.
See the rest in the class flickr set.
Posted by jodi on March 15, 2010 at 10.36pm
