Here I would like to share some work done by some students of mine! I have been working with mom Amy, and brothers Parker and Spencer for over a year, giving a lesson two times per month, with breaks in the summer. We've covered mostly drawing concepts, this year starting on some color theory and beginning paint mixing. I still throw in drawing exercises regularly, as I feel this is the most important aspect in learning to see, and the last one in particular showed how much they've learned. They even seemed to really enjoy these exercises!
All of these are copies of Bargue plates, which were designed to train artists and are even used at the
New York Academy of Art. The drawing way above is a copy by Amy, and you can see where she uses outside measurements (the box) to ensure she draws the copy at the correct size. The box also helps in seeing negative shapes.
The above two images are eye copies by Parker, age 10. Parker really seemed to enjoy drawing these eyes best, and even challenged himself to draw a single eye more than once, trying each time to improve over the previous attempt. I was really quite impressed with how diligently he worked on these!
The final two images here were done by Spencer, age 8. Again, you can see how effectively he used the box to copy the image of the ear at the correct size and shape, and how surprisingly well he was able to translate the shapes of the eye drawings onto his own paper. Working with the boys is refreshing as I am constantly able to review these fundamentals with myself, and I am often taken aback when they go so far beyond what I expect!
