Experimenting with Color

Age 13-16

 

We took on a new adventure this year in experimenting with water color.  These kids could draw as evident in the pastel portrait of Joker above, but what they really needed to be challenged with was something out of their comfort zone.  It was fun trying to loosen them up :)

Presidents, Class of 2010

Age 7-12 

I was stunned this year by my youngest class of 7-9 year olds. After 7 lessons they were asked to do these portraits of Abraham Lincoln.  The older kids got their choice of a few other presidents, and some of them chose charcoal. Amazing!!!

Here is some more work from my class of 2009. I taught four classes this year at Echo, ages 7-9, 10-12, & basically two classes of 13 & up. I normally have one of those classes as an intermediate level for students that have taken my class before. I love the ability to not have to go over the basics with these kids and really do some different and higher level lessons. This year though it seemed everyone of my classes except the 7-9 year old had some kids that had taken my class before. I literally had them divided into three levels in each class. Beginners, intermediate, and advanced. As I said in my previous post it was very fast paced and unfortunately I felt myself spread too thin to really impart more than a skimming of direction and help to the students this year. All in all they did do some fun work and following is a scattering of some finished, and some incomplete projects.

As a side note to the fast pace of my classes, if any of my aides are reading this blog please know how very wonderful you all were. I know I put you all to good use! At one point I remember one of my aides and I lifting up our heads for a moment simultaneously trying to catch our breath and we were only have way through the first class. It was amazing, exhilarating, and by the end of the day exhausting for this fifty something. Thank you all for the wonderful job you did and for helping me find my glasses, my pencils, my sketch pad...you get the idea. LOL

Starting with the 7-9 year old. They were my true beginners and here is what they were up to by the last few lessons. They worked on a lion portrait, and again were trying to distinguish value, and shapes that made up the pictures.

I really like how well this student used value and pencil strokes to show the flow of the lions mane. Good eyes too!

Interestingly enough this was one of my favorites. I asked Brogan to break outside of the box. He simply refused, but did such a great job on this picture that his work ended up capturing my heart :) And look at those great eyes...way to go Brogan!
Here we start with some 10-12 year old Indian portraits. I have such a passion for First Nation people groups that inhabited this region way before the white man got here. I love to draw their faces. These pictures are drawn from photographs of actual Indians from the Yakima Valley, and the Columbia Plateau region. I always emphasis to the kids that if they can concentrate on their eyes the whole portrait will come alive.



Here we have an example of a fairly simple work, but the expression in the eyes just grabs you.

Some of my advanced students wanted to pick their own portraits to do. Here is a smattering of their work.

The Indian above and below were done by two girls who sat side by side. I love how they put their own interpretation and style into their portraits.

This was my favorite drawing of the year. Done by Joseph an older first time  student.  In visiting with his mom, she said this was a newly discovered talent for him. WOW!  The detail and the styling of his work blew me away. And again those eyes!