Old Work

Reorganizing all of my computer files this summer led me to discover some forgotten work. Thought I’d share…
After I quit college I started trying to draw and paint on my own, frustration quickly set in with my lack of skills and brought me to the beginning of a long career in Cont Ed classes mostly at RISD.
The very first class I took was Victor Lara’s figure drawing class. It was a good choice. The class was open enough in format for me to be able to relax and enjoy the process.

Each class began with an exercise in mark making with charcoal on newsprint. Designed to expand our drawing ”vocabulary” we would sometimes draw with our eyes closed or with charcoal on wet paper.

The point was to learn to make a variety of marks light, heavy, smeary, sharp, fuzzy with the medium. Mine tended to end up looking like cellular structures or gears on strange organic machines.

The second half of class was actual figure drawing from the model. Starting with quick scetches.

Then moving on to longer poses and more developed drawings.

We were to try to apply the vocabulary to express the form with all of the underlying structures of bone and muscle. Wonderful fun and incredibly messy I would emerge from this class looking as though I had just spent time digging in a mine.
Perfect for someone who was a bit shaky about reentering the academic world, even on a Cont Ed basis. It was fun, relaxed and helped me to push some barriers and learn a lot in the process. I gained back an iota of lost confidence with that step. Thanks Victor.