Student Work Examples
Observational Drawing: Still Life
In my introductory courses, I follow Betty Edwards' program in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and emphasize the importance of recognizing shape, including negative space, and proportion when learning to draw accurately. Once students understand how to draw form, perspective, and light through observation, they may begin to draw accurately from memory and later from their imagination. Drawing still lifes in charcoal on paper is the best way to practice drawing from observation as the charcoal is loose and movable allowing students to correct their mistakes as they work while serving as a natural introduction to mark-making, which is the soul of drawing.
Still Life Expanded: Collaborative Drawing
In introductory courses with students from various departments, it's difficult to buckle down and draw still lifes every day (though this would be best for training future professional drawers). Collaborative projects shake things up, drive discourse, and promote friendship. In the following project, we began by making basic vegetable sushi together, while drawing imaginative three-dimensional forms in our sketchbooks based on various found objects from the still life closet. The sushi represented construction and how various forms are stuck together to make complex objects, while the food we made together represented the nourishment found in creative communities. We then cut out our drawings and arranged them together, photographed them with our phones, and reprinted them, using comic book scanning techniques. Finally, we added to and connected our drawings to create an array of forms which we re-photographed and printed.
Conceptual Perspective Studies & Zine-Making
Perspective is one of those concepts in drawing that's easier said than done. In this maze project, students practiced two and three-point perspective drawing through a series of "hedge mazes" that were then compiled into a small zine. By making a collective series of drawings on a basic theme, students are able to show off their individuality while teaching one another as well. They are able to say "I did it this way" and "oh, I see what you did there." After this playful two-day, collaborative project, students are prepared for more solitary and focused work as they progress to architectural life-drawing.
Design Hunter/Gatherer
I love design because it perfectly balances history, concept, and technique. Unlike drawing, which is essentially a meditation, design is always on the move. This is why I always begin design class in the school library's art section, where students are instructed to find and photocopy images of various artworks that they like. This also gives new students an effective introduction to hands-on research that is crucial to artmaking. Back in the studio, we examine the photocopies to identify the elements of design in each work while discussing examples of collage in art history. By deconstructing and reconstructing their photocopies, students simultaneously study and create effective designs, the results of which are always great.
Introduction to Process: Found Materials
Following our collage project, we take our leftover materials and flip them over, combining and tracing them to create new shapes that we cut out again. By using found materials, we emphasize process and plasticity in design. We then arrange our new collection of shape components into various compositions, drawing our final versions in ink. In this project, students train themselves to recognize unique shapes, practice technique and craft, and learn to work through variations and revisions.
Picture Plane: Film Studies in Composition and Value
Tracing paper, pencil, and ink are excellent introductory art materials. They are affordable, easy to use, and effective in studies and sketches. Their size and cleanliness make them scannable, to be adapted for digital use, though they are traditional materials in design and comic book art.
By studying film stills, students learn to analyze composition, or layout design for the picture plane, along with light and value, which are key elements in two-dimensional art and graphic design.
Harmony in Pattern, Color, and Texture
By studying patterns, particularly in textiles and architectural design, students see how simple elements – line, shape, color, and texture – are the basis of complex systems. Experimenting with their own patterns, they experience the fundamental principles of rhythm, balance, and unity. Each design project is a unique opportunity for cultural discussion and art-making, even in limited studio environments.
Independent Projects
Fundamental design elements and principles are essential for making effective artwork and designs. Independent design projects test these fundamentals against various media, concepts, and situations. Students may choose to work with digital or traditional media depending on where their interests lie and what their ideas call for. Independent design projects follow fewer guidelines and require students to not only take risks but set goals that will inevitably require problem-solving to achieve. Skills obtained in earlier assignments prepare students for these more challenging and personal projects.
Ready, set, draw! Figure Drawing as Reaction
Figure drawing is the most important course for artists interested in drawing careers as it trains their eye and hand for accuracy through time-based exercises. Figure drawing sessions are bookended by gesture drawings, made quickly, and long poses, made slowly. Both exercises are reactionary, because figure models are never actually still. Figure drawing thus trains artists to be sensitive to the movement of life while being focused and efficient in their work.
40 Poses
40 Poses solves the question of homework in figure drawing and helps students to develop their own cartoon language for drawing people. While 40 poses may seem like a lot, when one considers how many poses they draw in a given figure drawing class, 40 becomes not so much. In this assignment, students are instructed to find 40 unique poses online and draw them simply in their sketchbooks. After three or four drawings, students develop a system for sight-measuring and illustrating consistent character designs, making each subsequent drawing easier and faster. When completed, they have a world of unique characters. 40 Poses is not only fun but rewarding in that it teaches students that with hard work, they can create an entire world not dependent on high-level accuracy and technical skill but on consistency and joy.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding assignments allow students to investigate portraiture, layout design, composition, and narrative by limiting their drawing size and forcing simplicity. Storyboarding rejects the propensity to draw big. Instead of making an 18 by 24 inch drawing, students are invited to make 18 or 24 separate drawings. While this assignment trains students for careers in illustration, animation, and film, it also leads them to understand that to make one good drawing, you sometimes have to make twenty-four.
Making Comics
As the Macarthur Award-winning cartoonist and University of Wisconsin professor Lynda Barry observes in her book Making Comics, cartooning is a form of language that kids speak fluently but is gradually lost as we grow up. Thus, practicing cartooning as a student or adult is a worthy endeavor, albeit difficult. While comics do not require advanced drawing skills, stylistic innovation is always welcome. Independent comic book styles cover the gamut, from abstract to realistic and symbolic. In refining one's cartoon style, one develops one's voice along with a system for telling stories and building worlds. Courses on making comics are adaptable for lower- and upper-level students and for group projects. They can incorporate design, commercial publishing (including graphic novels), and animation while fostering inclusive, innovative creative communities.
The following examples of student work include traditional and digitally-drawn comics from my cartooning course at Central Connecticut State University.
Beyond the Studio: Exhibitions and Creative Culture
In addition to teaching drawing, design, and curation at Central Connecticut State University from 2017 to 2019, I co-directed the University art gallery and curated four exhibitions including, Sex, Death, and Visceral Honesty: Artworks and Publications by Independent Women’s Comic Artists from the 1960s Underground Movement to Today, co-curated by cartoonist Leela Corman. As a studio art professor, I was thrilled to organize this exhibition bringing original artwork, comic books and zines to our gallery. The exhibition also included handmade tables and stools, and we were gratified to see students spending their free time in the gallery reading comics and looking at the artwork. By transforming the exhibition into a reading space, we encouraged students to really spend time with the work. A panel discussion between four of the exhibition's artists at the opening also introduced students to modes of discourse in the comics community.
