Hello Sahra
I have been teaching figure drawing to community groups since 1993 and
continue to do so now that I am retired from teaching in full time art
programmes. My students choose to come to the class because they are
interested and they come with a range of experience from complete beginners
to those who have been attending my classes for years and who may or may not
be involved in their own art practice. The students range in age from 17 to
80 years of age and include both men and women. I use both male and female
models, some of whom are also artists.
These students come to the class for a variety of reasons. They want a
challenge, they want to learn to draw, they want extra drawing practice,
they want to improve their ability to see, they want to use drawing
particularly in their practice, they want to find new ways to interpret the
figure, they want to get out of the house, they want to think of things
other than the needs of their family, they want to have time for themselves
where they can be completely absorbed, they may be teachers who want to be
told what to do and not think at all for a change ...
So I need to be able to cater for the needs of each of them within a three
hours class. I do this by choosing drawing activities that are challenging
for all students whether they have drawn before or not. I have used books by
Robert Kaupelis - Experimental Drawing, where there are numerous useful
drawing exercises (eg drawing blindfolded); Kimon Nicolaides - The Natural
Way to Draw (eg flash drawings); Daniel Mendelowitz - A Guide to Drawing;
Nathan Goldstein - The Art of Responsive Drawing, and Figure Drawing-
Structural Anatomy and Expressive Design of the Human Form ... and many
more, as well as devising my own exercises.
I also constantly revisit basic drawing approaches, teach the basics but
suggest to experienced students more challenging ways to achieve them.
With new students, I find once I have convinced them that they everyone can
draw, themselves included, they are off. So it is important , at the start,
to provide drawing exercises where success is almost guaranteed in terms of
producing a pretty good rendition of what is before them, which is what most
beginners want to do.
It is important to be positive but also to give constructive criticism.
What do you think works really well in your drawing? How would you do this
if you could have another go at it? What would you change? A feedback
session where everyone talks about their work is where students learn a
great deal and although it is optional everyone seems to want to show their
work and get feedback on it from the rest of the class.
Once people can fulfill their own aspirations they are happy to be
expressive and experimental and widen their view of what drawing can be. It
helps to show drawings of all sorts that stretch the preconceptions as well
as good master drawings of the more conventional kind.
Hope this may be useful.
Ronette Pickering
Nelson NZ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan White" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:01 AM
Subject: Re: Teaching Drawing to Adults
Morning Sahra,
I teach freehand drawing to senior year architecture students, some of
whom, strangely, have few drawing skills. I have also taught extensive
adult drawing classes. I agree with David that the most important
barrier to learning to draw is fear. I always point out that if one has
eye-hand co-ordination, one CAN learn to draw. Betty Edwards has some
good exercises which I have also used for beginner adults: drawing a
complicated line drawing upside down and so on. They are always amazed
to find that, yes, they can do it, and very well at that. Good luck with
your project - let me know how it goes and let me know also if I can
have a copy of your thesis when you get to bind it. My other passion is
'what drawers and artists/ writers 'saying'? Many of us will be very
interested in the findings of your research project so keep us posted,
my email is: [log in to unmask]
Best wishes,
Jan White
www.geocities.com/jmwh8981/index
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sahra Kunz
Sent: Thursday, 31 May 2007 2:01 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Teaching Drawing to Adults
Hello:
I am a doctorate student/university drawing teacher in Oporto
(Portugal),
and I am Writing my Doctoral Dissertation on the problems young adults
face
when trying to learn how to draw realistically (without previous
experience). I have an extensive bibliography on the same subject,
related
to children and their development in this subject (Matthews, Willats,
etc.).
So far, it has been very difficult to locate similar research, but
related
specifically to older subjects.
I would appreciate any help immensely.
Thank You
Sahra Kunz
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