Another busy week of art

My classes at Atelier Artista run everyday Monday - Friday. 

Drawing begins at 9am - 12:30 and Painting classes begin at 12:30. 

I also teach at other times throughout the week and on week-ends.

 On Wednesday Evenings, I regularly host figure drawing, find out more here: https://www.atelierartista.com/figure-drawing
Above is my drawing from last weeks Wednesday evening session.

 I was asked to hang some work at Holy Grill across fro MEC, They sent me the picture above.

 I got on the front cover of MRU's "reflector" newspaper for a course I've been building in creating Graphic Novels and comics. Read the article here:

http://www.thereflector.ca/2017/10/07/calgary-artist-brings-graphic-novels-alive-at-mru/

 On Friday's, after my "Full Figure" drawing human anatomy course I teach an afternoon elective at Waldorf School. Above is the project the kids accomplished this week.

 The "Keys to recovery" exhibition was a huge success.  3 of my students sold their work at Auction!!! Above is the curator with a piece by Aaron Sidorenko.  http://aaronsidorenko.ca/

 I got to pick op 4 works made by friends and hang them in my studio for the time being.

 I teach at ACAD in during the week in the evenings and two classes at ACAD on the week-end.

 In Drawing 1 we are working on creating the illusion of depth and form on a two dimensional surface. I cover concepts including orthographic and isometric projection.

 As we work towards graphical and linear perspective, 1 point and beyond.

In my Arts Academy we finish the last day of our drawing portion with a self portrait and measure of the face, before we move into paint.

It may seem like a lot, but variety is the spice of life.

There are so many interesting and creative things going on everyday in my life and at Atelier Artista. If you want to find out more, take a class, come draw figure on Wednesday nights or anything like that check out AteleirArtista.com and sign up for the newsletter for more updates!

F-F-F-Fabric

For my final drawing 1 class I taught how to plan and execute drawn fabric.

With some basic notes on the whiteboard and a handout we formulated a plan of attack. each student pinned the draping fabric along the wall before beginning.

 First by getting a good line drawing.

 Then by toning the overall value of the drapery.

 They by emphasizing the cast shadows and adding darker tones.

 Then erasing out for highlights and cleaning up around the drawn object.

 Ii think their pieces turned out fantastic.

We had a little critique and discussion at the end. Now my little birds have the skills to leave the nest and fly. (A small tear forms)

Skulls on toned paper

Today in drawing class we worked on one of my favourite techniques for creating representational form and dimensionality using tonal values.  The assignment was given after a demo on how to squint and see the darks apply them, then erase out the lights and to go back building up the forms with adding or taking away material but not relying on line to draw what they see. In no particular order are some of the images I snapped during class and to share with anyone interested or who missed class, you know who you are, hopefully this is helpful ;P

Like a proud father...

It is Father's day and I got up early to send my well wishes to my dad's.  Hopefully you have done this by now too. Now its time to turn the table a bit. I'm staying at home, making me a stay at home dad today. lol. Joking aside, I am like a proud father when my students and the people I work with achieve their goals. Sometimes I pull out my camera when I feel this way and write this blog to share it with you. So here is a bit of gushing over my "kids".

I am proud to announce my Blackfoot Graphic Novel is off to the printers so in a short time there will be 2000 copies of my participants and elders to be proud of all the hard work they accomplished. I also want to share some of my Drawing 1 students work from class this week that made me feel a bit like a father showing off 'cause he's so proud.

We did skull studies last week on toned paper. This is only the 4th class. It is the first time many of these students have not only drawing this way but also with charcoal as a material. Rather than go on and on about the process, the chamois etc. I think Ill just let you look at the drawings and their development for yourself. In no particular order. enjoy.

Back in the swing of things

Well I've been back at it, teaching and chores but before all of this I managed to squeak off a squeaky clean episode from my Japanese hotel bathtub. Watch below if this sort of thing seems interesting.

More to come from the far east in my you tube episodes.
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My summer courses at ACAD are underway and my students so far are doing great.  In my drawing 1 we have already begun our studies of line, followed by shape, tone and form. Here are some of the exercises form the previous weeks class.  We worked in graphite, with lit painted white shapes in order to help with understanding how to see and apply tone on paper to create a believable illusion.

The following weeks class we focused on how to construct objects in proper proportion with still life items brought in by each student in class.

We began with simple shapes as we did in the previous week, this time as f they were invisible crystal to help get their size, shape and form correctly placed in the visual space.

Even without the information of shading we can tell clearly where objects are because of their placement as well as proportion to other objects in the picture.

 They are progressing well through the steps and I'm sure if classes were more than 3 hrs long each they could bring these to proper completion. However, the lessons were learned and we can move onto the next step in progressing their drawing skills.