BACKED INTO A CORNER

CORNER OF THE ROOM DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, fine felt tip & watercolor accents

Every year these drawings get more and more complex and creative.

The assignment was to draw the corner of my room using Dr. Betty Edwards Sighting approach

from her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

It's too tricky to explain,

only the book will do.

But basically it's 1 & 2 Point Perspective using more of an intuitive process

that is a must read in her book with great diagrams to help understand.

So anyways,

we practice this skill in several smaller drawings 

then I ask the kids to pick a corner of my room to sit in front of 

and draw a point of view drawing. 

They must decide after the foundations of the walls and corner are in

if they want to embellish with surrealistic details,

or just leave it be and not add anything that isn't already there.

Let's see which way they went.

We start with junior Manishka Ranjit,

one of the most imaginative students in the class.

She went all out and did a bit of both,

plus she went way beyond the graphite required and adding pen & ink and watercolor.

So much fun to figure out and explore!

Next,

check out this impressive attention to detail and craftsmanship by 8th grader Ashley Lee.

Yes,

that's right,

8th grader!

Another of the requirements was to add both simulated and real texture.

She did a brilliant job with this as well as adding rich nighttime color with stars.

And talk about added color,

another 8th grader,

 Madison Plotkin,

 brought in gorgeous amazing color thru her watercolor skills.

And with her incredible drawing skills,

 she turned the clay damp room into an undersea adventure.

Then junior Esther Ahn  decided to really go for it 

and drew everything she saw on my checkout counter,

even the cup of spilled paint.

But as you look up you see the room starting to bust apart,

walls cracking open and so forth.

So cool Esther!

And wonderful projection too.

We end with junior Steffany Reyes who brings a frightening serpent from the cracking ceiling tiles,

and turns the walls ino windows of an Asian countryside.

Fabulous woman!!

WHO'S IN YOUR CORNER?

CORNER OF THE ROOM

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, watercolor accents, colored pencil accents, felt tip marker accents

I will always be honest with you here,

so let me tell you one of the least favorite assignments of my Art I kids 

is to draw on location,

 a corner of my room.

The reasoning behind this horrendous task

 is to allow the kids to practice and perfect their

Dr. Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Sighting skills.

Sighting is another way to teach perspective but way faster.

But the kids hate it because it requires them to use some left brained skills

involving rulers and measuring to get distance and correct angles.

But it's like any new global skill,

once they learn it they will always remember it and it becomes easy,

 like riding a bike.

In this first one,

11th grader Nara Choi took off like gangbusters

 because she knew she wanted to get to the watercolor and sparkly things.

The kids have a choice to draw exactly what they see happening on the walls and cabinets,

or to make something up to put into the corner.

Everyone loved Nara's finished piece,

the whimsy and color really made her work pop.

Sarah Oh, 

11th grader as well,

thoroughly got into the assignment too.

After she finished drawing with her pencil,

she brought in watercolor and pen & ink which made this work extra special.

Was color required?

Nope,

just if you wanted to and if you had the time.

Do I give Extra Credit for going above and beyond?

You bethcha!

Here we have senior Cathy Huang with this very soft & delicate piece.

She chose to draw the area right above my teacher desk.

I really enjoyed how she captured the branch of Bougainvillea

that 2014 art student Alex Lee donated to the room several years back. 

And if you look very closely you will see a dragon sitting on top of the shelf on the right.

Cathy made that in her 8th or 9th grade year from her aluminum lunch wrappers,

and it's been there ever since.

I really enjoyed how senior Melissa Ongko turned my sink corner

into an ocean themed wonderland.

I'm pretty sure she used colored pencil but honestly I can't remember 

from this photo.  

Could have been watercolor too.

All's I know is that I really liked it!

Look closely at the texture see rubbed onto the walls.

One of my personal favorites was this one by junior Tiffany Chen.

As a child I always loved playing with miniatures,

I think we called them Tumbellina dolls.

I still have mine in hopes that my first granddaughter will play with it.

So I adored how she put the tiny girl atop the bird to fly thru the room to it's nest.

In fact,

there were many small,

cool details to find and explore.

I could totally see Tiffany building this magical journey 

into a children's book complete with illustrations.

And last but never least is upcoming superstar,

 8th grader Ashley Gong.

Just look at the energy and effort she brought to this work!

Wow Ashley,

this is powerful!

Bravo young woman  :)

and kudos to all of you who rose above this awful assignment

hee hee

I felt your pain since I also had to do this when I took Betty's class back in 1982.

WHO'S IN YOUR CORNER?

CORNER OF THE ROOM DRAWING

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

It's always so much fun to see the liberties the kids take when they draw the corner of my room.

Their only requirement is to draw the corner foundation correctly,

but then they can get as crazy creative as they want.

The technique we use is called "Sighting",

and it's basically perspective but taught a bit differently.

For more on it see Dr. Betty Edwards book

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

I'm starting with an incredibly talented young woman,

junior Malaya Sithichoi.

She has impressed me so very much this year with her work ethic, 

positive attitude and as you can see her gift of drawing.

Just wish this was a bit darker so you could enjoy it even more. 

Next we have another amazing talent,

junior Ayesha Durrani.

She picked a very difficult corner to deal with but pulled it off beautifully

and with great skill and playfulness. 

In this next sensitive & lovely piece

 junior Eileen Lee has actually drawn the watercolor images on the wall,

so well in fact,

 that I recognize the art pieces.

And then I adore the sweet butterflies she has added that are flitting about the room.

Next we have junior Jazz Lo,

another skilled young artist with great potential,

who has turned my walls into an aquarium.

Delightful!

And we end with sophomore Matthew Flores whose skills have grown by leaps and bounds this year.

He is one of the most hardworking young men in the class

and comes in often to spend extra time on his pieces.

I'm thrilled to say that all these young ones will be back next year for another art class with me.

I'm so excited to be working with them again 

and have my fingers crossed that my class will fit into their schedules.

TO ALTER REALITY OR NOT?

CORNER OF THE ROOM

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

Every year these sited corner of my classroom drawings become more and more fun and creative.

Are they required to alter reality?

No,

but I do encourage them to do so for EXTRA CREDIT

So let's take a peek.

I want to start with junior Jane Juan 

who is by far one of the most talented self-taught artists I've worked with in a long time.

Jane is willing to send hours and hours on her pieces to show great attention to detail and shading.

All the other students are in awe of her skills, 

and this piece was the first to sell at our Open House this year.

Miss Sara,

aide to one of our 7th graders,

 is the proud and thrilled new owner.

Another up and coming talent is junior Risha Bhakta.

The projection she was able to achieve in this work really made it stand out from the others.

Also notice all the great textual marks she laid down with her pencil.

Senior Cyrus Salvani choose to go inside my kiln room to draw from (a dark ad scary place)

 and created this gorgeous,

 visually textual work.

Notice the pointillist technique he is employing to create value.

And check out super star 8th grader Sara Ryave with her "Don't Blink" piece.

It really showcases her playfulness,

personality,

and creativity 

All my 8th graders have impressed me so much this year.

This very sensitive, 

well thought out piece belongs to junior Sneha Krish.

Love how she thought to use text on the ceiling which gives the feeling of a spider web.

This next highly expressive work was done by junior Bernice Lin.

What I see so often these days are the kids putting their feelings,

 hopes and fears into their art pieces.

I feel this is a very healthy coping technique,

 and I encourage my students to do that thru their art.

Junior Christopher Wongsavanh was able to simulate an atmospheric environment thru shading

 and the use of his eraser.

Clever young man!

And here is another of my amazing 8th graders,

Emily Chen.

Love that she thought to overlay colored pencil on top of the graphite to add interest,

 value and texture.

And then there is senior Suha Malik.

I'll never know why she waited so long to take an art class. 

She came to me incredibly talented

 and I would have loved working with her for at least one more year.

Oh well,

that's how the cookie crumbles here in my little art world.

It's been fun watching her skill level go from good to great!

And lastly I share with you one of my favorite students this year,

sweetest of all hearts,

junior Hazel Cruz.

I have Hazel in two of my classes

 and she brings so much creativity into all her pieces.

She is delightful,

and has a positive, generous spirit. 

Love you girl!

Turning Reality into Fantasy

SIGHTING CORNER OF MY ROOM

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite, ink and paper

My beginning art students have been working their tails off for me learning to draw and design.  I'll be posting their before and afters very soon so you can see the progress they've made.

In this assignment I teach them how to sight proportions and angles.  Then I ask them to pick a corner of my room to draw.  I also encourage the kids to get creative and add surrealistic details to make the room more visually interesting.  They never disappoint.

In this top piece senior Erin Sun has brought my room to life, as well as passing along a really strong message.

Senior Yoobin Han brings us this delightful story with her adorable little figures coming out of the basket to frolic in the room after lights are out.

Her attention to detail is incredible!

This next work by junior Michael Cantu is very complex and so well thought out and developed.

The flight of the birds is so realistic, and the cityscape below so intricate.

Once again, I'm very impressed with you Michael.

Senior Jackie chose a very difficult corner with tons of angles, and then the best part is that she put herself on the top shelf reading a book.  

Love that!

Senior Alex Arias constantly surprises me with the natural skills that he brings to my class.

Alex is our super star co-captain and pitcher of our boy's Varsity Baseball team.  I love when he and senior Cole Mesa, our other co-captain and shortstop ask me to come watch their games.

And then there is sophomore Elias Rodriguez who always goes above and beyond my wildest expectations.  

There he is in his piece.  

He's built his face with many layers of cutout paper as well as adding ink to the graphite.

He is my hardest working student. 

 He knows he needs to be because he wants to be an art major and knows how saturated and competitive the field has become.

Sighted Drawings - Student Work

These drawings were done by my Beginning 2-D students after I taught them Dr. Betty Edward's sighting technique from her book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".  Sighting is the way the Old Masters like Leonardo did perspective.  When the kids get to Intermediate 2-D we cover 1 & 2 Point Perspective methods.

So I asked the beginner's to pick a corner of my room and sight the basic foundation walls/floor/ceiling structure.  Then they were to alter it with some fantasy art.  These were my four favorite results.

The one above was done by junior Judy Shih and below we have senior Sheila San Agustin.  Both girls spent hours and hours on their details.

This next one by senior Alice Zhang is so playful and fun, and then below junior Anne Allan has gone all out with her corner, even adding a touch of iridescent color.  Can you find it?

I have such an extraordinary talent pool of beginner's this year as you can see, and they are working their behinds off for me.  Come see these pieces and so much more this coming Wednesday nite, April 17th for our Annual Art Show and Sale.

Sighting - Corner of Art Room

When I'm teaching my beginning 2-d students to draw, we go thru a unit on perspective, but I teach it using Dr. Betty Edward's Right Brain technique called "sighting".  It involves closing your weak eye, extending your arm out, locking your elbow and measuring distances and sighting angles.  It works really well and the kids use it to draw a corner of my room from either a one or two-point perspective place.

This top one was drawn by superstar senior Tiffany Yeh.  She went all out with her piece.  And no, this is not what my art room looks like normally  LOL.

I ask the kids to alter reality in their pieces, so that's why all this cool stuff is going on.

I believe senior Joan Kim drew the one above, and sophomore Megan Yeu created the one below.

I have several very talented sophomores coming up in the ranks, and the very expressive one above was done by Jessica Perez.

This next one was drawn by senior Archie Ravichandran who will be in the dorms next year with my daughter Dani at Cal Poly Pomona.  I've got my fingers crossed, I'm hoping they will be roommates.

Below we have another sophomore, Shiree Lee, whom I'm hoping will be coming back to me next year.

Next is very talented senior William Luo who I have enjoyed getting to know and working with very much this year.

And below his is junior Halah Elsahhar.  She has playfully turned my glass doors into candy bars for a very sweet piece.

And last but never least is senior Joseph Pang below with his adorable walrus' playing cards.

Fabulous job all of you and thank you for working so hard for me all the time.  I've really enjoyed you beginners this year.  You are a very talented bunch.