FOR YOU LIZ FROM TEXAS

BEFORE & AFTER

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

I get so many great responses when I show off these Before & After Drawings,

especially from my student's faithful follower Liz Ackert from I'm Going to Texas blog fame.

I teach drawing out of Dr. Betty Edward's classic book

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,

and take my beginners thru the first half,

 and my Intermediates thru the second half of her book.

I started teaching with her exercises after I snuck into her college class at CSULB 

as a Non Art Major  Ha!

And even though I already knew how to draw,

I really didn't know how to teach others to do it.

The big jump in my own levels was astounding to me,

and as you will see

the results here are just as remarkable as you will see from this group from last school year.

Enjoy,

and prepare to be shocked!!

It takes about 4 1/2 months to get the kids thru the drawing exercises to this finished After Portrait.

(above right)

I try to pair them up with someone they do not know (less chance of being distracted).

I ask them to draw each other in profile and do the best they can without any instruction

(drawing on the left).

I never know at what level they will come in at.

Sometimes as low as 1st & 2nd grade all the way up thru about 9th grade drawing level.

Then I don't allow the kids to see their Before

 until they are mounted next to their Afters at Open House.

It's so much fun watching them react to their improvements.

And there is always improvement!

This first one was done by senior Jessica Mones of 8th grader Brandon Delgado.

Remarkable right??

Here we have 8th grader Summer Lee

making a huge jump in skill levels drawing 8th grader Risha Cenidoza .

Lovely Summer!

And how about this one by senior David Tung capturing 8th grader Siddhant Watwani.

Dang!

Junior Esther Ahn has come in with really nice skills

and is now drawing almost photorealistically of junior Kiana Sanchez.

This is junior Ellya Gholmieh being drawn by 8th grader Madison Plotkin.

Very Rubenesque wouldn't you say of both.

Amazing work Madison!

And this is the spitting image of junior Phoebe Lao drawn by 8th grader Eric Ren.

Wow Eric,

you nailed her!

What a huge jump this is for junior Steffany Reyes.

Tremendous job woman!

And make sure to look closely at the folds in the hoodie in the After of 8th grader Tin Pham.

This last piece was drawn by junior Manishka Ranjit who also came in with some drawing skills.

But man oh man,

has her style become so much more realistic and clean.

Way to go young ones!!!

AFTER INSTRUCTION

BEFORE & AFTER

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

One of my favorite times of the year is the unveiling of the Before & After Instruction Drawings.

Students are paired with each other at the beginning of 2nd Quarter

and told to do the best they can and draw each other in profile.

Many of these kids have little drawing skills (from about 5 years old to about 1st grade)

but others come to me with various levels,

anywhere from 2nd grade thru about 11th grade level.

And every year I never know what I'm going to get.

Teaching from Dr. Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side Of the Brain,

I take the students thru the first half of her book using only right brain exercises.

Then the kids are partnered back up and redraw each other to see if they've made progress.

These Before and After pieces are mounted next to each other and are on display for the school to see and at Open House Nite for the parents to view.

What is so much fun is the kids have forgotten how they used to draw 

so are usually thrilled with the After results.

I know I am!

Right before they begin the After drawings,

 I take them thru basic head formulas to show them where the features of the face and head are located both on a Frontal view as well as the Profile.

Then I ask for a volunteer to decorate these heads.

Here senior Melissa Ongko has volunteered to do the honors.

Now let's take a peek at a few at their results.

We start with Melissa's Before & After.

She came to me with about 9th grade drawing skills already in place

and ended up at college level skills.

She was partnered with junior Michelle Hyun.

Michelle's auntie was a student of mine back in the day.

That's when you know you are getting really old.

Hee hee

Next up is junior Tiffany Chen

Her skills were pretty remarkable in her Before 

and her After is exquisite!

She nailed junior Willam Tan.

Junior Sarah Oh came in with about 11th grade skills 

and ended up with a drawing of senior Christley Agbaroji that is almost photorealistic.

And we end with junior Christian Balbido and his Before and After of senior Deborah Harris.

Remarkable isn't it?

A LITTLE LATE

Oops,

I meant to insert this pix in the Before & After post
to show how the kids are setup to draw each other,
and how seriously they take it.
We have to have them fairly close & across from each other,
the model sitting in profile.
The kids pull the desks apart to give themselves a better vantage point.
Notice how junior Ayesha Durrani (foreground right) is using a clipboard to hold her paper up
so she can constantly scan her proportions.
She is also using her pencil to measure distances.
These are all little tips from Dr. Betty Edwards book
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR NEXT WEEK

The Before and Afters

from my Beginning 2-D kids.

Drawing each other in profile,

 we see where each child was at the beginning of the class and then after instruction

from the infamous book Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Dr. Betty Edwards.

Best in Class

I'm sure many of you out there recognize this caricature of  Igor Stravinsky drawn by Picasso from Dr. Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

I use it as a resource with my 7th graders as a helpful tool/trick when teaching them about drawing.

(see Betty Edwards book in how to use it)

Well,

 one of my sweetest and cutest 7th graders, 

Seth Sapinoso,

was so thrilled after he finished this drawing and it turned out so well,

that he asked if I was going to post it on my blog?

Adorable, 

right??

You betcha Seth!

Here ya go!

Before and After Portraits - Student Work

In this top piece we have junior Alex Lee's remarkable likeness of senior David Kim.

These are always so exciting to show off, the progress that my Beginning 2-D kids made in their drawing skills.  I partnered them up with each other at the beginning of year and asked them to draw each other as best they could in profile.  Then I kept those first drawings safe, and onward we went as I taught them the first part of Dr. Betty Edwards book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".  Then about 3 months later I had them draw each other again to see the progress they'd made, and sure enough, each of the students had grown so much in their realistic skill level.  And what's so interesting, each of these kids came in at different levels.  This year I had kids coming in between 4th grade level thru high school.  But several of them ended at a college level.  You can imagine how proud of am of these hard working young ones! 

Below is the exact likeness of senior Louis Manuel by senior Sheila San Agustin.

This next one is a bit hard to see, but it was done in the very sensitive style that junior Hannah Hwang developed in the class of 8th grader Nathan Lam.

Senior Ashley Chowdhury drew a beautiful portrait of junior Judy Shih below.

And junior Deena Younan really managed to capture sophomore Jovani Garcia,

while junior Cathy Luo impressed us all with her exact likeness of junior Alex Rendon.

And what a lovely portrait senior Alice Zhang drew of  senior Sally Choi above.

And then there is the extraordinary work of junior Anne Allan who has drawn sophomore Matthew Chou.

Well, what do you think?

Send me your comments, would love to hear from you.

Thanks  :)  

Before/After Drawings - Student Art

In the drawing portion of my beginning art course, I teach out of Dr. Betty Edwards "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book and achieve amazing results with my students. I personally was able to take Betty's course when she taught it at CSULB in 1982, and I was shocked at how much my drawing skills improved during the course of her class, and how painless and fun it was. I teach the first half of her book to my beginning students and the second half to my intermediate group. So what you are seeing here in these next few posts are the kid's before instruction drawings of their models on the left, and then mounted to the right are their after instruction drawings done about 2 months later. Depending on how well the student follows directions usually determines how big of a jump they will see at Open House time when I post them side by side for all to view. This first one was done by senior Krystal Rodriguez of 8th grader Kevin Tang. Krystal just won first place in a costume design competition sponsered by CSULB, so congradulations to you woman, you are on your way! Not sure why a couple of these posts have a turquoise tint. Oh well, they kinda look cool like that.

Kristina Le came to me with the strongest drawing skills in the class, and because she works so hard and takes direction so well look at where she is now. Her after drawing of junior Mary Lou Bunn is remarkably realistic and makes her before look pretty weak in comparison. Congrats Kristina for the strongest after in the class. :)

This incredibly realistic after drawing was done by 8th grader Hannah Park of junior Robert Dohring. Hannah came to me with amazing art skills and is one of my top students in the beginning art class. But look where she's at now. Wow, unbelievable, and she's still so young!

This lovely, sensitive after drawing was done by senior Rachel Rilloraza of senior Samantha Bhuiyan. Rachel is drawing so much more realistically now.

This one belongs to junior Andrew Huang and 8th grader David Wang was his model, and as you can see he came to me with some drawing skills already under his belt. But by teaching with Betty Edward's techniques you can improve no matter at what level you began.

I saved the best til last. This is junior Robert Dohring's portrait of 8th grader Hannah Park. I think Robert made the biggest improvement, and it was so exciting when we hung them side by side so he could see for himself. Way to go Robert!