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?

EXTREME CONCENTRATION

Accessing Right Brain is easy for these young ones.

They've had several months practice.

The key,

to present the left side of the brain

 (dominant side in most people)

with a task it will turn down.

So get comfortable,

don't talk for at least 20 minutes,

 and stare at the item you want to draw for 30 seconds,

and boom,

you should be there.

Of course,

 a bit of instrumental music wafting in the background doesn't hurt.

Once you are in Right Mode,

these things should happen:

A) you should loose track of time

B) be alert yet relaxed

C) words will recede from your consciousness (which means you don't want to talk)

&

D) you become free of anxiety

Wow,

Sounds pretty good,

 right?

It is,

 a natural high!

:)

Here are senior Cathy Huang (above) and junior Karna Errande (below) 

in deep right brain activity.

Notice how clever both kids are to figure out a way to suspend the leaves they are drawing.

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.

RECORD EVERY NUANCE YOU SEE

MODIFIED CONTOUR DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

Before I share the Right Brain Before & After Profiles,

I'd like to show several preliminary exercises leading up to them.

These are called Modified Contour drawings.

Dr. Betty Edwards goes into great detail in her book

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain about them,

and they are a wonderful exercise to learn to see every detail in an object,

 and to record it for greater realism.

To do them  you are allowed to look at the paper occasionally when drawing,

but not the entire time.

So there will be a bit of distortion and exaggeration,

but that's the nature of this technique,

 and it's OK.

We start off with hands.

I have the kids position their hands in an interesting/difficult pose

to help hold the right brain's attention.

What's very cool is that each child has a different way of touching the paper with their pencil,

so that their personal style develops right off the bat.

The hand below is the work of senior Emily Allan.

Notice that Emily almost has a pointillist way of recording line.

And these next two are done by juniors Jazzarie Lo and Malaya Sithichai.

Jazzerie took me literally (which I love),

and did indeed record every single little edge she ran into.

And check out that lovely cuff below that Mayala has drawn.

Then we go onto shoes.

These beauties were drawn by juniors Mikaela Guerrero and Eileen Lee.

Both these girls put in a tremendous amount of effort in their renderings.

I was especially impressed with the almost gesture quality of Eileen's lines.

The kids voted her drawings as some of the best and favorites in the class.

And this sneaker by Malaya.

Know that if you try this exercise with laced shoes, 

your left brain will try to take over the drawing when you get to the laces.  

I see it all the time. 

By I warn the kids ahead of time,

and Malaya stayed in right brain the whole way thru this drawing.

Pine cones are incredibly difficult 

and force you to do deeply into right brain to even attempt to record them.

The spectacular one below was the work of Jazzarie.

A REMARKABLE RESEMBLENCE

BEFORE AND AFTER DRAWINGS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

graphite on paper

I look forward all year long to sharing these drawings.

And I'm so sorry beginners that it's taken me so long to get them up.

You are seeing where each child's drawing level was when they came to me in September,

 and where they are now after instruction.

I teach from Dr. Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book,

and as you will see the results are remarkable.

First we are seeing the marked improvement junior Risha Bhakta made 

of model junior Sneha Krish.

And here is 8th grader Sara Ryave's portrait of junior Christopher Wongsavanh.

It was one of the finest portraits in the class!

Junior Jane Juan drew junior Kyla Balquin,

and all the other students marveled at her amazing background.

It was like an illustration you'd find in a fairy tale book.

You may have noticed that several of these kids came to me with some drawing skills already.

But no matter where you are, 

Betty's book and exercises help you to improve...a lot!

Another 8th grader,

Emily Chen,

worked with senior Cyrus Salvani and nailed her drawing of him.

Junior Charity came in with very good skills,

but just look at where she ended using model senior Melissa Lanto.

All the students felt like this work by junior Bernice Lin was one of the most beautifully drawn.

So many lovely details recorded for all to see.

I am so excited to see what you will create your senior year Bernice.

And the teaser that you saw last week was done by Chris of Sara.

Again,

one of the strongest pieces in the class.

I was lucky enough to take Betty's class in 1982 to learn how to draw better and to learn about the functioning of the right side of the brain and how it affects the creative process.

It was truly an aha moment for me in my own work and as a teacher of art.

I highly recommend the book if you haven't had a chance to read it yet.

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!

Everyday is a Joy...

when you love your job.  Here is a sneak peek at my Beginning 2-D students drawing on location outside my classroom door.  They were so focused and in right brain that they didn't even know I took their picture  :)  

Thank you sweet ones for being attentive, respectful, hardworking, and responsible young ones.  

You make me so happy and bring great joy into my life!!

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  :)  

Modified Contour Drawings - Shoes - Student Work

Here are more "Right Brain Drawings" by my Beginning 2-D kids.  These were also done in the Modified Contour Style meaning that the students are only looking at their paper about 25 per cent of the time as they draw.

The lovely skate above was drawn by junior Anne Allan.  Anne came to me with some drawing skills but now she has gotten so much better.  It's been an exciting transformation for all these kids.

The very detailed shoe above was drawn by junior Cathy Luo, one of my future superstars, and below is senior Ashley Chowdhury's boot, who is off to FIDM in the fall.  Check out Ashley's zipper, beautiful work kiddo!

Modified Contour Pinecones - Student Work

Pinecones are one of the most complex and difficult things I ask my students to draw, but I don't tell them that till after it's over  LOL.  These where done only after about two weeks into the Right Brain unit.  amazing, right?

Above we have senior Alice Zhang and below 8th grader Annie Oh again.  Annie is one of my youngest up and coming superstars. 

Modified Contour Hands - Student Work

For 2 months of the school year I take my Beginning 2-D art students thru the first half of Dr. Betty Edward's "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain " book which teaches them to draw by accessing the right side of the brain and it's functions.  One of the many exercises is called Modified Contour which means they have to stare at their hand and draw it, looking at their paper only about 25 % of the time.  The drawing takes about 45 mins.  By not looking at their paper too often they are able to record great realistic detail along all the interior and exterior edges of the hand.  The piece turn out amazingly well.  And for many of these beginners, it's their first time drawing since 1st and 2nd grade.

Above we have the incredible work of 8th grader Annie Oh.  Her attention to detail is truly remarkable.  Annie was one of my most talented 7th graders last school year.

Below is junior Cathy Luo's work.  Drawing a finger to slightly bend inside is extremely difficult, but Cathy nails it.

And then we have the very expressive left hand of junior Anne Allan, complete with wrist watch.  Fantastic job Anne!

I will be showcasing more of their right brain exercises this weekend..