An Illustrated Life

by daniel on December 9, 2009

I am sitting out in my dungeon where I should be taking an active roll in doing my homework. It is finals week after all. Distracting me from my homework at the moment isAn Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers that my dear friend Alex sent me. The book shows pages from sketchbooks of artists. Each section is only a few pages long and has about a half a dozen or more pages from each persons sketchbook. Each artist is different and uses their sketchbook for different things. Each artist writes a small essay detailing why they do what they do. At the moment I can’t put the book down. It is beautiful. Every page inspires me more to pull out my sketchbook and draw something. Of course that is funny because I have not motivated myself to draw my final for my class yet. Either way this is a beautiful book and should be in every artist collection.

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Teacher Selection Makes the Difference.

by daniel on September 12, 2009

Trying to learn something new like drawing can be challenging. It is no secret to most people that I had a difficult first semester at the Academy. My Analysis of Form class made me want to quit school at least once a week. I went to class each day but felt that I was on my own. Every student was far ahead of me in drawing skill and I was not improving at all. While this teacher was a gifted artist she was not skilled in teaching. She failed to explain key concepts in a way that I could understand. I was holding my pencil incorrectly though the whole class and never once did she suggest I correct the problem. Unfortunately I found myself in the situation of having to repeat the class.

This semester I made sure I got the teacher I wanted. Adam Caldwell has been an excellent teacher. I learned more in the first two hours of his class than I had learned the previous semester in school. He started with the most basics of how to use your tools and moved on to more difficult tasks. He is always helping students understand what they need to do to be a great artist. This semester I will be successful in the class.

So what did I learn from this? First if you get in a class with a professor you don’t like get out of there quickly. Don’t wait like I did until it was too late. Secondly ask around your classmates for teacher recommendations. They will tell you the truth. And if all else fails check out professor rating websites.

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The Adventure Begins Anew

August 28, 2009

Summer has gone and tonight is the first night of new student orientation activities at Academy of Art University. Last night way my boyfriends last night at his job he has held about three years, because this semester my boyfriend has decided to join me at art school. He is working on his MFA in [...]

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