Dan Nowak

An Illustrated Life

daniel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:31:35 +0000

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.

Teacher Selection Makes the Difference.

daniel — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:20:33 +0000

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.

The Adventure Begins Anew

daniel — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:10:20 +0000

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 Television and Film and I am continuing my BFA in Illustration. If two of us being in school while not being gainfully employed wasn’t enough we have decided to move into the second most expensive city in the United States. Yes we have moved to San Francisco. Currently we live just outside of the Haight Ashbury district. I have to say living in this city is amazing.

With us both in school and living in a new city we decided to take advantage of the new student actives. Tonight starts with a simple movie night in our theater. Followed by an Scavenger hunt tomorrow. We are also going to do the photo tour, drawing workshop and a few other activities. Really the best reason to go is to check out all the cute new freshmen.

Classes for me this semester are Analysis of Form (into to drawing), Figure Drawing (drawing nude people), Figure Modeling (sculpting nude people), and English. Yes art students have to take all the general education classes too. I will post my school work here as much as possible.