Tuesday, March 24, 2009

First Tutoring Session

Last Thursday. March 19th, was the first tutoring and I made some changes to the original plan during this session. My student is very intent on learning a number of things, and I have decided to attempt to teach him how to draw certain things, rather than a wide "how-to-draw" curriculum. He wants to learn to draw better women, animals, and more realistic proportions on his people. I consider myself good at proportions and women, so I feel like I actually have something to contribute on those subjects. Animals are not a particular strong point for me, but I can still help. We mostly worked from various "how-to-draw" books that he bought, and I decided at the end of the session that it was time to take the realistic next step from the copying from the books, copying from photographs. Copying from a drawing book is fairly basic, but with a photograph you have to make your own judgement calls about lights and darks and where to put the lines. I wouldn't consider drawing from a "how-to-draw" book drawing from a reference, but I definitely would consider drawing from a photograph to be that. If my student is going to take the next step then he needs to start drawing from photos and then drawing from life. If he becomes competent at drawing from references, I think that it will become easier for him to master the "manga" style of art that he is really trying to achieve. If someone can draw realistically, it is much easier to draw in a cartoon style because you then know what proportions and features to exaggerate. This Thursday I gave him a homework assignment to draw girl's faces from photographic reference and I am going to bring in a few photographs of women and animals to draw quick sketches off of. This will be the first step in him becoming able to whip up a drawing without needing a specific reference.

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