Christmas Party videos...go figure..

"One must from time to time attempt things that                                              are beyond one's capacity." Auguste Renoir I decided again this year, since I was scheduled to teach on the last day before our Christmas  break, to treat my students to a wee party.  I brought in Swiss Miss hot chocolate and a box of Gansitos (small chocolate covered cakes with filling).  I told them they could work on their art or sit and talk, but no games.  In the midst of this "inactivity", a couple of the students actually got  out their work and spent some time on it.  I took the liberty of recording about a minute of each of these students at work.  The sounds and music you hear in the background is just my ipod hooked  up to a speaker.  Enjoy.

I showed you SaVonne's work in an earlier blog post.  She is now using ebony pencil to capture the
essence of DYNAMIC lights and darks in her drawing.  When the period was over, she packed her
drawing up with a couple of spare pencils and took it home to work on it over the holiday.  Can't wait
to see it when it's finished.


Jennifer just began working on this floral drawing the day before.  We had looked together at some
value drawings of flowers and she decided she liked this approach.  I enjoyed watching her spend her
time slowly building the values.


Crystal found a book I had brought in on drawing and was captivated by the section on hands.  She
had drawn a few hands up the side of her paper.  We talked about how she was going to deal with the
larger composition.  She said she wanted to draw a larger version in the center.  I gave her a piece of
transparency, she put it on the overhead, and traced the larger hand.  Here, she is beginning the process
of creating a value drawing of that larger hand.  This student has not, in the past, seemed very motivated to work on her projects.  I get the feeling that this is one she will stick with and do a good job with.

I'm off for Germany for the holidays.  I may or may not post while I'm gone.  Chances are I will because
my daughter Angela will probably bring up something, we'll have discussion, and it will invariably lead
to a post.  If not, see you next year.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.