Spot-On: Spot Illustrations

Here's some of the more awesome examples of the student work turned in for the last assignment. These were all based on field-sketches done for reference while out on one of our museum trips, and also served as experimental pieces with the new medium of pen & ink.

Another one of those bonus days that makes you feel just simply mighty inside as a teacher, as I was very impressed with the overall result of this particular exercise. Also it was most excellent to duly note the great strides in progress made on an individual level as many students seemed to turn the corner on the semester and begin to apply the cumulative lessons from everything covered so far, bringing all the factors to bear on their pieces. A couple tragic victims were included, but we still have a way to go...



Also especially good to observe a few special cases that really took to the pen & ink and discovered something that worked better for them as far as a different way to draw, while still looking at it the same i.e. using the very same tools of perception and understanding the processes in creating a work. Some beautiful mark-making using both traditional dip-pens along with Micron/PITT Pens, even a few Sharpies and ballpoint pen masterpieces. A meta-lesson in we discussed that these works are now ready to be used, somewhere, for something - the potential applicability for these spot illustrations in a commercial context is wide open with possibilities.

So it was with great pride I put up a new display in the department's hallway showcases of pretty much all the pieces from this class. This was also an opportunity to see what photocopied reductions onto 8.5x11" paper would look like, and virtually all of the drawings held up, making for a uniformly impressive little show. It was also somewhat of a seed-planting inspirational cue to do the formal review of these works while in the Bear Gallery - putting them up against the walls got the subliminal message across that their works can and in some cases did stand up to many of the pieces (in my biased opinion) in the current exhibit. In other words - "Your Picture Here."

"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." - Robert Half