Session 2 Quick Face

I took a break from my photoshop class today to inspire my campers artistic drive. I brought up an old drawing of mine just to play around with some of the new material I was teaching them. They were incredibly impressed. I took apart the drawing piece by piece, showing them my exact process, how a lot of it was much easier than it looked. They were completely in awe. I then told them my story of how I started drawing, and how I'm not a natural artist by any stretch of the word, that I practiced and practiced and seven years later finally have a little bit to show for it. Most of my campers really believed that just because they could only draw a stick figure meant that they'd never be able to draw. It really opened their eyes to what they could achieve just by working at something they had a passion for. This goes for everyone reading this. I am not a natural artist. I worked my way up from clumsy stick figures, learning every stroke, every line, every curve and angle. Piece by piece, slowly experimenting and improving and reaching out and expanding my skills. It's been 7 years since I started that process and I'm still far behind the skills of some of my close friends, who I'd consider natural artists. However, it just pushes me to be better every day. This picture you see above was a comparison picture. I drew the same head the way I would have in 6th, 7th, 9th and 11th grade, to show them where I've been and how I've developed. This is in no way my best work, as it was drawn in about 5 minutes as a demonstration. But the story behind it will mean something to me for the rest of my life.

I will never forget those kid's eyes lighting up when they realized that they could be artists, too, if they wanted it enough.