Crealde Panorama 1

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After five days of COVID-19 quarantine, I was cleared to go back to teaching classes in person at Crealde. I tested negative for the virus and returned to the campus several days later. It was a nice morning so we sketched outside. I managed to completely forget my art supply bag, so instead I found a pencil in the summer camp supplies and sketched on a bit of table top paper. I didn’t have watercolors so I was only able to do line art.

The point of this class was to have students do a series of nine small thumbnail drawings to fill  page. With the layout I suggested three thumbnail drawings would line up across three stacked lines. I decided to simply stitch three thumbnails together to create panoramas. I scanned the drawings back at my home studio and then finished them off as digital paintings.

My first piece of advice is always to stay in the shade since the Florida Sun can be brutal. Most of the students stayed on the back patio area which is covered. As the sketches progressed it gradually grew hotter. There are ceiling fans in the rafters of the back patio but I couldn’t figure out where the switch was. Several texts to colleagues finally uncovered the secret, the switch was in the art studio next to my classroom. The fans made a huge difference.

Some students however ventured out to other parts of the campus and one misjudged how much shade she had. I  think she ended up in the direct sunlight and she returned to the classroom to finish her sketches in the air conditioning.

One student hunted down all the female nude sculptures around the property. I had never realized just how many nudes there were. As an urban sketcher it is very seldom that I will be sketching a nude. People tend to wear clothes at events in public. Yet the nude seems to be the predominant subject among the sculptures on property.

All of my students are women in this session at Crealde. That leaves me wondering why men don’t seem to have an interest in sketching. It is a real mystery.

Crealde 2 Point

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At my Crealde Urban Sketching class I worked hard to socially distance my students when we worked in the classroom. I would carry a six foot long staff with me to class to be sure students were more than six feet apart. I would leave the classroom door open to get some cross breeze and I organized the table into a large square positioning each student at a corner.

Masks were required at Crealde at the time but that mandate has been dropped. Thankfully I haven’t been back in the classroom since the masking has been dropped.

This sketch was done as a demo after I introduced students to the idea of using two point perspective in a sketch. They were tasked with including as many other students as they could in their sketch.

As I worked on my sketch I walked around at each phase to show the students how much work was involved with the pencil rough, the inking and the final watercolor. I also offered each student individualized sketch suggestions to incorporate into their sketch.

Most of our work was done outside, but for one class I wanted to convey how to sketch people and place them inside a room.  Much of the challenge comes in getting students to understand how to use horizontal, vertical, parallel and diagonal lines. I am convinced that basic geometry should be a requirement for any student of art. I work my students hard but those who are up to the task start producing some amazing work.

Crealde COVID Classroom

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At my Crealde Urban Sketching Class I usually have one lesson inside while the other 5 lessons are outside.The goal of the one indoor class is to teach the students how to draw the classroom using one point or two point perspective. My sketch is done in two point perspective.

Before class I remove most of the tables and leave just one table for each student. My goal is to remove any chance of students sitting too close together. In the foreground of my sketch is the 6 foot long staff I bring to every class. I literally carry it around like Moses as a visual reminder that I need to keep 6 feet from students. Each table is 6 feet wide so that is another visual reminder. I sat more than six feet away by the open classroom door.

Next to the six foot staff is a rolled up drawing on brown paper that is a three dimensional map of the room with an orthographic view from above and orthographic views of the walls. When taped into a cube shape it is a decent representation of the room. The basic lesson is that an artist maps out his view of everyday places and events.

The next series of six Urban Sketching classes starts January 30, 2022.

Lake Baldwin Dog Park

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For the final class of my Crealde Urban Sketching Class, I met my students at the Lake Baldwin Dog Park.My goal was to get the students to think of the people and the dogs just as small elements to the overall composition.

We met at a gazebo for the lesson itself and then I set the students free to explore the area. One student even brought her dog for the experience. I did a series of sketches to explain dog anatomy so that students understood how to draw the three masses and the legs.

In my sketch you can see one of the students sitting in his artist stool over on screen left. The great thing about this park is that the dogs will come right up to you for pets and attention. I also think the dogs suspect that artist supply bags much contain treats.

I wore my mask the entire time but not a single dog owner wore any form of mask. I agree that virus particles can better dissipate outside, but some of these folks stood clustered in tight groups for long periods of time talking at each others faces. This class starts up again January 30, 2022 and it is close to being booked full.

Crealde Urban Sketching Class

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Starting January 30, 2022 I will be teaching 6 Urban Sketching classes on Sundays starting at 9:30AM at Crealde School of Art. These sketches were a demo to sow how to do panoramas and think about foreground, mid ground and background in each sketch. I find that by having students work smaller they tend to finish more sketches and some might finish a spread like this in the course of a class.

I walk around each time I finish a stage of each sketch to show my progress and how long I take for each step. When I meet each student one on one I then often share quick sketch suggestions for the scene they are working on at the time.

We work outside which is a safer working environment. I wear masks even outside at this point in the pandemic. I have upgraded to wearing a KN-95 held in place with the cloth mask Pam made for me right at the start of the pandemic. I let students remove their mask if they are socially distanced outside but insist they put it back on if they get within 6 feet of another student or myself.

For a second time Pam and I hopefully have dodged a COVID bullet. A co-worker tested positive but an at home test has thankfully shown a negative result so far. A second at home test will likely be taken today. These test are expensive so we need to figure out how President Biden’s Plan to have insurance companies cover the cost works out in practice. I suspect lots of robo calls and red tape.

Anyway it is nice to get out of the studio on Sundays and enjoy the sun and breeze while sketching with like minded students. It is a breath of fresh air even if I am wearing a mask.

Three Students

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For the Crealde’ Urban Sketching Class I teach we focus on daring people by using ourselves as models for one class. I kick things off by posing a few times myself first for 10 minutes and then 5 minutes at a time.

Then have each student pose for 5 minutes. This sketch was a demonstration to show how to use pencil, ink and watercolor to quickly block in forms.

We conducted the call outside so several students chose not to wear masks. I choose to wear a mask at all times. I also try to maintain 4 dead body lengths (about 22 feet) between myself and a student not wearing a mask.

One student posed as if she was walking a dog. In  this class I also gave a rundown on how to draw dogs as well as people. In the second half of the class we went to The Lake Baldwin dog park where there were plenty of models.

The challenge of course is that dogs never stand still. So my lessons on how to draw quadrupeds could help he students get something on the page even if the dogs were running around. An added benefit is that the dogs are always curious about someone drawing so they will come up to the artist hoping for some scratches and pets.

Only the center artist in this sketch wore her mask at all times. She has my deep respect for that choice. Other students are rather clueless, and I keep them on property and outside of the classroom for that reason. The numbers of people being admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 is falling slowly but if everyone is clueless and returns to pre-pandemic lifestyles, there will be another winter surge.

Crealde’ Urban Sketching

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Each Sunday I teach an Urban Sketching class at Crealde’ School of Art . I continue to hold the classes outside especially sine the weather is getting so nice as it cools down. My next series of six classes starts October 24, 2021. The class starts at 9:30Am until 12:30PM. The Crealde’ campus is dotted with statues and curving paths making it a wonderful place to explore visually in a sketchbook.

In this class the students were tasked with the idea of sketching the tent to give the impression that they were inside of a room. They were taught the principles of one point perspective and then set out to capture the space using pencil, pen and watercolor. The goal is to produced finished looking sketches right from day 1. It is a delight so see students slow down and experience the zen of truly observing their surroundings. We live in a time of constant digital distractions and sketching with old school pencil and paper strips students away form that hive mindset for a moment. The hope is that some will become addicted to the act of creation every day.

I always do a sketch along with the students so they can see how I approach each sketch. I share the initial block in, the pen and ink stage and the watercolor while sharing compositional thumbnails that point out things they can consider in their own sketch.

I am proud that Crealde’ continues to keep students and staff masked and safe. I insist that my students must wear a mask any time they are withing 6 feet of one another. Personally I wear a KN95 mask at all times and many students follow my example. The hospitalization numbers continue to drop in the United States so I we continue to maintain precautions the numbers can continue to drop. This class each week is the one day I get out of the studio to feel the breeze on my face and get some sunshine. Sharing my love of sketching is helping keep me sane through this pandemic.

Crealde’ Demo

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At my Crealde Urban Sketching class, I noticed that my students who were working on thumbnail drawings were getting caught up in too much detail as they were sketching with lines. I was surprised at the amount of time they were taking for each thumbnail.

I decided that the best way to loosen them up was to do a quick demo. Rather then do a thumbnail, I decided to fill an entire page since they were watching from a six foot distance.

In this sketch I decided to focus on the foreground sculpture. I might usually try and make sure the base id fully visible but I decided to crop the base so the sculpture could be as large as possible.

Three totems were behind the sculpture I as sketching. Those totems were visually taller than the sculpture I was sketching, but I decided to make them smaller so the foreground sculpture was the largest thing in the sketch.

From where we were sketching the cube shaped cement bases were hidden by ferns. I explained that seeing those cubes was critical to seeing how the sculptures were grounded in the scene. The totems were also different sizes compared to one another but I grouped then as if they were all about the same size using one point perspective. The vanishing point as across the lake.

I lightly blocked in the basic shaped in pencil and then immoderately started blocking in large watercolor washed. The bridge was one big red wash the ferns in the foreground were bright yellow since they caught the sunlight and the rest was a messy wash of green and browns. The primary point o the lesson was that I never painted the sculptures until everything else was painted in around them. The sculpture are most visible because they are surrounded by darkness. The detailed line work in the totems was also added as a thought rather late in the process. For much of the time they were amorphous columns of white that I painted around. I enjoy the process most when I am playing with abstract patterns of light and dark puddles. Staying spontaneous and playful is the biggest challenge. If I feel the fun slippnig away, I close the sketchbook and walk away.

A lizard perched on the sculptures hand for the longest time and I sketched it into place. Most people don’t notice this little detail but for me it is everything. In general my sketch is a mess and that is what I encouraged my students to strive for. When one of my students complained about getting paint on her hands, I shouted out, “Yes! No you are cooking with grease!”

Playalinda Beach

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After I finished teaching on Sunday at Crealde, Pam, her niece and I headed out to Playalinda beach. We had never been to this beach before so it was an adventure for all of us. Playalinda is known for having a nude beach section and research on the road trip indicated the nude section was at the 13th parking lot.

Being a park on the Canaveral National Seashore, it costs money to get into Playalinda. A car load costs $20. For $40 you can get a yearly pass and Pam decided to get that since it would be paid off in just two beach trips. We quickly realized that these beaches are much less crowded than at Coco Beach. The water was a magnificent turquoise and deep blue and there were no rocks leading out to the surf.

Even I have to admit that the water was warm and delightful. The waves were gentle and rolling rather than threatening.

I decided I was not getting a sun burn this beach day. Sun screen was slathered on at home and I kept my white t shirt on even when I went out inn the waves. I stayed under the beach umbrella and kept my white Pocahontas beach towel over my legs the whole time to be sure my legs didn’t turn beat red. The last beach day I slathered some sun screen on my chest and shoulders and found out the next day that I had only applied sunscreen to a few patches and the resulting red pattern made me look like a camouflaged burn victim. Hopefully this trip I avoided getting to much sun. I suppose I will know by tomorrow.

Pam and her niece wanted to see the nude beach, so we drove to lot 13. They walked out to the beach to have a look but I stayed behind in the air conditioned car. If there isn’t enough time to sketch naked butts, I am not interested. Apparently there were quite a few very large naked men on the beach.  The larger the man, the smaller the dangling bits tend to appear.

Teaching in a Pandemic

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This summer I am teaching art seven days a week. Most of those classes are virtual. Summer courses have begun at Crealde School of Art. I have seven students but only five have shown up the past several weeks.

The first class, last week I held outside in an event tent that had been set up behind the campus. The morning started great but the heat was picking up by lunch time. One student found herself sitting in the direct sunlight when the clouds parted. She was a trooper and stuck it out to finish her sketch.

For week two I decided to hold a class inside at Crealde for the first time. I left the door open to allow some outdoor air to blow in but we got to experience air conditioning as we worked. One student kept her mask on the entire time which I deeply respect. I wore my mask around my neck as I gave the lesson plans since I have been fully vaccinated.

I recognize that being fully vaccinated does not make me impervious to COVID-19. There are breakthrough cases particularly with the Delta Variant igniting around the world.  The percentages presented a month ago were that fully vaccinated individuals are 95% safe from infection. However a study conducted in Israel found that half the people becoming infected were fully vaccinated. That means that the chances of becoming infected despite the vaccine went up to about 75%. So I’ve decided students should remain six feet apart when possible. I also kept myself well separated.

Each table is six feet long. I folded up any extra chairs and stacked them against the walls to reduce the chances that students would sit close together. Each student had their own table. In my sketch I put two students sitting at the same table but that is an artistic fabrication. I just wanted to squeeze one more student into the sketch for the sake of the demo. I did walk around and offer one on one advice to students, but for that, I flipped my mask up over my mouth and nose. I use sketches to do most of the talking, but the sketches stay in my own sketchbook. It was rewarding to see the students start to apply the ideas I offered.

Florida averages over 1600 new cases a day. The Delta variant has been confirmed to be in Central Florida as well. I paid attention to the air vents as I included them in my sketch. The air would circulate over students and then down the wall behind me. We are living in a grey transitional time. The Delta variant which doubles every to weeks will be the predominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States by August 2021 and another surge in cases is likely. Every day is a new risk assessment. Florida managed to have the highest case rates of any state yesterday, so there must be quite a bit of vaccine hesitancy in the Sunshine State. I went mask free for much of this class but my comfort level could change week to week as the pandemic continues to play out.