I tried different mediums as I travelled on my art and craft journey. As part of this, I knitted and dyed and sewed fabric. I also took a charcoal drawing class at art school.
This post will outline how – like me – you will benefit from undertaking an in-house charcoal drawing art class.
It’s motivational…
I bought online drawing courses over the years.
Because the drawings are in graphite, or charcoal, I wasn’t particularly attracted to them – just then.
Colour is my thing. The more colourful – the more I am attracted to the project or medium. As I travel on my journey, I realise this is part of me finding my niche.
But – I didn’t give up on drawing and took a drawing class – with a tutor and other students at an art school.
It’s structured…
Online courses and in-house art classes are different experiences. An online course is independent and self moderated, whereas an in-house art class is structured and punctual.
The 13 week drawing class I took at a local art school was the best art class that I had ever attended – seriously – and I’ve taken a few over the years. My art tutor, John Forrester-Clack is a trained artist and experienced teacher.
You see your results in a short period of time
Why was this the best drawing class I had ever taken? It was the best as I had evidence to show that my artwork and skills had improved over the period of the class. I went from feeling restricted within myself to being expressive. That was evident. I learnt about how an artist views subjects and themselves. I felt better about myself and I learnt a lot along the way as well.
The tutor’s drawing and teaching style was encouraging as well. It included technical aspects of drawing, yet also encouraged students to express themselves through their art.
From total newby…
I joined this art class after many years of not holding any art medium tool of any sort. Our first lesson was to draw a model in charcoal. Here’s my first drawing – constrained and restricted.
Something I didn’t think was too bad at the time. Not a bad effort for many years out of the studio.
Over the length of the course, different drawing aspects were introduced each week. These included structure and shape, proportion, void, memory and line, sublime and space, celebration of the human body, macro and micro, mirror and perspective, character and tone, body and volume, identify and edge, and time and deconstruction.
I created many drawings.
…. to something like an artist
Here are a few examples of what I consider to be the best drawings I did in the class.
You have evidence of achievement
You can see that after this art school class of 13 weeks, my art had progressed exponentially to one where my physicality is expressed in the image.
The first image has my arm hardly moving – my hand moves up and down to draw the figure.
The final drawing is a long arm stretch – from the bottom of the page to the top.
Energy was transferred to the page in the final picture, while reservedness shows in the first picture I drew in the class.
You learn how to experiment and make a mess to create joy
At the completion of the class we did a final exercise. Some of the artwork was destroyed by ripping it up and placing the ripped paper onto another old artwork. This created a new art piece. Depth was provided through applying colour and charcoal.
You’ll learn that art doesn’t take a long time to create
I am forever grateful to my tutor and his course that was provided through the local art school.
You can achieve a lot in a short period of time (ie a challenge) to draw. Short – 30 second, 1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes sketches are great.
I would not have thought I could create like that at the beginning of the course – or ever. I got much energy from doing these drawings, and I loved seeing the results.
Here’s my journey – you can see that you don’t need to be frightened of paper – or yourself. This is an art medium that gives energy and excitement. You’ll love doing it. I know I’ll keep this in my art and craft repertoire.
Get out and do a charcoal drawing class at art school
The results achieved by undertaking an in-house art class is not an experience I could have achieved in an online course. An in-house art school art class is instantly supportive, and you are doing it with others who can view and critique your work.
Undoubtedly, body language communication and instant critiques are one of the benefits of an in-house art class.
You’ll learn much in a short period of time
This is my experience of taking part in an art school’s in-house charcoal drawing art class.
If you can – get out there and do any art course with a tutor at a local art school and meet other like-minded artists like you. You’ll be encouraged to go beyond what you think you can ever do, and you’ll learn much in a short period of time.
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