I’m Taking a Drawing Class (and You Should Too!)

On Saturday, I attended the first session of my six-week drawing class. It’s my first official creative instruction class since eighth grade. I make, saw, draw, sew, cut, paint, and cook stuff daily, and I haven’t had any instruction in fourteen years.

I make my living writing about, creating, and showing other folks how to make art, design things, and craft their way to a more fulfilling life. And I have no official training. I studied humanities in college, and had no room for visual arts coursework. I started my master’s degree Ph.D-bound, preparing for a life in academia. 

In short, I’m totally winging it here.

So, I decided to try something new. Instead of just figuring it out myself, I decided to seek some actual instruction, and see where that gets me.

So, week one: we gathered (five folks, including my sweetheart, plus our teacher) and spent the first hour playing with various drawing implements: charcoal sticks, graphite pencils, india ink, etc, and the second hour trying an extreme cropping exercise where we blew up a tiny portion of a photograph.

I’m still on the fence about this. Playing with the teacher’s art box was fun, but not really revolutionary to me. I guess I don’t usually feel like I don’t have permission to try something new, so it was mostly like goofing around to me. Which is fun, but I can do that at home.

The second hour was more interesting, but I’m hoping that we can start to get into some instructional content. I want to see examples of each media at their best, and see what they can do in the hands of the right person, not in mine.

But still, fun, and I think it’s super important for grown-ups who are done with schooling to take formal classes in the things they’re passionate about.

What about you? Taken a cool class lately? Experiences with continuing education?

Please, let us know in the comments below.

Charcoal piece above by Vija Celmins