Free-hand drawing from a student

We started out using the grid system which is simply an app on a tablet that will draw a grid on any image and allow the artist to replicate it on another piece of paper so that the art becomes more mathematical than about having good vision with art. I have found that this is a good process in order to get students to gain some confidence as far as more difficult things in art are concerned such as human bodies and faces.

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These apps are plentiful and they are free. You aren't even subjected to any ads unless you are using an Apple device so especially if you are android persons, there is no reason to not get this lightweight and very easy to use program.

There is a downside to this though and that is the fear that the person using the app gets dependent upon it and isn't actually capable of drawing with the assistance of that app. This is why I try to encourage my students to ween themselves off the app and actually attempt to learn how the contours of a face in particular work after a while. We have been working on this sort of thing on and off for about 6 months now and a lot of the students have shown great progress in their ability to draw a face without the assistance of an gridding app.

Here is one example done by a 13-year old girl in one of my free classes. I was really impressed with this because while she was using a photo as a reference, she was drawing free-hand using only a pencil and paper. I suppose the next step would be to not have the image there at all and I think this is important that people take baby-steps in their artistic progression. Faces, and in particular the shadowing that comes along with them, can be some of the most difficult parts of art to the point that many of the most famous artists of all time do NOT have realistic looking faces in their artwork. Was this because they were trying to be different or because like most of us, they found it too difficult? When every single person on the planet looks different this is a very difficult skill to master, if it actually ever can be mastered.

Regardless, I am very proud of this student and she was very proud of herself - which is much more important. She has an enthusiasm towards artwork that I don't think existed until she started coming to my classes months ago. I really enjoy it when I see that the students have gained some sort of desire to make art and don't see it as an assignment. Of course there are some students in my classes whose parents are simply using it as free babysitting, but thankfully I am able to get most of those kids interested to some degree as well.

Art is a journey, not a destination and as common as such a statement might sound, it really is true.