师法自然 Learning from Nature

 A nice day out sketching at the Hanson Farm in Hinsdale.

Summer Time, Flower Time

Derek Song, 10

Max Peng, 13

Lily Song, 8

Michael Tu, 10

Herbert Wang, 10

Diving Into Water

After drawing in black and white for two months, the students are asking for color. I decided to let them paint with watercolor instead of drawing with colored pencil, for even the most expensive colored pencil do not match the pigment concentration of watercolor, therefore, the color of colored pencil will never be as exuberant as watercolor. Watercolor is the most difficult painting medium. It is unpredictable, and there is no correction can be made once the paint is on paper, because of this, however, it makes watercolor painting an exciting adventure. Each art medium is like a different instrument. It takes a long time to master the tool. 

Herbert Wang, 11

Max Peng, 13

Michael Tu, 10

Your Room, Your World

A few days ago a violin student of mine showed me a gouache painting that she did of Grand Canyon. She has never been to the Canyon. She painted her picture from a photo. To me that is not the purpose of making art. We make art to show our own world, to express our own feelings, and to reflect things that have personal meanings to us. I had the students drawing a corner of the room today.  I hope that they will draw their own rooms, like van Gogh, a simple painting of a corner of his room that have touched so many hearts. 

Lily Song, 8

Herbert Wang, 11

Max, Peng, 13

Michael Tu, 10

van Gogh

Summer One Drawing A Day Challenge

They are drawing at home! 

Max Peng, 13

Melisa Li, 12

Michael, Tu

Lily Song, 8

Herbert Wang, 11

Keeping Them Forever Young

It takes a long time to become young. --- Pablo Picasso

Charcoal pencil drawing of toy animal replica. As a teacher it is my duty to guard the children's innocence and originality.These drawings would make Picasso envy. 

Lily Song, 8

Max peng, 13

Michael Tu, 10

Herbert Wang, 11
                                        

Melisa Li, 12

Hard to Go Slow; Hard to Go Fast

Thread Drawing by Jin Zhang 

The weather is nice. Although the students have been drawing for only one month, I thought I must prepare them for outdoor sketching. So I introduced thread drawing technique today, which is to use fast continuous moving lines like a long thread to draw quickly. To my surprise this technique seems to be more difficult for the students to grasp. I thought it was hard for the mind to go slow; apparently it is equally hard for the mind to give up control and let the eye and the hand go fast. So for this week’s gallery you are seeing more contour drawing of shoes. I am sure I will have some thread drawings from the students to show after they practice for a week.

Herbert Wang, 11

Melisa Li, 12

Michael Tu, 10

Max Peng, 13

Lily Song, 8

Slowing Down the Mind: Drawing Objects with Complicated Shapes and Lines

I introduced objects with more complicated shapes and lines to the class today. The difficulty to draw such objects is not associated with the eye but with the mind. It requires the mind to go as slow as snails crawling, which proves to be itchingly difficult. The eye sees everything if time is given. But the mind, the impatient bully, never gives the eye enough time.  

Lily Song, 8

Herbert Wang,  11

Melisa Li, 12

Max Peng, 13

Michael Wang, 10

500 Sheets of Paper: The Start of A Drawing Life

The spring of 1985 I entered the second semester of my freshman year in college. Besides my music classes I took Art History 101: From Giotto to Renaissance. Other than the textbook the professor only assigned us one book to read, The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari written in 1549. In the preface Vasari expressed his view of artists as divine genius. I felt doomed on becoming an artist. I was clearly not endowed with this divine talent. But as I read on I started having hopes. When Vasari talked about Giotto’s teacher, the hard working young Cimabue, he said, “. . . [the] continuous practice so greatly enhanced his natural talent.  .  .  .” As a person who started the violin at age 5, I understood this so well. I am never lazy with practice. I know that if my middle name is not Amadeus, I must practice hard to call on divine notice, and the moments often come. Three weeks ago I gave each student 500 sheets of newsprints for them to start their drawing life. They have all made their permanent drawing corner at home. The point of taking drawing class is not for them to draw in my studio but for them to draw in their own studio for a life time.      

Herbert Wang, 11

Lily Song, 8

Max Peng, 13

Michael Tu, 10

Melisa Li, 12

How Real is Real: Three-Tone Value Drawing

In the contemporary art world all you hear about is how an art work served as social, political, or cultural criticism. In a children’s drawing class, however, they have only one simple desire, which is to draw the likeness of an object. It amuses the right-brain when the eye is tricked to see a 3-dimensional object “stands” on a 2-dimensional surface. It looks real, they say. But how real is real? After all this is drawing not photography. In the beginning a 3-tone value rendering is sufficient to create the illusion of an object, yes, that looks real.   

Herbert Wang, 11

Max peng, 13

Michael Tu, 10

Melisa Li, 12

Lily Song, 8

1+1=2: Multiple Objects Contour Drawing

In the summer of 1985 I spent five weeks in Italy playing in the Spolteto Music Festival near Rome. On days without concerts I roamed up and down Italy visiting museums and churches to see the great art works which I had just studied in my art history class. At Sistine Chapel in Vatican I was stunned by Michelangelo’s breathtaking mural, the Last Judgment. He painted hundreds of figures on the entire altar wall. But as an artist I know that there is no secret to it. The hundreds of figures was painted on the wall one by one. A picture of complexity is just many single objects put together, simple as that.

Melisa Li, 12

Michael Tu, 10

Herbert Wang, 11

Lily Song,  8

That's me in Rome in 1985. Italy is a country of living art history.