First Art Class Ever

Today was a first for me: my first art class. A couple of weeks ago, the latest Program Guide came out, and Tammy asked me to look through it for something interesting. What jumped out at me was a session being hosted by Ed Araquel on pastelling. Six three-hour sessions on Saturday mornings, starting today. So Tammy goaded me into signing up. I showed up today, not knowing what to expect. I had a materials list and not much else. There were five people in the class in total. A real mix of age, experience; two men, three women. Oldest was probably eighty, youngest still in high school.

As I found out, the format of the class is pretty open. Ed would give instruction if asked, and look on as you drew what you liked. I didn’t expect that, so I didn’t bring any reference materials. Ed offered up some of his finished pastel landscapes, so I started drawing from those. At first it didn’t go that smoothly. I was the first in the class to start drawing, so Ed was looking over my shoulder and (to my mind) not being that helpful. As the class progressed, though, he had his hands full with Jerry, who was trying to sketch faces, and Madeline, who had never touched a pastel before, and Laura, who was very social, indeed. 😉

Here’s what I started with:

When it was “done”, Ed helped me out and added a few finishing touches which I think helped bring it to respectability. At that point, it was only 11 o’clock, so I picked another picture and borrowed a black piece of paper from Laura. I’d never done something on black before, but I’m really happy with how it turned out:

It took just about an hour. Overall, I’m happy with the class, and I’m looking forward to next week. This week I’ll try to pick out some reference pictures to work from and maybe pick up a few more shades of paper.