My very first class - Drawing 1 - Fall 2007

My first drawing class at Paradise Valley Community College. My teacher was Jessica Caldwell, a young beautiful, lively woman, who taught us the very basic foundations of drawing in charcoal, graphite pencils, ink and later acrylic paints. She was wonderful and fun, she was also a very good artist. She drew very tiny images on metal and rocks. She is now teaching at Kent University. She left PVCC because she needed a stable job with benefits, as she put it...lol... Guess we all need that in our lives, insurance. This first drawing was a group of items around my house that I put together for a still life piece. Everyone in class really liked it but is was too busy and had way too much detailing. My teacher then said the word "Stylized"... "It is very stylized":  from this point on I will hear that from a majority of my teachers. I really have not grasped what it really means but I figured it meant very outlined and cartoonish.

This is a group of drawings from our first student critiques. I looked at the other students work and realized... "Hey, I can really draw and they can't"...lol... A bit snubbish of me but it was the truth. I always thought very accomplished talented artist took these classes, but most of the time they were people who can not draw very well. Probably, why we take the classes to learn how to draw better. But, right away you can determine who has natural talent and who does not.

These two are dyptich drawings, I chose to photograph a bridge over the Little Colorado River near Cameron, AZ as my subject. The top view is the entire length of the bridge and the bottom view is looking inside the bridge. These are done with graphite pencils.

This was a homework assignment, we had to draw something with perspective. I was on a sitter case at work and sat by the dooway, when I saw a very intriguing perspective view. The long hallway in the overflow pediatric ward at St. Joseph's Hospital, where I work part-time as a CNA. It kept me busy and awake while I sat there for 12 hours, watching a CPS case. Basically,  is just making sure no one tries to take the child nor hurt them while they are in the hospital and  while parents/familes are being investigated. It can get pretty boring at times. 

This is an ink cross hatching assignment we did in class, where we dipped our pens into ink and scratched away. Very time consuming and this is just a tiny piece too. I really liked this assignment.

These are charcoal drawn still lifes we did as homework, this is with reflective sides.

I liked doing this assignment, we sat in the hallway by the library and drew the replica Terra Cotta Soldiers. It was nice to get out of the stuffy classroom and have some space.

More still lifes at home, this was a cello that my daughter was using to practice at home. She has long since given that up after she discovered softball.

Still lifes in the classroom of fabric draped.

This is acrylics, first time I ever used paints...ha..ha.. and it shows!

This was a fun homework assignment, doing a figure study in my bedroom. My husband was a great subject, since he does not move when the NFL is on ESPN...ha..ha..

This is suppose to be an abstract assignment of a house hold object, zoomed in. Well, I am such an idiot, it was suppose to be done in gray values, not color. I use a pastry bag to put molding paste on as texture for the Navajo Wedding basket. This is on a thick board and 18 x 24 inches in dimensions. This was our final assignment for the class, I had so much fun in her class and learned a lot from her, just wish she had stayed in Arizona.