So, it seems that the Fall class is a no-go at the LaGrange Art League - simple lack of interest, reflected in a total lack of registration. Fall is always a difficult time to get students for a formal class, especially if they are either A, returning to school, or B, adult students with children of their own. Either way the deck is stacked against something that is specifically another course of study, rather than being craftsy and/or directly project-oriented, where the winter holidays do give some motivation for doing creative things. Learning/working on skills themselves, though...logically, in this clime and culture, there's less of a drive there than at other times of the year.
I'd say that Spring and Summer are the most attractive times so far as scheduling by quarters, as the seasonal instinct is more towards opening up and experimentation and testing one's limits. Fall is a cocooning and tight-focusing time, and it really takes seeing art as a personal discipline for one to include it into one's schedule as days grow shorter and time more practicality/survival-oriented.
At least that's my somewhat-existential read of it. So far as the simple fact of school goes, anyone connected to formal schooling, whether teacher, parent or student, is going to be preoccupied with starting the school year off, and will not tend to be open to new projects and pursuits. I think that as a matter of efficiency, I should simply not teach a formal course through the LGAL or any other organization in the fall, and have it be strictly devoted to single-shot workshops, flexible private/small-group lessons, and catching up on my own work for display and sales. That way I don't have have to deal with either an outside school's overhead or the minimum class registration levels that it requires, at a time when a process-focused but non-credit art course like mine is on the lowest-possible end of seasonal demand.
That is my thought as of tonight, and I think that it makes more sense than repeatedly scrambling for more students at the last minute - better to keep myself advertised all year long and build greater demand for organized classes, instead of dissipating it every quarter of the year.
Thoughts? Requests?
_
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Same old, same old? [Updating]
I don't know why it slips my mind to update my promos here before each quarter...oh right, I do - since the blog has no regular followers, there's really not any positive pressure being exerted on me. Though, the more places I link to it professionally as my "art" website/blog, the more I logically ought to be keeping up on it.
But really, the only thing that has necessarily changed in description for this upcoming Fall session (starting Tuesday evening, Sept. 14) is the class dates. Seeing as it isn't summer, we're back to a straight eight-week course rather than a split 4+4, which is just fine with me. I have yet to figure out how to viably condense an effective drawing course, 'unlearning' and learning both, into a four-week span, as some students missed the point that it was a through-composed course and not a 'taster' class.
The main point of clarity there is that I can't give a full Art History lecture on canon and anatomy and proportions the second week if that's going to also be the halfway-mark of the course. So, ditch the scheduled lecturing, give the lecture notes as a handout - and/or have available as online resource, as in posted here - and perhaps we won't have issues of going off on tangents then, especially when discussing the humanistic innovations of Hellenistic art and the Amarna Revolution, which always seem to lead into a general discussion of history, symbolism, cultural anthropology and religious controversies. Not that I shy away from controversy, of course...but the point of a drawing class is to draw, and I do want to make sure that in-class time is spent efficiently on that, especially since adult students who are working and/or have children of their own cannot be expected to do "homework" on any regular basis, making the studio of the class itself an island of time/space to actually work within.
For the fall, though, I can be indulgent there. And if I wind up shy of the minimum number of students for Fall quarter, then we'll see how it works out to have classes (or private lessons) at the house, as well as the usual Halloween-themed workshops. It can be done, after all, and I have the wherewithal to do it.
_________________________________
For reference if seen in a timely manner, here's the link to the LaGrange Art League's current class brochure:
http://www.lagrangeartleague.org/Classes.html - mine is #8 this time around.
__
But really, the only thing that has necessarily changed in description for this upcoming Fall session (starting Tuesday evening, Sept. 14) is the class dates. Seeing as it isn't summer, we're back to a straight eight-week course rather than a split 4+4, which is just fine with me. I have yet to figure out how to viably condense an effective drawing course, 'unlearning' and learning both, into a four-week span, as some students missed the point that it was a through-composed course and not a 'taster' class.
The main point of clarity there is that I can't give a full Art History lecture on canon and anatomy and proportions the second week if that's going to also be the halfway-mark of the course. So, ditch the scheduled lecturing, give the lecture notes as a handout - and/or have available as online resource, as in posted here - and perhaps we won't have issues of going off on tangents then, especially when discussing the humanistic innovations of Hellenistic art and the Amarna Revolution, which always seem to lead into a general discussion of history, symbolism, cultural anthropology and religious controversies. Not that I shy away from controversy, of course...but the point of a drawing class is to draw, and I do want to make sure that in-class time is spent efficiently on that, especially since adult students who are working and/or have children of their own cannot be expected to do "homework" on any regular basis, making the studio of the class itself an island of time/space to actually work within.
For the fall, though, I can be indulgent there. And if I wind up shy of the minimum number of students for Fall quarter, then we'll see how it works out to have classes (or private lessons) at the house, as well as the usual Halloween-themed workshops. It can be done, after all, and I have the wherewithal to do it.
_________________________________
For reference if seen in a timely manner, here's the link to the LaGrange Art League's current class brochure:
http://www.lagrangeartleague.org/Classes.html - mine is #8 this time around.
__
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"Real People Have Curves (...)" - Summer Session starts this coming Tuesday, June 15
(Things can really get down to the wire when you forget how many places there are to post online...)This time I have two sessions with half a month in between....they are contiguous, but you can choose just Session A if you need just a foundation, and just Session B if you already have a foundation but want to focus more on projects and feedback. Either way - students wanted, no experience necessary. Evening classes, teens and adults, convenient for summer scheduling.
#07 Real People Have Curves (& Bulk & Tension & Shading)
Beginner to Intermediate
Instructor: Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr
Session A: 6/15, 6/22, 6/29, 7/6
Session B: 7/27, 8/3, 8/10, 8/17
Time: 6:30 – 9 pm ground floor gallery
Whether you’re a beginner in art or a continuing student of the human face and form, this multi-medium drawing class will jumpstart and challenge your powers of observation and conveying what you see onto the page. Anatomy and proportion, shading and color rendering, capturing gesture and likeness from both live poses and media resources — stretch your artistic muscles, gain confidence and amaze your friends and family. Weekly assignments, personal project options & critiques. Supply list available at registration (media include crayons, coloured pencils, charcoal and oil pastels, as well as pencils and pen/ink if interested).
Session A is 4 weeks $60 m / $68 nm
Session B is 4 weeks $60 m/ $68 nm
http://www.lagrangeartleague.org/Classes.html
(full listing and registration info)
La Grange Art League
122 Calendar Ave
La Grange, IL 60525
708-352-3101
_______________________________________________
KAGEN AURENCZ ZETHMAYR has taught at the La Grange Art League since 2006, and has been active as a freelance artist for over twenty years, doing everything from concert/theatre programs to commissioned portraits of pets and people, fantasy art/illustration, set paintings for stage productions, elaborate Halloween décor of lifelike (deathlike?) dummies and masks, and even period-accurate costume design for a courtier at the Bristol Renaissance Fair. With both performance and technical experience in live theatre, he focuses on the conjunction of human face, form and character, emphasizing both the psychological and the physical aspects of capturing a convincing likeness. His education includes Columbia College Chicago (BA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with prior experience as a staff artist for The Lion and Menagerie at Lyons Township H.S. As an instructor, he emphasizes the importance of “unlearning” assumptions, dismantling mental blocks and strengthening observational skills, and in personal practice he believes in creating/showing character and mood as effectively as possible, whatever the scene and whatever the medium.
http://www.lagrangeartleague.org/Teachers.html
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Regarding the class title change....
...I almost asked for it to be switched back before the Winter brochure went out, but it was such a minor and apparently-frivolous request to make that I let it stand as I'd revised it. And later received a favourable comment -- thanks, even -- for having changed it.
As you might recall if you've followed my class-promo posts here or elsewhere, my original class title was "How to Draw Real Live People" -- which works aptly enough as a general description and makes no confusion as to the subject. It is a bit simplistic, though, and more suited to kids' classes than to ones courting older and more self-directed attention, so when the idea came to me I basically recomposed both the title and the course description within an hour at most. It's more witty, more knowing, more concrete....not quite so spelled out, but then, if I had had a class title from the start that was (as most instructors' are) simply denotative, it'd have been a rather dry "Dry Media Figure Drawing and Portraiture I/II" or something of the sort.
Most fine art classes, outside of college, are either life drawing or portraiture, rather than trying to address both at once. But when you have both the need for accurate foundational anatomy and the emphasis on characterization overall within the face and body and gesture, to call it just one or the other would be inaccurate. And, as I always point out, what we think we know about the way people look is often a bare shorthand reduction (and effectively a distortion) of what is actually there to be observed and conveyed. Real people have curves -- not straight lines for legs and spines and arms and mouths. Bulk, not stick-figure leanness/paper-doll flatness or weightlessness against the ground...tension, not blankness or total passivity (even in repose)...shading, not just lines and fillings-in of the most-apparent colour, relying upon the telegraphing of detail to take the place of real rendering of detail.
In order to see what is there, we must break down the assumptions of what has always been enough to go on in the usual mostly-subconscious way of recognizing and "reading" people, and bring our thought-processes forward so that we actually can see what we are seeing, perceiving it on the physical level as well as the plane of psychological and emotional interpretation whereon we interact as persons -- and illuminating the latter more clearly as well.
Which is all a bit complexly analytical-sounding, no doubt (typical for me, if not unavoidable)...but it works, it really does. And hopefully this change of name gives a good upfront idea of the gist of my deeper-developing method.
As you might recall if you've followed my class-promo posts here or elsewhere, my original class title was "How to Draw Real Live People" -- which works aptly enough as a general description and makes no confusion as to the subject. It is a bit simplistic, though, and more suited to kids' classes than to ones courting older and more self-directed attention, so when the idea came to me I basically recomposed both the title and the course description within an hour at most. It's more witty, more knowing, more concrete....not quite so spelled out, but then, if I had had a class title from the start that was (as most instructors' are) simply denotative, it'd have been a rather dry "Dry Media Figure Drawing and Portraiture I/II" or something of the sort.
Most fine art classes, outside of college, are either life drawing or portraiture, rather than trying to address both at once. But when you have both the need for accurate foundational anatomy and the emphasis on characterization overall within the face and body and gesture, to call it just one or the other would be inaccurate. And, as I always point out, what we think we know about the way people look is often a bare shorthand reduction (and effectively a distortion) of what is actually there to be observed and conveyed. Real people have curves -- not straight lines for legs and spines and arms and mouths. Bulk, not stick-figure leanness/paper-doll flatness or weightlessness against the ground...tension, not blankness or total passivity (even in repose)...shading, not just lines and fillings-in of the most-apparent colour, relying upon the telegraphing of detail to take the place of real rendering of detail.
In order to see what is there, we must break down the assumptions of what has always been enough to go on in the usual mostly-subconscious way of recognizing and "reading" people, and bring our thought-processes forward so that we actually can see what we are seeing, perceiving it on the physical level as well as the plane of psychological and emotional interpretation whereon we interact as persons -- and illuminating the latter more clearly as well.
Which is all a bit complexly analytical-sounding, no doubt (typical for me, if not unavoidable)...but it works, it really does. And hopefully this change of name gives a good upfront idea of the gist of my deeper-developing method.
How flies the time - just one week left to register for my Winter class!
Winter Quarter for my portraiture/life drawing class starts January 12 at the La Grange Art League Gallery & Studio, and is open to teens (8th grade+) and adults of all experience levels with an interest in naturalistic (i.e., non-cartoon) human depiction and characterization.
==============================================
REAL PEOPLE HAVE CURVES
(& Bulk, & Tension, & Shading)
Level I & II
Instructor: Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr
Dates: 1/12, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/2
Time: 6:30 – 9:00 pm ground floor gallery
Whether you’re a beginner in art or a continuing student of the human face and form, this drawing class will jump-start and challenge your powers of observation and conveying what you see onto the page. Anatomy and proportion, shading and colour rendering, capturing gesture and likeness from both live poses and media resources – stretch your artistic muscles, gain confidence and amaze your friends and family. Weekly assignments and critiques; supply list available in gallery. Fee: $120M/ $136NM 8 weeks
[Supply list includes: large drawing pad (at least 11"x14"), pencils & drawing eraser, pocket folder for handouts and photos, and (recommended) own sets of oil pastels, crayons and colored pencils, any size. Newsprint pad optional but very useful. Brown and colored construction papers will also be used in assignments. Recommended stores: Carlson's, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, Michael's and/or the office & school supplies aisle in any general-purpose store.]
__________________________________________
KAGEN AURENCZ ZETHMAYR has been active as a freelance artist for over twenty years, doing everything from concert/theatre programs to commissioned portraits, fantasy art/illustration, set paintings, elaborate Halloween décor and even period-accurate costume design for a member of court at the Bristol Renaissance Fair. His education includes Columbia College Chicago (BA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with prior experience as a staff artist for The Lion and Menagerie at Lyons Township H.S. As an instructor, he emphasizes the importance of “unlearning” assumptions, dismantling mental blocks and strengthening observational skills, and in personal practice he believes in creating/showing character and mood as effectively as possible, whatever the scene and whatever the medium.
========================================
You can download a PDF brochure+registration form at http://lagrangeartleague.org/Classes.html and mail it in, or register in person at the gallery or over the phone (w/ credit card) at 708-352-3101 -- "Real People Have Curves" is class #8 this term. The La Grange Art League Gallery & Studio is located at 122 Calendar Avenue in downtown La Grange, and map and directions are provided at http://lagrangeartleague.org/Directions.html .
Note: Although I'm also available for private lessons or special-occasion workshops, this particular class needs an absolute minimum enrollment of three students by next week to go on as scheduled in the LGAL brochure, and I am personally looking for at least five-six students to make sure of a good number for group and partner studio activities. Couples and child/parent combinations welcome!
http://aurey-the-art-teacher.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aureantesrealm
==============================================
REAL PEOPLE HAVE CURVES
(& Bulk, & Tension, & Shading)
Level I & II
Instructor: Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr
Dates: 1/12, 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/2
Time: 6:30 – 9:00 pm ground floor gallery
Whether you’re a beginner in art or a continuing student of the human face and form, this drawing class will jump-start and challenge your powers of observation and conveying what you see onto the page. Anatomy and proportion, shading and colour rendering, capturing gesture and likeness from both live poses and media resources – stretch your artistic muscles, gain confidence and amaze your friends and family. Weekly assignments and critiques; supply list available in gallery. Fee: $120M/ $136NM 8 weeks
[Supply list includes: large drawing pad (at least 11"x14"), pencils & drawing eraser, pocket folder for handouts and photos, and (recommended) own sets of oil pastels, crayons and colored pencils, any size. Newsprint pad optional but very useful. Brown and colored construction papers will also be used in assignments. Recommended stores: Carlson's, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, Michael's and/or the office & school supplies aisle in any general-purpose store.]
__________________________________________
KAGEN AURENCZ ZETHMAYR has been active as a freelance artist for over twenty years, doing everything from concert/theatre programs to commissioned portraits, fantasy art/illustration, set paintings, elaborate Halloween décor and even period-accurate costume design for a member of court at the Bristol Renaissance Fair. His education includes Columbia College Chicago (BA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with prior experience as a staff artist for The Lion and Menagerie at Lyons Township H.S. As an instructor, he emphasizes the importance of “unlearning” assumptions, dismantling mental blocks and strengthening observational skills, and in personal practice he believes in creating/showing character and mood as effectively as possible, whatever the scene and whatever the medium.
========================================
You can download a PDF brochure+registration form at http://lagrangeartleague.org/Classes.html and mail it in, or register in person at the gallery or over the phone (w/ credit card) at 708-352-3101 -- "Real People Have Curves" is class #8 this term. The La Grange Art League Gallery & Studio is located at 122 Calendar Avenue in downtown La Grange, and map and directions are provided at http://lagrangeartleague.org/Directions.html .
Note: Although I'm also available for private lessons or special-occasion workshops, this particular class needs an absolute minimum enrollment of three students by next week to go on as scheduled in the LGAL brochure, and I am personally looking for at least five-six students to make sure of a good number for group and partner studio activities. Couples and child/parent combinations welcome!
http://aurey-the-art-teacher.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aureantesrealm
Monday, December 14, 2009
Teacherly correspondence...
...in which I elucidate my current highly-psychological angle and methodology for my class in response to a prospective student:
I'm responding to your request for more information on my portraiture/figure-drawing class -- also attached as supplement is last quarter's syllabus, from before I changed the title, and a full list of concepts and activities to be addressed during the course of the quarter.
Basically, what we'll be doing is initially going to be aimed at loosening up and disinhibiting from the way that we normally tend to look at things and worry about how they're going to look on the page. Things like working in crayons and all in colors, without reliance on outlines, without looking at the page (much), without seeing the subject right-side-up, and working on non-white backgrounds, while focusing in on light and shadow, gesture, bulk/weight and balance, and apparent mood and character. The most "technical" aspects of the class will be in learning and working with the standard proportions of the human body and face, which change considerably from birth through adulthood, and in learning how to use page space most effectively in forming a composition. Activities are both accessible and challenging at the same time, because there is no single right or wrong way for one's artwork to come out -- the emphasis is on strengthening your instincts and making the most of the conscious artistic process.
Drawing will mostly be from life (posed modeling or partner drawing), from statuary (usually just the first and second sessions) or from photographs (either yours or from my extensive collection), though some projects will call for drawing from imagination based on a verbal character description, or on changing the subject of a pose. The overall idea is to "unlearn" stylistic assumptions and habits, opening the way for clearer observation and awareness of how one sees and how to get it onto the paper most effectively and realistically. This is particularly important when it comes to drawing (or painting, or sculpting) people, because (as people ourselves) how we typically see each other stops with personal recognition, evaluation of attractiveness and interpretation of emotions and intent, rather than actually observing the qualities of the human face and form as a physical object in space and as an individual person.
I hope this succeeds in clarifying my class content and methods, and do feel free to contact me directly with any further questions.
Sincerely,
Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Visual ad for my class, Fall 2009
I'll post the fullsize flier later today, to show everything that it has....
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