Lessons at NFA

The last two Wednesdays my partner, Sam Leopoldo and I went to Newburgh Free Academy to teach our art lessons. On Wednesday, November 9th we taught a figure drawing lesson to Mrs. Masterson's Drawing I, Drawing II, and AP classes- 5 periods total, each period lasting 40 mins. In previous classes we observed the students draw studies of drapery, a still life of a skeleton, and some students are preparing a portfolio to submit to future colleges. We knew that a figure drawing lesson would challenge the students to take the next step in developing their art work as well as developing their portfolios.

We made a power point presentation going over the basics of figure drawing, including:

• gesture drawing
• proportions of male and female 
• relationship of figure to environment 
• shading from darks to lights/ light sources 
• drawing clothing 
• composition
• keeping in mind what is under the skin
• examples of finished drawings 

We also provided a demo of how to make a gesture drawing, and how to turn that gesture drawing into a completed drawing. Sam gave the demo while I modeled.

After the demo was given, we began with a few gesture drawings, each lasting 1 minute long. This warmed the students up for the longer poses. We let the students pose for the gesture drawings- this gave the students the opportunity to understand the movement of the body, as well as focus more on the angles of the shoulders, hips and spine. This also helped the students get more engaged in the lesson. I volunteered to model the longer poses in order to give each student an opportunity to render a completed drawing. We were so happy with how well they did!

The following Wednesday, November 16th, we guided a critique on their drawings they did in class November 9th. Students were able to reflect on what they learned, what could have been improved, and answered any questions they may have had.