Right Side, My Friend

I first started to believe that everyone has artistic ability in high school, this belief came in relation to a school art class. I did the majority of this program when I was in grade 4 and then did it again in grade 10 and I absolutely love it.

If you have never done it, I encourage you to do it. If you think that you lack artistic ability, do this in your spare time. That might sound lame but I am serious. If you "can't" draw but can honestly say that there is a chance that you may have not invested time into this before deciding you "can't", I think that this is a valid thing to do in your down time (lol - down time). In the beginning of the program you draw a face and then you do a ton of assignments that seem to have no value (in the eyes of a child). You cover perspective, shadow, symmetry, among others. At the end of it you draw the same face again and see your progress. I encourage you to google "Drawing on the RIght Side of the Brain" and see the before and after photos. When thinking about this I though "I have some stuff from this program in my portfolio" and so I decided to check. It turns out that I have the WHOLE program worth of assignments saved. I am not sure if I have even one other thing from my elementary or secondary schooling but I have this whole course full of assignments, that is saying something in support of this program, right there! This is my before and after of my faces.

At 14, this evidence of developing skill blew me away and developed my philosophy on artistic ability. It was so neat to see some people in the class go from one extreme to another. I think that this program has a completely valid place in school, especially intermediate classes and secondary. I will also re-iterate what I said in the beginning: If you are reading this from the perspective of a teacher that is freaked out of art - pick up a copy from the library and try this!! I am hoping to find bucket loads of extra time over Christmas and do it again.

While I was looking through this course of assignments I found this picture. I was talking with a classmate about this technique so I thought I would throw it in. It is created with making tiny dots of ink (we had an old school pot of ink and pen that you dip in - I thought that it was the coolest). I think that it is called pointillism.