Drawing 1 at Maharishi University of Management was a really soothing class. It accompanied the season change really well: allowing for time outside to draw the scenery around us when it was sunny and time inside to do figure drawing with a live model (nope, not nude) as it got colder out. With weekly critiques we really refined our way of looking at and creating art. We aimed to find purpose and simplistic beauty in each stroke. Thus, allowing the viewer to interact with our art by not giving EVERY piece of visual information (detail) away, but rather, suggesting what was seen.
Professor Shrosbree and student
I have had a lot of art in my life, and always been drawing, so I was really hoping this class would offer something new, and it did. Our teachers (we had Jim Shrosbree as our main teacher, but he was aided by the old and oh-so-wise Geoffrey Baker who really established the Art Department here at Maharishi University of Management) gave very clear critiques and allowed maximum time to DO the WORK. Everyday we spent multiple hours drawing, there was a sprinkling of lectures, which were all very pertinent and readily applicable to what we were working on.
Drawing 1 Studio
As our homework (in all art classes this is true) we keep a journal, this can include notes from class, reflections on the material being learned, creative ideas, sketches, independent research etc. We also worked on a master study of our choice: I chose a Rembrandt, which we did multiple drawings of and ultimately fit into a piece that was more of a combination of visuals.
This class culminated in a grand final critique where we gathered all of our work and sorted through it. The ten best (including at least two versions of our master study) we artfully pinned up on display. The rest of our work was placed in a pile below our wall-hanging pieces. The top 10-20 pieces were what we thought were the best among the rest of our work.
Post Note: Geoffrey Baker passed away on April 12th, he will be dearly missed and always dearly loved. His fundamental contributions towards the Maharishi University of Management art department will always be appreciated.
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Makayla Mcdonald is a first year student at Maharishi University of Management. Read more from Makayla about her life at MUM in her student blog. |
