Spring 2011

Hello!

Welcome (or welcome back) to the drawing blog for University of South Dakota's students. My name is Nicole Geary, a first year graduate student in the fine arts department of the University of South Dakota. Working with Professor Hook, I will start to take over some of the posting responsibilities for this blog.

With the new year, our goal remains to highlight some of the work our students are doing in a range of drawing classes, from first year to more advanced courses. Several graduate students here at the U will be contributing to the blog, allowing you access to what goes on inside our classrooms.

Please check back for more updates as the semester progresses, and thanks for visiting!

John Charles Cox, signing off.

I would like to thank and wish a parting 'good luck' to all of my now former students for their hard work and participation in this endeavor and in my classes. My teaching experiences at The University of South Dakota have been both memorable and pleasurable, and this feeling is a testament to the characters I have had a chance to dialogue with during my time in this place. This will be the final post under my supervision, and hopefully Prof. Hook will continue (or will be selecting a student to continue) this blog for years to come. Thanks to all who have taken the time to check up on our daily doings via this blog.

Sincerely,
John Charles Cox
2010 MFA-Painting Graduate

March 25, 2010.

Today in drawing our class had the opportunity to work on a large scale drawing. Huge pieces of paper were tacked to the wall ready to be turned into art. Each student chose a different bone from the selection and began the process of turning the bone into an organic shape. We began by drawing three different sketches of the bone from different viewpoints. Once we found a view we felt most comfortable with, we moved onto the large sheets of paper. While doing this assignment we had to stop being tight drawers and just let our arms flow. It wasn’t about being precise or making the drawing look exactly like the bone; it was about having an expressive drawing that has strong movement. The more of your body used the more emotional and energetic the drawing was. Doing this assignment taught us that in art you don’t always have to use short, exact movements that mimic exactly what you are drawing. We learned that when you use your whole body and move more quickly, a natural shape will appear in which you can later go back and add the small details. This project was a great chance for us to have better knowledge of how to handle large scale drawings and how to be more expressive.



-Kelley Clark, USD Drawing I Student

March 25, 2010.

Photos: Kelley Clark, USD Drawing I Student

March 16, 2010.

Photos: USD Drawing I Student

March 2, 2010.

Photos: USD Drawing I Student

February 25, 2010.

In class on Thursday I liked how we discussed the different perspectives possible for the paper bag project, as in the different light sources possible and the placement of the subject on the paper. I liked the way this procedure was conducted in order to get the students involved in critiquing the projects. The room set up for critique was much better to get the students comfortable with speaking aloud in class rather than having the 'horses' in a circle. I felt that this made the students feel awkward standing so close together and this is why they did not freely express themselves before.


I feel that when you re-use vocab and other important words in class helps the students broaden their spectrum, such as 'reflected light'. On another topic, the way you push the students to do better in class is effective in that they try harder than if you didn't. Your ideas on what we should be looking at to critique helps us improve our own work when we critique others. I can't say I disliked anything in class because you wipped out some awesome sketchbooks for examples and art definition spectacularness (I know) that helped broaden our thoughts about what we can do.

-Kasen Keller, USD Drawing I Student