This is an introductory speech about how an artist sees the world, that my new students heard from me on their first day of art class. It opened their eyes to a new possibility and changed their world. Maybe it will change your world too.

Our Brand New World

When we were babies our parents would speak to us in simple words so we would learn a vocabulary of the world around us. Our first words were most likely things like, mommy, daddy, bottle, cookie, dog, and tree. They’re nouns that were common to our particular world.

Our World Begins to Grow

As toddlers, the vocabulary got larger and by the time we were school age, we learned that a tree isn’t simply a tree, it is a Maple, or maybe a Sycamore tree. A dog isn’t just a dog, he could be a Great Dane, a Poodle or maybe a Terrier of some kind.

Vocabulary to Identify

By the time we were in high school, we had learned about congruent shapes and aerodynamics.

Although the words and concepts became more sophisticated as we matured, their basic purpose was simply to identify. And that’s the way we learned to see…simply to identify.

Seeing Beyond Identification

Everyone, get up out of your seat and look out the windows.

When you look at the sky, what do you see?

Most will identify clouds, or that it is blue. But look so much more deeply. Can you see the many colors that make up that sky? Do you see how the clouds are more dense in some areas than others and how they blend?

What about that nearby tree? What color are the leaves? Green? Really? Notice the shape of the leaves. Are they all the same? Check out the angle of each leaf, how it attaches to the branch, how the trunk turns into a branch and into another and another. Look for the texture of the trunk. Is it the same as the texture of the branches or the leaves? How many different textures?

What about the shadow from the tree running across the ground over the grass and then across the sidewalk and into the street? Does the color change from one surface to the next? What does the edges of the shadow look like? Does the shadow change in any way as it get further from the tree?

Look at the edges of the window as though it was a sheet of paper and the scene outside was your drawing. Notice how the closer objects are nearer to the bottom of the window. The objects that are further away are higher in the window. This is the same as if you were to draw them.

Not only are they positioned differently due to their location, but the colors also change as they get further away from view. That is due to the atmospheric perspective.

And, of course, you already knew that the sizes of similar objects appear to get smaller as they get further away from you.

Now you are beginning to see for more than just identification. You are seeing the relationships between the parts and how many varieties of colors there are in the world. This is just the beginning.

How Artists See Their World

Artists see so much more in this world than most people. In this art class you will learn how to see in a whole new way and how to make what you learn to see. You will become artists, not just learn how to make stuff, but how to see the world in a whole new light.

Once you start seeing like an artist, you will never be able to go back to the way you saw before… and you won’t want to. The world is so much more than what you know it is right now.

Welcome to art class.

Welcome to Art Class

Talking about  “Welcome to Art Class”, I’d love to welcome you!

I have been retired from teaching for a few years now and I miss it so much more than I thought I would.

So, I decided to do something about that. I’m creating online art courses that will be available to everyone, whether you don’t yet consider yourself an artist, are new to being an artist, or more advanced at art . I have so many hundreds, maybe thousands of lesson plans from my thirty plus years of teaching art and decided that it would be so much better to use them than to have them just sitting around.

It will take months to change them into video lessons, but at least I have all my worksheets, notes, examples, and all.

Where to Begin

I am starting a specialized course in pet photography. It’s called “Capturing the Heart: Creating stunning pet portraits with only your smartphone” In this course, you will go from uninspiring snapshots of your pet to capturing their loveable personality. Create professional looking photos that will amaze and delight in this 5-week course. The target date for this course is September 2024.

I have courses on:

• Ceramics
• Drawing
• Painting
• Architecture
• Photography
• Digital Imaging (using Adobe Photoshop)
• Mixed Media
• Sculpture

Also, not full year courses, but lessons on:

• Fabric Arts and Dyes
• Pysanky
• Origami

Probably many more, but I’d have to go through everything to find out what all I have.

Conclusion

Would you like to learn how to see like an artist?

Would you be interested in online art courses?

Would you like your voice heard?

If any art subjects from the list above pique your interest, speak out by commenting below. Your vote matters. I’ll hear you and start with what you find most interesting.

Comment below.