I think perhaps the only way to improve your drawing skills is to keep practicing, so that’s what my beginning drawing class does (in one way or another) each week — exploring various techniques and adjusting in areas of weakness after a critique.
One week the students practiced drawing each others’ hands in different positions. Another week the students practiced figurative gesture drawings as an initial sketch (see their first attempts at gesture drawing
here). Then they came back in on top of these quick gesture drawings to add shading and detail.
I’m still dumbfounded at how quickly the students’ work has changed and improved over the course of the semester. Many of these students had never taken a drawing class (or any kind of art class) before now.
I’m scheduled to teach drawing again next semester, and I already have a number of ideas on how to improve the sequencing and hierarchy of the assignments. I appreciate having the opportunity to teach the same class over several semesters because then I have a chance to incorporate the things I’ve learned through each unique experience with students.
