sharon turns to traditional media

Sharon's creation in the first session

It's been quite a while that Sharon has been interested in art. I honestly don't recall how long it's been, but I do vaguely recollect her wanting good calligraphy pens. More recently, she turned to digital art.

It took me a while to realize how good she'd gotten. Maybe I was just too much of an obliviot. But she had all these drawings on her computer screen, and I just assumed that she had downloaded them or something. But then, while I was in her room I saw her draw one. And meanwhile, we've gotten her various tools. An electronic drawing tablet for the computer. A pen for the iPad. The suite of Adobe editing programs...

But the last time we were at Microcenter (our local electronics store of choice) buying her a drawing tablet, the salesman started talking about the importance of real media -- pens, pencils, paper. He wasn't disparaging the electronic art. But he said that it would benefit her to learn the basics. He does digital art -- and he showed us samples of his work. But he regrets not having taken classes in real media.

Well, the message hit home, and Sharon got a recommendation from a friend who takes (or has taken?) classes at the Bridgeview School of Fine Arts.

Registering her for the class was not what I expected. I'm really glad we called to talk to someone instead of just registering online. We were advised that the class she was hoping to take wouldn't be a beginner's class (even though the website listed it as one). I was also surprised to learn that her experience with digital art wouldn't help with traditional media. I realized that this would be a different process, but not how different. I also had to give an OK for Sharon to be in a class that would have nude models.* I guess that makes sense. I don't have any objections, but I can understand that some parents might, and the school needs to play it safe.

The first class was tonight. Yeah, I may be biased, but I'm impressed with the classwork she did. The teacher is tough, but Sharon seemed pleased to get the helpful feedback. And, since he was tough on everyone, she didn't feel singled out. She pointed out that she felt particularly proud when she could identify what she had done wrong before the teacher found it.

Sharon was the only kid in the class -- and I think I recall being told that this would be a class of adults. I think that was mentioned around the same point that the topic of nude models came up.

The verdict? Well, Sharon seemed really happy about the class when I picked her up. And she's excited to go back next week. That's what I wanted. It's really nice to see her excited about this.

*How does one apply to be a nude model for art classes? I could use the extra income. Of course, not for a class that Sharon takes...