While we have moved on to other things in the class the "homework" that I assign isn't really mandatory in that the kids (they are mostly kids) don't HAVE to do it. I think that most of the kids in my classes genuinely enjoy being there although I could probably point to one or two whose parents are probably using this hour for free babysitting so they can go shopping or something like that.
So every now and again one of the students ends up turning in a portrait a bit late and this is fine.
It makes me happy when i see that my suggestions are actually being used by the students. If you look closely you can see that they used my "grid" technique and tacked each part of the portrait in individual squares rather than attempting to do the entire thing all at once. This is kind of cheating I suppose but it has been my experience that when students try something and it looks pretty bad when they are starting, that they tend to give up. This is true with adults probably more so than children. Kids will just laugh it off while adults get kind of pissed that they are not experts right away.
I particularly like how this student nailed the reflection in the eyes and I think it is quite obvious that this is being drawn while looking at a photograph right next to wherever they do the work. I do not have a problem with this and feel as though it is a good way for newer artists to start to understand the complexities associated with drawing faces and most of them end up having a great appreciation for other artwork once they realize how difficult it actually is.
So this one made me happy because I think the girl did a pretty fantastic job of it. What do you think?
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