Blind and Modified....

 Little Wonder and Phoebe seemed happy to wear their Red Coats this morning.

 For the second day in a row, it was so cold I heated up the beet pulp for 

Rebel and the girls.  They all have their heavy blankets on now.

 At noon I drove down to the college to make presentations to two classes

taught by Dr. Anne Panning, who is in the English Department.

(This is a very long post, as I want the participants to see their work).

 Both.....Fiction Writing.

 What in the heck was I doing there as a retired Art Teacher?

Over a year ago I was invited to be interviewed by two classes and happened to mention that I was confident that I could teach 100% of them to draw.

Since then, I have been demonstrating just that and today I worked with 

my 5th and 6th classes.

The object was to get all into the right side of their brains

(the creative side) so they would feel free, while learning the importance

of being able to "see."  It works every time.

 We worked on two kinds of contour drawings.

"Blind", where you cannot look down at your paper, nor do you

take your pen off the paper.  One continuous line.

We started by drawing hands.

It was very tempting for them to sneak a look as the left side of the brain 

was telling them that it's logical to look at the paper.

After that, they worked on a "modified" drawing of the hand, where

they were able to look at their paper, but still had to use one continuous line.

(Keep in mind that most of these students had not taken art classes).

Dr. Panning, below on the left.

 After that, they paired up and took turns doing blind and modified portraits.

Finally, they were asked to take off a shoe/boot and all produced a modified drawing.

I took photos of all five of their drawings (both classes) and was very impressed!

They were relieved when they were allowed to look at their papers and were more tuned in to what they were looking at....and that is the key.

 I absolutely love doing this and am honored to be invited to work with these students.

They were all very game and we had a lot of good laughs.

I hope they will include some drawings in their journals.
If they do this a few more times, they will see a lot of improvement.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the snow was sticking...

 and the ponies were happy to get in their stalls.

Night all.

Time to get out by the fire.