New Year, New Artists?

The best way to start a New Year...in the company of a team of young enthusiastic artists whose mission will be to capture some of the animals at Gorgie City Farm in pastels and inks; and then - when they have thawed out - turn these sketches into lino prints, paintings and sculptures in the studio at WASPS, Dalry. I'm always so impressed with how the children cope with the fact that the animals never stay still. I recommend that they cover a page with lots of versions of the particular creature , different sizes and facing in various directions. Then as time passes they are able to return to these sketches and develop them as the same view appears again or as they recall something they have just seen - effectively drawing from memory. Degas was a great advocate of drawing from memory and described his ideal art school as having new students on the ground floor working from the model and with each successive year, experienced students would have to work on higher and higher floors, further from the model and thus reliant on what they could recall from each trip down to view their subject. So, New Year, new artists, switch off those screen menaces and get them out there looking and remembering real life!
http://www.damiancallan.com/childrens-classes.html