Although I had many art classes in college and won awards all through school, I was largely self-taught until I enrolled in the Boulder Academy of Fine Arts, run by Elvie Davis, of the Chicago School. Elvie was the student of the student of John Singer Sargent, and taught classical technique. My concentration at the Academy was in paradigmatic drawing and anatomy although I also studied life drawing, painting, and portrait. Since I was twelve, I have wanted to do illustration, in particular, people. This is the first drawing I did when I decided that I needed to learn how to draw people. I have kept it to show young artists that we all start from the same place.

CLASSES - THE HEAD AND PORTRAITURE

One of the classes that I teach is the traditional art of portraiture. The above picture was done from photos. I took about 50 photos of my friend Kristin, and she picked out some that she liked. I also do instruction with a live model: both of the techniques are similar. The classes are with a live model, but there are two weeks on the use of photos.

This is a sample showing artistic interpretations of William Shattner playing Captain Kirk taken from books. My own is shown next to these six images. I give a lesson on common mistakes from photographs, how to avoide them but understanding the underlying structure of the model instead of relying on the ability to copy well from a photo.

This is a macchia drawing of John Lennon done from about 50 photos. Macchia is an Italian word for "stain." The technique involves laying down layers of crushed charcoal and chalk on gray paper in layers and then using a charcoal pencil for the final darks and a chalk pencil for the final highlights.
I teach this technique, which is choice for doing live portraits as well as portraits in general. This class is as follows (by weeks):

1. Introduction to portraiture. Focus on the face, the six points of lighting, using macchia
2. The salient features of the head, the structure of the head, head types, basic bones
3. Drawing the features, the six shadows, 3-1-2-1 structure of shadows, reflected light
4. Setting up the model, making the mark and setting up the easel, using the tools, first macchia layer and the use of the kneaded eraser
5. Macchia layers, the use of sublights, making a lighting gage, sides of lighting, clothes and background
6. Working in the darks and highlights. Treatment of the work as a whole
7. Using photos, chasing shadows, turing photos to your advantage, taking photos of a subject
8. Laying down structural elements. Using high contrast photos. Personality features.
9. Demonstration of a work from photos, more lecture about head types and cariacture points
10. Open for question and specific instruction.

CLASSES - PARADIGMATIC DRAWING AND HUMAN ANATOMY

The focus of this class is in learning the human body well enough to do illustration where one does not often have photo references that are specific enough to copy. In this sample, you can see where I have created a structure of a character and then taken that structure and made of it a drawn character. The class is very basic, going on the assumption that the student can use a review or knows very little about how to draw people. I found for myself that most of what I had learned in life drawing and other anatomy classes was not well taught. This instruction is similar to what Frazetta or Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) or all of the comic book artists would have learned. I even spend a week showing slides of what not to draw and why, the effects of bad lighting and reliance of color to carry bad composition.

This is a heavy class, notes are required. The class is an overview. The serious student will take this class with the illustration class and or the portraiture class. If there is time, I will teach red chalk drawing which involves putting down a powdered layer of chalk and working into it with chalk pencil as you see here. The ten week class is as follows (by week):

1. The paradigmatic figure, basic measurements, divergence in gender, age, and body types
2. The paradigmatic head, head types, features of the head, basic anatomy of the head
3. The chest and torso, paradigmatic measurements, basic anatomy, balance and perspective
4. The limbs, paradigmatic measurements, heights, basic anatomy, balance and perspective, foreshortening mistakes.
5. Basic structure of the hand, drawing the hand, the hand as a gesturing device, the Golden Measure
6. Rotating the body, the body in space
7. The moving body
8. Lighting and the three dimensional illusion
9. Working with the model, problems in instruction, male anatomy, female models, race, gender and other problems
10. Open for question and specific instruction or lesson in red chalk.

CLASSES - ILLUSTRATION: FROM PENCIL TO THE PRINTED PAGE

This is a class that focuses on business practices as well as tecnique and technical skills. I have done separations by hand as well as in Photo Shop and have worked with hundreds of editors and publications. This class includes all the points I wish I wish I would have known before I started, such as what kind of payments to expect! The ten week class is as follows (by week):

1. Reproduction what you want is not what you get. Problems in printing.
2. The business, how to break in, what mediums to choose, making a portfolio and a web site.
3. Covers. Working with manuscripts, working with art editors, working with writers.
4. Making a dummy, separations, full color, limited color, printing versus digital printers.
5. Working with magazines, sizes, kinds of files, photographing your work, digital programs.
6. Working with agencies, trying to find work, payments, royalties, other avenues of employment, graphics versus galleries, making a business, keeping it legal for the IRS.
7. Illustration basics, lighting and color
8. Illustration basics, black and white, screening, reprodruction problems, paper and other problems
9. Illustration basics, layout. Working with text. Fooling the reader, tips and mistakes.
10. Open for question and specific instruction or lesson in red chalk.

QUALIFICATIONS

Anne has worked for over 20 years in the publishing industry and also for art galleries and has taught art at the High School level, to children privately, and to adults. She has done over fifty bookcovers and over 3,000 inside illustrations for books of all ages, magazines, computer applications, greeting cards, non-fiction manuals, and more.