private lesson documentation with ryley

Ryley - 1:1 Art Class

I am very impressed by Ryley’s body of work. What immediately strikes me is his natural graphic sense. His mark making, which is a very strong part of his visual language is incredible! He marks like crazy and doesn’t seem to tire of it. The detail and the variety of marks make his picture making very rich. His sense of design is very apparent and strong also. He seems to use line and shape equally well and instinctively combines all of the above mentioned elements. He has a wide range of ability and knows instinctively how to use what he does naturally. It is my philosophy never to interfere with a child’s instinct so my teaching will be gentle and unobtrusive.

The following is what we did today in our session. All teaching happens in a very conversational tone.

Ryley wanted to draw right away from imagination and immediately began a picture full of marks. Because of his mark making and imagination I showed him Saul Steinberg. I explained why I liked Steinberg and showed him all the different things her draws. I began a drawing myself, inspired by Steinberg explaining that when I don’t know what to draw I like to look for inspiration in this book. We talked about inspiration, something he couldn’t explain but I knew he understood.

I next showed him how Picasso dated his pictures and we dated Riley’s. Riley began to talk about all of his art teachers so I took the opportunity to tell him how he was my teacher (definitely true!) and how Picasso after years and years of work said he would be a great artist if he could work like a 5 year old again.

After drawing for a while and beginning another we began to talk about drawing from life. I have a series of eucalyptus drawings by artist Jim Morgan. I showed him these and talked about work in a series. We also looked at a series of eucalyptus drawn by children (on my web site) and he picked the ones he really liked. I then asked him to describe what he saw visually from a real eucalyptus plant. He had interesting observations on the size relationships of the leaves.

Ryley noticed the shadow the eucalyptus was making on the table so I took the opportunity to trace the outline of the shadow (the idea not about tracing but as a mimic of drawing from life - tracing a shadow can later translate to “tracing” a shape you see in life). He then noticed his pretzel’s shadow was the shape of a butterfly and we traced the shadow and made it into a butterfly. Ryley then wanted to trace his sword on his own. During this I focused on shape, how line makes shape and the variations of shape. These discussions are merely introductions to elements of art, he is not expected at this stage of his development to ‘get’ or use any of these things, just a gentle intro.

After an hour and fifteen minutes Ryley began loosing focus so we walked around the apartment looking at all the paintings especially noticing the snakes and kings (my personal iconography) in each. I showed him my studio and he remarked how messy the paint and work area was. I told him how much I love the messiness of making art.

Next I wanted him to attempt a drawing from life (the eucalyptus). This is the only time during the session I asked him to do something specific. I gave him his sketchbook and 6 pencils of different lightness and darkness. He tried each out and used this as a point of departure for his next imagination drawing (and not yet the eucalyptus). He is wonderfully reactive and inspired by what is going on in the moment in front of him within the work - something it takes adult artist years to learn. He found a ruler with a hole in the pencil box and began using the hole as a stencil. He also discovered using color pencil over a hard leaded light pencil made an interesting effect. The way he responds to the materials is incredibly experimental.

Finally we came back to the eucalyptus. He did not directly observe from life the eucalyptus to draw it but looked at it once and symbolized it. This is developmentally appropriate so I am not going to push observation, only introduce subtly. The eucalyptus drawing then morphed into a drawing of a ship. I love that his mind naturally follows a flow of transformation - this turns into that into that. If you ever have seen films of Picasso painting this is how he worked.

He mentioned Peter Pan so I showed him my Disney Animation Book. This book has a lot of great drawing in it. There is a picture of the Disney artists drawing from a real life model dressed as Captain Hook so I explained to him what they were doing and how it translates to the final movie (my objective being an intro to drawing from life to get a specific result, in this case a character).

This led to a him telling me all of the things he likes: swords, knights (I gather he has seen the collection of armor from the Met?), King Arthur. I will use this info to show him art with this subject matter.

The last few minutes of class were spent with Ryley taking photos of the apartment, his artwork and his sword in different set ups. I love to let children use the camera when they wish, photography being a natural extension of art.

Riley thinks like an artist and does everything an adult artist aspires to do. It is my responsibility to let this grow and blossom in the most comfortable and self-directed (by Riley) way possible so he retains this way of working. I love that he goes to Bay Ridge Prep where divergent thinking is valued. Convergent thinking seeks to take a lot of information and come to one conclusion. Divergent thinking is expansive, it’s flowing, one idea to the next, it’s brainstorming and highly creative. Riley has excellent divergent thinking skills. I am so happy to have this opportunity to work with him (and to be inspired by him to remember how the best art is created).