Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A long long time ago

Back when I was a nipper in artschool I had to draw things because the teachers said so. Unlike the freedom I enjoy today to draw what I want to draw, only having to please myself (alright, and the people who pay me), back then I had to contend with the will of the aforementioned teachers. In the first term of my chosen course of illustration we had to deal with a certain teacher who had come up with, what at the time seemed like an incomprehensibly cruel punishment, a class to develop our sense of composition, our drawing skills and our general sense of what makes for a good image. He made us all draw a tinopener, for a complete term 6 hours a week, we were to draw our tinopeners. Starting with a small sheet of paper, and ending with huge sails of the stuff to blacken with our graphite pencils.
It was maddening, it was dull, it was one of the most valuable things I've ever done.
I think it was one of the most worthwile things in those entire four years.
Why am I typing this? Because I came across my drawings from that term on Flickr last week. Our old teacher, being as devoted to new media as he is, has put up lots of old work by students on the internet.
Unfortunately Flickr, doesn't want me to copy the images unto my blog. So you'll just have to go here

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