You can read the rest of this series here.

This was the ninth and final week for my drawing class (most of which is pictured above). With one last still life setup this morning, we got another chance to tackle round shapes, straight lines, and shading to bring everything to life. You can see the results below.

Our instructor George suggested that, with some experience under our belts, we might want to continue the class next term, in January, and practice in the meantime to develop our skills. Some of my classmates did discuss continuing on. I did learn a lot — read my other posts if you don’t believe it — so who knows when I’ll feel inspired to pull out my pencil and drawing paper in the future?

Among my most memorable lessons: the importance of a clean, straight line. How to shade and erase to create depth. And today, how to use an eraser to both remove and make marks. Our class also got a lot of tips from instructor George on what we had the most trouble with — drawing a circle, turning it into a sphere, and of course drapery spring to mind.

We were definitely a class of beginners, but all the time George spent on individual feedback certainly helped. It’s also nice to be among other beginners and see how other people are tackling the hard parts. I won’t speak for everybody, but I can easily see how I’ve improved over nine classes, while I obviously still have a lot of practice ahead of me.

I do still have a couple of Stained Glass classes remaining, so look for more posts in this space! Here’s my final drawing from class, and, for nostalgia and comparison, my very first:

— George