Drawing Landscape: A Process of Personal Inquiry

 I signed up for this four week class at Kenneth Hahn through Otis Evening College.  I made it to 3 out of 4 because I was so busy at work. I wasn't mentally there until the last day because I was so stressed and busy at work.  I hope he offers it again so I can really take 

Here is the course description:

An intermediate course that introduces an inquiry approach to drawing the landscape. This course organizes learning as a problem-solving activity and uses student drawings as a basis for teaching and learning. Through continuous contact students develop the skills of direct observation of nature as it pertains to their own discoveries. Course explores different ways to use varied graphite forms to indicate expressive lines, texture, and areas of tone. The act of drawing allows one to concentrate on the landscape, dissect it and recreate it on paper. Class sessions will be held outdoors where we can utilize drawing as discovery.

This is how far I got on my 3 week drawing at Kenneth Hahn

The teacher was Luis Serrano.  He was amazing.  This is his bio:


Luis Serrano, MFA, Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design; BFA, Otis Art Institute. Mr. Serrano is a fine artist who utilizes landscape to uniquely express the world around him. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions including the Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art (Pasadena), the Koplin del Rio Gallery, and the Long Beach Museum. Mr. Serrano is a previous recipient of the prestigious NEA Grant of painting, as well as a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award Nominee. His drawings are highlighted in the upcoming show, Freeway Studies #2: Inside the Quad at Otis' Ben Maltz Gallery.

 Some books Luis brought in to share.

 This place is where you can buy silver point paper

 More interesting books I didn't know about

 An amazing artist I never heard of.

Some notes:
- You need empathy with the subject even if it is a model
- Sometimes you need to do a small study of an area to inform your large drawing
-You need to understand foreground, middle ground and background
- You also need to understand size, tonalities overlapping and textures
- The farther u go into the background the less texture there is
- He suggested I look at Lindsley Jones, Sickard and David Bomberg
- Machado the Walker
- James Lordes biography of Giacometti


I think it was worth it taking the class even though I wasn't really mentally there.  I want to finish my drawing.  This has been the hardest show I have been on since the soap opera and love bites.  I lost all balance.