New Year's Resolutions

Every year I write down a list of New Year's Resolutions, and every year I have a few that repeat.  On that list is always the following:

1. Spend more time doing art
2. Learn Spanish

Every year I download some Spanish learning apps and buy a ton of new art supplies, and by the time Spring rolls around I know how to say some colors and body parts in Spanish, and I have a pile of unfinished art projects on my floor.  I decided I am going to stick with resolution #1 this year, and maybe 2016 will be the year I finally learn Spanish!  

I'm keeping this blog mostly to hold myself accountable to doing something creative as often as possible.  I will use this blog to document the work I do in my graduate studio classes, progress with the etsy shop I have with my coworker, journaling or sketching I do on my own, and of course, the work my students in my art class produce.  I am halfway through my 5th year of being a special education teacher and I am finally teaching an art class this spring semester! I have been doing art clubs and after school art programs for a while, but I'm thrilled to be developing a curriculum for a class that meets every day.

My boyfriend Jesse is always super encouraging when I want to spend time doing art, and today he came with me to Spring Studio in SoHo for a 3.5 hour figure drawing session.  I always enjoyed figure drawing in college and had been missing it, until a friend recently told me about Spring Studio.  They have great models and really reasonable drop-in class costs ($18, bring your own supplies). 

I haven't drawn a male model in years, and remembered today how much harder it is than drawing women!  This model was a dancer and held some really interesting poses.

Here are some of my attempts at drawing today's model at Spring Studio:

Jesse has never done this before today, but it turned out he was a natural!  Here are some of his:

Spring Studio's Life Drawing Schedule