Thanks to readers here who assisted us when deciding how to nurture our rising sophomore’s artistic interests. DD elected to enroll at LCAD in the pre-college Figure Drawing class. In a word, it was AMAZING. Figure Drawing is taught in a classical style, starting with understanding of muscle groups and using a live, undraped model most of every class period. It is quite demanding - many students chose to do Foundational Drawing in the morning, but DD was glad that she could run or otherwise pursue other things, as the afternoons were intense. Hope is beyond amazing, and with 15 students there was plenty of personal instruction.
DD went in with a solid foundation, but when we saw her final exam we couldn’t quite believe the growth in 22 days. As Hope said, it is equivalent to a full year college level class, and reflects on the transscript as a college level class. Our friend who has been an artist for her entire life (animation/design/fine arts) was blown away at the sophistication of all of the work - could hardly believe what the students were producing at high school age.
Very reasonably priced - I think we paid $800 for the class with supplies extra. You are about a mile from downtown Laguna Beach. Since she is a rising sophomore and not yet driving, her Dad and I had a lovely time working in the air conditioned library, eatling lunch downtown, or going to the beach. What a lovely way to spend the summer afternoons.
Many of the students chose to do Foundational Drawing in the morning (5 weeks of Mon - Thurs for the last week of June and most of July) and then Figure Drawing in the afternoon. DD said that she was glad that she didn’t do this, as it was intense, focused work and there were some outside assignments, but almost all of the other students did both.
DD came away with three items she plans to include in her college portfolio and/or application for high school programs in te future: a full figure charcoal drawing (perhaps 15 hours of outside work), a two day gull figure charcoal class project (6 hours so far - will be working further on this one), and a one day pose (3 hours so far) which looks more sculptural in its simplicity. It was tough to get her down there every day as both of us work, but it was worth the sacrifice to telecommute.
Go Hope Railey and LCAD!!!