Art School

Many years ago, I was a student at the Art Institute of Dallas. I got my degree in Visual Communications. We did a lot of really fun and interesting things there. Of course, there was a great deal of emphasis on graphic design.

This was in the early days of computer graphics. People were still trying to figure out if Macs or PCs would take the lead. There was also a debate as to whether Adobe products or Corel would be the industry standard.

Anyway, the images below were all created by hand. I experimented with many different mediums and techniques as you will see. I do hope you enjoy.

Life Drawing | Ballerina | Pastels on colored paper with a hatching technique | 1992

Life Drawing | Ballerina

During my time in art school at the Art Institute of Dallas, I continued to experiment with various mediums. One of my favorites was working with pastels. This was created using a hatching technique. I made this during an advanced Life Drawing course.

Life Drawing | Ballerina Profile

This was a portrait I drew during on of my Life Drawing classes. I used pastels on colored paper.

Life Drawing | Ballerina | Pastels on colored paper | 1992

Life Drawing | Woman's Portrait | Made with Water Color | 1992

Life Drawing | Woman's Portrait

One of my favortite classes while attending the Art Institute of Dallas was Life Drawing. Most of the time it was charcoals on cheap pulp paper. I loved it though. One time we were allowed to pick a medium of our choice. I chose watercolor. We had a little longer than a few minutes to create. Still, this took me less than thirty minutes.

Life Drawing | Man with Skull

Life Drawing was definitely one of my favorite courses in college. I most especially enjoyed the models who would be a little more adventurous and wear costumes and or use props. There was also those models who provided some fun banter as well. That just made our time more fun and exciting. It was certainly an honor and privilge to draw these couragous models.

Life Drawing | Man with Skull | Pastels | 1992

Life Drawing | The Green Portrait | Pastels on Colored Paper | 1992

Life Drawing | The Green Portrait

One time in our Life Drawing class I decided to try something a little bit different. I decided to do a little tone-on-tone for something unique. This was done using a green pastel on muted green paper. This probably could have used some lighter colors, like a really light green to give it more dimension. But I loved his facial features and expression.

Life Drawing | Portrait of a Man

In the latter years in art school, our instructors were always pushing us to do things outside of our comfort zone. Whereas this was a pretty basic black and white drawing done in charcoal, we only had five minutes to create. Considering the time constraints, I thought this turned out really well.

Life Drawing | Portrait of a Man | Charcoal | 1992

Life Drawing | Woman Thinking | Pastels on Colored Paper | 1992

Life Drawing | Woman Thinking

Another Life Drawing piece. This time I used brown on what was almost a light peach colored paper. This came out almost like a sepia tone photograph -- only it's obviously an illustration.

Life Drawing | Self Portrait

Back in my college days, I had a little more hair than I do now. It was also kept much longer. This was done using a regular No. 2 pencil. This was particularly challenging to photograph. Graphite in the regular pencil is very shiney and reflects light. So I used some hairspray as a fixative to tone that down a little bit.

Life Drawing | Self Portrait | Pencil | 1992

Life Drawing | Jodie Foster | Water Color | 1992

Life Drawing | Jodie Foster

During my time at the Art Institute of Dallas, I continued to experiment with various mediums. I rather liked working with watercolor. This was one of my better portraits back in the day, even if I do say so myself. I had a lot of fun creating this one.

Life Drawing | Paul McCartney

This was another portrait, this time done using gouache paints. Not my favorite mediums at all. But this came out pretty well considering I had no clue what I was doing. This type of paint is difficult to control.

Life Drawing | Paul McCartney | Gouache Painting| 1992

Lead Crystal & Abstract | Water Color | 1992

Lead Crystal & Abstract | Water Color

I loved watercolors. I especially liked using them with bold colors, not always the norm with such a translucent medium. This assignment was to paint a still life, then interpret it as an abstract painting. Here's what I came up with.

Mechanical | Abstract Art

Most of the art students in school loathed this class. The instructor was very strict. Considering the subject matter, she had to be. Most of the classes were a lot more free going when it came to expression. Building a mechanical the old-school way before computers made this method obsolete was very technical and exacting. I actually enjoyed this class and loved the instructor. Funny, the second job I had in my career was as a production artist. The methods were all computerized by then. But the principals were still the same!

Mechanical Drawing with Mylar Overlays | Pen & Ink w/ Mylar | 1992

Len Jennings Art