By:

It is our belief that figure drawing remains a crucial part of education in the visual arts. Our presentation of student drawings will demonstrate the positive impact our class has had on foundation level art students with regard to the timeless subject of the figure. We have been team teaching foundation life drawing classes at UCF for two years with dramatic results. This is due to presenting information in partnership, trading roles in the classroom that emphasize our strengths (and very different personalities!) from our combined thirty years of teaching experience. Robert Rivers (a former rugby player) gives motivational "pep" talks that emphasize energy and commitment. Rivers' emphasis of line in teaching drawing is based on his experience as a printmaker. Kevin Haran brings a more analytical approach to the class, identifying more technical and illusionary elements in the student's work. He tends to work more one on one with each student while drawings are in progress. Haran also contributes a painter's background, discussing the use of ink washes in the drawings. He also developed a project that involves building paper sculptures of the human skull, where students begin to understand the structure of this essential form. The primary purpose and philosophy of our course is that we teach students to use the physical act of making a drawing to see. The way the eye moves through a form creates the visual armature of the drawing. We begin the class by identifying a subject's four major points of reference or Intercross: the highest point, the lowest point, the furthest point on the left and the furthest point on the right and how they don't line up. The drawings increase in complexity and duration where students have the opportunity to combine a variety of drawing concepts that we will discuss such as Descending Intercross Drawing, Lightning Drawing, Rhythm Drawing, Rock Drawing, Volumetric Contour Drawing, Sculpture Drawing and Aerial Drawing. Throughout the presentation, we will clearly demonstrate these concepts using examples of student work.

Stream: Aesthetics, Design

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Kevin Haran has a B.F.A. degree in Studio Art and a B.A. degree in Art History from the University of Central Florida. He has an M.F.A. degree in Painting / Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1991. Haran was Associate Curator of Education at the Knoxville Museum of Art. He currently teaches studio art at the University of Central Florida. He is also the Director of the Art Department outreach program, PAVE. Selected exhibitions include: National View at Grandview, The ACC National Exhibition, Atlanta Artists Center, Decatur, Georgia; Watermedia 2004, 22nd National Juried Exhibition, Montana Watercolor Society, Bigfork Art and Cultural Center, Bigfork, Montana; Tralfamadore & Trilobites: Kevin Haran / Carla Poindexter, Andrew Grant; Gallery, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. Current Work 2004: A National Competition, Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina; War Stories, A Shenere Velt Gallery / The Workmen's Circle, Los Angeles, California; ANA 32, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana. Collections include Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida; U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC; National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana; Austin Peay State University, Tennessee; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee.

Robert Rivers Auburn University, BFA University of Georgia MFA Professor of Art, University of Central Florida Visiting Lecturer, Edinburgh College of Art Assistant Professor of Art, University of Wisconsin-Superior Selected Exhibitions: Printmakers from Edinburgh of Art Summer School, Fundacion Joan Miro, Mallorca, Spain; Seagate Gallery, Dundee, Scotland; Society of Scottish Artists: 94th Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh; Saints and Sinners, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Boston Printmakers Show, Massachusetts. Selected Collections: The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama