In the studio with artist, photographer and instructor Robert Louis Caldwell

It may seem silly, but I can not express how happy I am that I have finally found and purchased my first plaster casts! I started instructing students in 2010 and have wanted to purchase plaster casts to use in my drawing and painting instruction since then. I have only bought my first three, a male foot, a female hand, and the Mary mask from Michelangelo's Pieta. Drawing from plaster casts is terrific because the plaster does not create any harsh highlights allowing the artist to focus more accurately on the transitions of values. They are excellent teaching aid and have been used for a long time. I can not wait to draw these, create future drawing courses, and create reference images for my students.

 I took a break from teaching classes for the week of Thanksgiving, but I didn’t sit around twiddling my thumbs; I recorded two new sketching courses. The two new courses finish my introductory sketching courses focusing on a simple subject matter with relatively no textures. The first one in this set is already available, titled Still Life - Eggs and a Creamer; the additional two will be titled Still Life - Eggs and a Cup and Still Life - Teapot and a Creamer. As I mentioned, the subject matter for these introductory sketching courses is being kept simple. An artist can focus on the purpose of my sketching classes, see the larger shapes first, and then break them down into smaller and smaller shapes. I continually stress to my students not to get bogged down by the details but to focus on the larger shapes that support the details, to see through the curtain of details. To work from general to specific. Now that I have the courses recorded, I will spend the next week editing the v...