Jemima Wolseithcrafte
July 27, 2016 4:45 AM
Art club! It's critical. by Jemima Wolseithcrafte
Art club was fun but sort of… scary. Jemima didn’t really think of herself as a leader. She was the second to bottom of five children. She was a friendly, co-operative Teppenpaw. And that meant she needed other people to co-operate with, to create something beautiful together. That was her strength, if she had one. She was very grateful that she had Ginger to run the club with, so that they could bounce ideas back and forth. On her own, she felt she would have drifted. But Ginger was really busy with her Quidditch training right now, so Jemima would be taking the lead for a few weeks. Not that her friend was unavailable or unhelpful but it was officially more on Jemima’s shoulders than Ginger’s.She’d talked a bit to Barnabus over midterm. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the big gap in their ages, she’d always got on well with him. He’d always been old enough to be patient with her, to get that she didn’t know how to do what he did and to make that feel ok. Maybe that was partly personality too. She thought that, if he’d come to Sonora, he might have been a Teppenpaw too. Though he was very smart and very driven. Very Aladren. The art club had mostly been a very free-spirited affair so far. Everyone was free to work on what they liked, and there was no bad art. Jemima usually brought an idea to the meetings for anyone who didn’t know what to work on. She had a big book of exercises, and would set one up, but it was entirely optional.
She was good at making her members feel good about themselves, Barnabus had said. And that wasn’t surprising because she was always good at that. But people, even arty people, liked to progress. To feel that they were learning and improving. No one was asking her to be a qualified art teacher, but maybe there were some people who had come wanting to improve, and who didn’t really know how or what to do. They could try the exercises, but did they get any feedback? If not, how did they know how to get better?
He had made a few suggestions, which Jemima had pondered. One she definitely liked and one she wasn’t so sure about… Ginger, however, had given both things the thumbs up, and so today art club members had been asked to bring two bits of their previous work, one they liked and one that hadn’t gone how they wanted, and had been informed that the session would be about critiquing and feedback. Not all members attended every session, and Jemima always tried to give a brief outline beforehand, so people could decide whether or not they were interested.
“Ok, hi,” she greeted everyone, once people seemed to have stopped flowing in. She still began most addresses of the art group in this way, slightly unsure of how to call everyone to attention. “So, um, today we’re going to do two things… First, we’re going to pair up and look at each other’s work. So, you should all have brought a piece you like, and I’d like you to explain to your partner why you’re proud of it - what did you do really well? What are you good at as an artist? Then show them your problem piece. Can you identify what went wrong? If you’re not sure, can your partner tell you? Are they any good with… whatever it is. Like, if it’s a particular technique or… like, shading or something, can they give you some help? I’d also all like you to write your name and the things you think you’re good at on one of the green pieces of paper, and the things you want to improve on a blue piece - you don’t have to put your name on that one. Then if we see there’s a lot of people who have trouble with something, and someone good at it, we can get different people to give tutorials.
“I really appreciate everyone here’s talent and the art you make, but I think we could do a better job of using each other’s gifts to learn and improve, so that’s what today will be all about,” she smiled.
Once the group settled into pairs, she found herself someone to work with, taking two sketches out of her folder.
“So, this is an illustration I did for one of my boyfriend’s stories,” she explained, showing them the first piece, which was a penguin and a polar bear, equipped with night-vision goggles. The penguin looked very serious and determined about the situation. “I like it because I think I did a good job of capturing the characters. And I know it’s not like… fine art, but it’s for a children’s book, so the style suits the audience. My problem piece is these trial sketches I did of my cat… I really want to draw his portrait but I can’t work out what pose or angle… He only has three legs, and I feel whatever pose I draw, it looks like I just forgot to finish the sketch.”
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Art club! It's critical.
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