For Throwback Thursday, I want to talk about the time I was given the honor of teaching art and illustration to both children and adults. I originally fell into teaching to supplement my freelance design work. My classes included comic book illustration, cartooning, perspective drawing, and figure drawing. I created a curriculum with a foundation on the basics. The use of basic shapes, squares circles, triangles and rectangles is what I built my classes on.
I offered these classes to the local community starting first at the Art Center of Chelmsford, then grew to the Roudenbush Community Center in Westford, which led me to the Westford Public School system, where I was involved with the after care program teaching basic cartooning. I also taught at the Sgroi Art Gallery in Billerica, and Middlesex Community College’s summer camp program. My cartooning students ranged in age from eight-years-old to 16-years-old.
The figure classes were taught to adults for obvious reasons, that I hired models to come and pose for my classes. I don’t mean to sound conceded but my classes were very successful, and I am proud to say that I have former students who have gone on to start their own art and design careers. I don’t think I’ll ever teach professionally again, but not because I don’t love it, it’s because I feel I can dedicate the time my classes deserve.