Painting on cardboard

In 1996 I was teaching at a new school in the area that a friend started. It was called Associates in Art located in Sherman Oaks, California and for a time it was the place to be. A hotbed for what was happening in several areas of art. The animation boom of the 1990s was in full swing and hundreds of people were there working on their skills hoping to break into the industry along with many great artists who were either instructors or taking classes.

I was teaching a course in Visual Development when I created this demonstration. I drew it on the cardboard backing of a pad of drawing paper. I used acrylics to paint over the drawing. This was published in the brochure for Associates In Art and I also included it in my book Controlling Illusion in 2008.

Always liked this painting and the character. Often wondered what he's about. It's a challenge creating in front of a large group of people. A performance aspect is involved. There were almost 40 students in the class. Early on in my teaching career I made it a point to utilize class demos as part of my method. Way before I did this piece. When I returned to teaching in 1996 it helped give me the confidence to continue.