My first day was not nearly as awkward as anticipated! (And I’ve had some pretty uncomfortable first days.) I woke up fairly early to make sure that I would actually be awake on time. (I have a tendency to disregard my alarm and continue sleeping.)

When packing my bag in the morning, I realized I didn’t know what I should bring to class since the supplies required to bring on the first day weren’t specified. I filled my backpack with a large sketch pad (one of the three we were required to purchase), three different kinds of pens, pencils, an X-acto knife and some previous art work in case we would would be sharing. I miraculously picked the right things to bring and brought everything I needed.

I left my house fifteen minutes earlier than I normally would in case anything happened that would make me late for class and since it was a nice day, I decided to walk. Once I got to the campus, I found my classroom and was able to stop running up and down the halls. I collected myself and walked through the door with a big smile. My professor, along with the rest of the small class, welcomed me and I took my seat. I have to admit, my biggest fear was that my teacher would be mean, but she was great the minute I walked in. Very energetic and gave good, constructive criticism. She kept  telling us to make sure she didn’t talk too fast and successfully managed to learn our names quickly (granted my class has about 8 or 9 people).

When introductions were over and all the paperwork was taken care of we jumped right into the “advertising” part of the curriculum. The class gathered around a screen and watched four different advertisements by two different companies that primarily used color as their main marketing technique. We discussed our likes/dislikes about the ads and what we thought worked and didn’t. For example, if we liked the music selected or if we knew what product we were being exposed to before the end of the commercial.

Next, my professor instructed us all to take our shoes off and put them in the middle of the table in a pile, which received some interesting responses from the class (mostly in the realm of “huh?”). We were told that we were going to draw the pile of shoes. I have to admit, this made my stomach do a few flips seeing as I’m not the best artist in the world, especially when it comes to still life. (Which is one of the reasons why I like graphic design so much.) She didn’t seem to care about our artistic ability but was more interested in our individual style, which was reassuring. We got a lot of drawing done since we didn’t spend much time on each illustration. The most time we spent on any drawing was thirty minutes, most of them were five to fifteen minutes, and we even got a two minute session for one. Apart from shoes we drew fabric, lollipops, and even modeled for each other. Everyone was tremendously friendly, and all of the students are clearly INCREDIBLY talented. While we were drawing, the professor took requests for music which also helped relieve any tension.

I’m truly excited to see what’s in store for next week! Apparently we’re going to be doing some marker rendering, which we got a little tutorial on after our fifteen minute break. We were told that we need to bring all of our supplies to every class, which means I definitely need to buy a portfolio case to be able to fit all of my sketch pads, which is also a good long-term investment. So far, it was a great first impression of the class and I’m grateful to be able to flex my drawing muscle.
Thanks for reading!

Until next week,
Mai