Karl Can Teach Anyone to Draw

Artist Karl Barnhart’s slogan is “Karl can teach anyone to draw – guaranteed.” I guess I’m living proof. I just finished taking five 2 ½ hour classes from Karl. The horse above was drawn in class four.

Pretty amazing if you compare it to my feeble attempt at drawing about a year ago when I wanted to put my friend Stewart’s face on a gift apron. At the time I wrote about needing to take Karl’s classes and musing about whether he might make house calls.

A couple of weeks ago I saw an ad in the paper that Karl was back in town for a short while and offering classes during his stay. YAY! I didn’t have to think twice and I’m so glad I signed up. It was a great experience

So how does Karl accomplish this minor miracle?

He gave us permission to copy and – horrors – even to trace. Plus he taught us several techniques to do so – shhh! I kept thinking of my high school art teacher, Sister Amabilis, rolling over in her grave.

I admit I traced the outline of the horse above; but then it was I who gave the form a semblance of life by shading in the muscles, blending the highlights and filling in the details of the face, the tail and the horse’s joints.

Karl believes that drawing is a learned skill; the art comes later. You first need the skill. He helps students break down the link between the left (rational) brain and the right (creative) brain so that one can just “see” what is before one’s eyes without converting it into a left brain symbolic rendition of reality.

Interesting concepts – amazing results. Sorry, Sister Amabilis, you were wrong. I may not be an artist yet, but I can draw!