YIA Mentor Artist Ernesto Olmos shares his experience with students at University Prep at the Canal Alliance–
We had a very successful visual art program at Canal Alliance. The students learned about several different art techniques. They learned basic concepts of drawing including: point, line, and composition. They learned how to draw comics as well. The students also used hard pastel crayons and oil pastels, to create wonderful landscapes.
For the painting section of the residency, the students had the opportunity to experiment. They created ancient prehistoric cave art using natural pigments made from soil, carbon, limestone and hard pastels.
For the last part of the residency, the students learned contemporary acrylic techniques. I shared how to use the acrylic medium to create different textures. The students used pictures of animals and landscapes for reference. They created wonderful, imaginative artwork.
I loved working with these talented youth. It was a pleasure to share my art techniques with them.
