18th century inspired eye miniatures

Generally I find that students are most intimidated by drawing the human form and face. So I am always trying to figure out ways to focus on small parts of the human form to bolster their confidence.

Yesterday I introduced a project to the teen class that focused strictly on drawing the eye. It was a nice tie in for Valentine's Day, which is just around the corner, and had an interesting art history story.

In the 18th and early 19th century, wealthy European lovers exchanged painted eye miniatures. This fad was supposedly ignited by King George IV when he had his eye painted, placed in a locket and sent to his love, a twice widowed Catholic woman he could not legally marry by law at that time, in place of an engagement ring. This gift convinced her to marry the Prince in secret and set off a frenzy of lovers exchanging eye jewelry that they could wear publicly without others knowing the identity of their true love...because affairs were common since most marriages were not based on romantic love at this time.

Hence coining the modern day term of these works being referred to as "Lover's Eyes". 

I am completely smitten with these works of art. I shared them with the teen class last night, who were also quite intrigued by the story and the artwork, which has to be the ultimate two thumbs up for an old lady like me.

The Salon website has a great detailed article on these if you are interested in learning more about eye miniatures.

Anyhow the girls giggled at the thought of giving their eyes to a boy, so we settled on maybe these being a gift to their parents as a symbol of their love. Whether they give these to anyone is a mute point because they all thought the idea of creating an eye was "cool".

I gave the students several options to use in creating their eyes and one settled on using Prisma pencil and the other on watercolor pencil.

13 year old, watercolor pencil

Using a mirror to study their own eyes, they began to create their works of art. Here is the one work finished last night, the other is still in progress. This was a great opportunity to really study and learn how to draw an eye, paying attention to shadow and light, the eye lid, and nuances of the pupil.

The girls truly seemed to enjoy this project and it seemed to really resonate with each of them and inspired them creatively. 

And I just fell further in love with artwork focused strictly on the eye looking at their finished creations.

Inspiration is everywhere

Last spring, a student brought in a beautiful skeleton leaf she found while walking to class.  We both admired it and then the following week she brought in a whole envelope of them that I have kept and used from time to time for inspiration for projects.

When she came back from spring break, she was very excited about her experience using a wood burner and asked if she could explore the technique more in the studio.  Since I have a burner and she is 13, I told her that would be fine by me.

She pulled out one of the leaves and a piece of wood and began creating.  I love her final work. There's wood burning, carving, and a bit of paint.

13 year old

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and another teen student from the class had collected some skeleton leaves that she wanted to incorporate into a painting.

13 year old

Which in turn, inspired another student in the class to also utilize skeletal leaves.

14 year old

Isn't it wonderful to see three completely different creations all inspired by a found treasure from nature.  It just goes to prove that inspiration is truly everywhere, if only we choose to look for it.