Art College

I decided I was going to leave Guelph for Sheridan College. Why I told my calculus teacher this I don’t know. I went to him for help with a Calculus problem. The teacher asked me, ‘if you’re leaving anyways why do you care about this?’

For some reason I told him that I needed to know. It was a challenge. Like a puzzle. Problem solving. Check the box for liking problem solving and math. The teacher showed me how to solve for the derivative and get a nice ‘ease in’ curve that came in very handy later on in technical animation. 

My first day at Sheridan College, my hands were shaking so badly that when I got my coffee at the cafeteria I couldn’t hold it steady enough to drink it. In my home room class I was seated at my own animation table. Peg bar, paper. 

The students around me COULD DRAW. Oh my god, could they draw. One of the students that sat near my desk was Andy Knight. He’d go on to open his own 2D animation studio. These were natural talents. 

I quickly realized that I didn’t know anything about structure in drawing. 

In life drawing class Bill Kettlewell would look over my shoulder and say ‘having difficulties today, are we Linda?’ I scored an E in his class. 

I was sunk.

I think the bottom was my 1st year animation exam. It asked to draw an octopus on a trampoline. My teacher’s comment, Vivian Ludlow was “yikes.” 

Years later I asked her why she’d passed me in 1st year. 

She said that she saw a spark in me.

My other life drawing teacher Suzanna taught us gesture drawing. I did well in that, More about quick sketches, locomotion and movement than draftsmanship. 

I had some understanding of movement through the U of G biophysics class. And the hours at the drawing board was sharpening my skills of observation.

Gesture drawing seemed to come more naturally to me. 

I might become a real artist after all.