This Article Originally Appeared in the April/May 2005 Edition of the Coast CCA Adjunt Faculty Flyer
By Katie Cumper
Postcards sent from his grandmother in Germany, taught Golden West College art teacher Patrick Gagne how to draw.
“I was about three or four when my grandmother started mailing me postcards that had simple drawings with the question ”Can you draw me?” next to them,” Gagne said. “I couldn’t write, so I tried to reproduce the drawings.”
Communicating through drawing has now turned into a career for Gagne and he uses pen, ink and colored pencils as a form of medium in his freelance illustration work. Students taking one of his classes at Golden West College may find some of the same simple line drawing techniques in Gagne’s teaching style that he learned when he drew for his grandmother.
While teaching Introduction to Right Brain Drawing, - a class he currently teaches through Golden West College Community Services - Gagne has the opportunity to help many inexperienced artists. Some students start with stick figures, according to Gagne, and end up “accurately being able to draw what they see.”
“Many people have the notion they can’t draw- that art is somehow magical,” he said. “But actually it is a learnable skill – just like any other skill.”
Gagne believes everyone likes to draw as a child, but often the desire is squelched. “Someone might make fun or the drawing does not meet their expectations,” He explained, “And they give up.” But Gagne has found that many people still have the desire to draw. “I like to motivate them,” he said. “I teach them to believe in their ability.”
Most of the students in his community services class tend to be older and often more motivated to learning something new. “They take learning very seriously,” he said. “And I see a lot of improvement.”
Gagne, a Golden West College graduate, previously taught beginning drawing, rendering, and illustration and drawing for commercial purposes, at the trade school Learning Tree, located in Costa Mesa. Along with the Introduction to Right Brain class he teaches on Mondays from 7 to 9 p.m., he is also the teacher for the Rendering I (Art 120) Graphic Design class at Golden West from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Thursday.
“In the Rendering I class I see a wider range of experience in drawing,” Gagne said. “I try to balance the teaching by motivating the beginners and challenging the more knowledgeable. I test things out, find out what the students want and their skills, and try to be flexible - making teaching changes that allow the class to run more smoothly.”
It’s extremely easy for Gagne to relate to both a new or more advanced student, since he started out just like everyone else and practiced incessantly until he was good enough to sell his work.
Through the process of learning to draw himself, he has realized worrying about mistakes or getting discouraged if a piece of work is not perfect, is just part of the process in become a skilled artist. It also helps to have family and friends that encourage a would-be artist along the way. Gagne now speaks and writes fluently in German, but is grateful that his grandmother saved all those postcards he mailed back to German. “At about the age of 13, I pretty much tore-up everything I had every drawn,” he said. Those postcards are all Gagne has left of childhood work before the age of 13.
“I struggled with art for a long time,” Gagne admitted. “I remember those struggles and frustrations vividly – that’s why I started to teach.”
He can be reached by phone at 714-892-7711 x51101 or by email at pgagne@gwc.cccd.edu. Please visit the GWC Digital Arts website at http://www.gwcdigitalarts.com. |
