When Frank taught drawing, the first assignment he gave his students was called “the last drawing”. If you only had time to do one drawing before you passed away, what would it be? What would the subject matter be? How would you approach even thinking of something to draw? What would be your final message to the world?
A bit morbid for a cartoon drawing dude… but there was a reason.
He wanted to see what level of student he had technique wise and he wanted to see how they thought. As one can imagine, many students didn’t really know how to approach it. Most, if not all of them came from a “there’s only one right answer to anything” education. And, this was an introductory course for first year students.Giving them a broken leash with which to go nuts was overwhelming to them. Many illustrated a scene of what they’d do with their last moments, portraits of who they’d visit, places they’d like to go to. No one really illustrated their feelings. What they wanted to leave behind…the concept of a legacy is pretty distant for someone just approaching the beginning of adulthood
The funny thing is, Frank never did the assignment himself. Must be the broken leash would be too much for him too.
When given the ability and opportunity to say whatever you want, most will never truly say what they want.
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