On the Borderline - Life With BPD: Of Drawing Professors

Of Drawing Professors

Three posts in one day, dear God.

So, this is a post about my drawing professor. I don't want to go into any detail just in case someone from my school can read this, don't burn your bridges and all that, but I need to get this out.

My professor, let's call him G just because I can, is supposedly the best X-Drawing professor in the school. He's teaching just regular old drawing, not drawing I but a bit above that. He's really passionate about what he's doing, and he's damn good at it, too. I fully admit that the man has experience and talent and he's probably worked his ass off to get that good and then to be able to teach his passion to students at a prestigious art school.

But the man drives me nuts. The drawing class has turned into an X-drawing class, he will tell me I'd doing amazingly well and then give me a B and tell me "you really need to do better than this. ...Unless you're happy with a B, I guess." He goes off on tangents that don't end up teaching us anything we need to know and I still think I need to be taught drawing x before I can do x-drawing.

The biggest and primary reason that I am not very fond of him right now is that I had a bad panic attack in his class and he would not let me leave. He argued with me for some time about how I need to try harder and how I won't be able to "pay off loans" unless I stayed. And as a BPDer, I have a VERY hard time letting go of grudges and especially seeing people in shades of grey- so from that moment on, in my eyes, he became an evil man.

In the end, I grabbed my stuff and left, called my counselor upset (but was unable to get an appointment until the next week so I emailed her about it), and I also talked about the incident with someone whose only job is to mediate between students and professors and smooth over problems, as well as take complaints anonymously. They took it seriously, told me that next time if it happens in that class I should just leave without a word, and that if there were any further problems to tell them. I never mentioned Professor G's name though, and now that it's been a couple of weeks I've been able to cool off about it.

That, and after talking with him about my current project, I think I've figured out (7 weeks late...) how to get valuable criticism and advice from him by asking very specific questions and drilling him until he can't be vague.

Well, Professor... U, let's say, is one of the best drawing professors at my school, period. There's a huge waiting list to get into his classes and they fill up immediately. But I've run into him a few times, he's familiar with some of my work, and he even helped me out a bit in Drawing I when my professor was late due to car trouble and I didn't know what I was doing.

I ran into him (on the way to pick up my adderall, in fact) and after I expressed a bit of unease in G's class, Professor U told me to just be patient, to take his X-drawing class next quarter, and that he really was the best of the best. (I didn't complain about him, mind you. I am almost 22 years old and complaining to teachers about their colleagues is childish and could cost you some serious networking!)

Well, you'd better believe that as soon as I went home I changed my X-drawing class for Professor G's. I don't think G dislikes me, per se, so I'm hoping it goes well next quarter. If not I'll just blame Professor U. :p

By the way... I was having a quick talk with another professor about a project, and in her office, which she shares with drawing professors, I found a book that I happen to own and love- An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists, by Fritz Schnider. It is an amazing book for anyone looking to improve their human figures, as it presents bones, muscles, and all sorts of information in a way that is specifically for artists' use. I definitely recommend at least looking for it at a bookstore (Waldenbooks, if there's any still around, as well as Border's tend to stock it everywhere) and flipping through the pages.

I... need to stop with the long posts don't I...

Enjoy,


+Eden.

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