I gotta say, as far as Let’s Draw video themes go, this one was a fun one! Homer Simpson: Easy, Medium and Hard mode where easy is by memory, medium is off reference, and hard mode is trying to make this watercolor paper behave. I love the Simpsons (especially the early seasons) but you can tell it’s been a while since I’ve watched it. My homer looks pretty off-brand! But it was a fun exercise and one I really recommend. Much of the art at the end of this week’s video is from one of the comic classes I’m instructing. Super stoked on what those kids are making!
This was an interesting week in terms of creative endeavours- in that, it was mostly occupied by me trying to get a handle on some of the more unruly classes that I’m taking. Each of my online classes uses the same system (a website called CANVAS) but not ONE of those classes uses it anywhere close to the same way. On friday, I had enough, and made this:
Other than that, I didn’t make a whole lot of comics (that are worth sharing, anyways!) I did make this a few weeks ago:
You gotta hand it to the Arts building: these are less ‘chairs’ and more ‘futuristic learning pods’.
Each starts as a platform held off the ground by six evenly spaced caster wheels. It silently and effortlessly glides around the classroom in 360 degrees. Simply place your bag or jacket or any belongings you won’t be needing immediately but desire to keep track of throughout the class on the platform while you’re wheeling around and everything remains tidy even in the face of re-arrangement.
Then, suspended over this platform by three arches that meet at the top is a seat shaped a bit like an egg cut in half at a diagonal, ready to embrace your behind. Unlike other classroom or office style chairs, there is no opening or gap in the back of the seat, which means you can sit confidently and with peace of mind knowing that even if your shirt is slowly riding up over the course of a class, you won’t be exposing your plumber’s butt to whoever is sitting behind you.
The desk is mounted on a swivel arm with two points of articulation, which allows it to be moved to the side for ease of entry, or out in front of you at an arm’s length for typing, or pulled right up in front of you if you need to lean in and curl into a book.
This is pedagogical optimization. A teacher’s dream. In seconds, the classroom could be arranged in rows, or in sharing circles, or in whatever shape one could imagine, quickly and quietly with everybody easily keeping track of everything they walked into the room with.
Also: every single one of these deathtraps is difficult to get into (it rolls away as you try and sit in it), claustrophobic to sit in (nothing like the cold embrace of plastic), and rolls around with a mind of its own (totally unintentionally, under the slightest weight of you resting your feet on the ground). By the end of the class, 50 students have all migrated from being evenly spaced around the classroom to being a tightly packed fire hazard in the back corner of the classroom. We are marbles rolling off an un-level table.
To be fair, they make excellent bumper-cars.
My classmates and I obviously have clear opinions on these chairs. I always try and show up early to get one that’s against the side-wall, as that way I’m rolling up against a wall and staying relatively stationary. The chairs look cool, but they are so dumb.
Thanks for reading another week of stuff! See you next week.
GO GO MACH ROCKET SHEEP! 