I have never shared student work online and I wish I had starting doing this long ago. I’v have documented so much good work, and after years of presenting projects, I can certainly see evidence of what I believe is most important to teach in my classes. Having said that, I’m also pleased that my styles and tendencies as an artist are not much present in the artworks of my students. I’m glad to give my students ample space to choose subjects and styles, and express individual proclivities in their work. Right now I teach two of my favorite classes: Color Theory and Art Foundations at Cypress College. In Art Foundations, I get to mix art history with hands-on projects, and getting to delve into context, philosophy and history is very gratifying. Besides Color Theory and Art Fundamentals, I’ve taught 2D Design, Drawing, and Printmaking at Cyrepss College, and I’ve taught those subjects at Riverside College, Santa Monica College, Long Beach City College, the Los Angeles High School for the Arts; and I’ve taught digital art (using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator) at the Performing Arts Community School [high school] in Los Angeles. Below is a little slice of the work my students have done with me. (This page is an ongoing and I’ll add much more as I go.)

-CMC Jan 2025

2D Design, portraits to explore color harmony, with symbolic background, by RJ

2D Design, portraits to explore color harmony, with symbolic background, by TN

Color Theory, study of local color and ambient light for two times of the day on subject, by TN

Beginning Drawing, exploration of atmospheric perspective, charcoal drawing of landscape chosen from a place important to family heritage

Beginning Drawing, still-life drawing from observation using graphite, study of light and shadow

Beginning Drawing, self-portraits as someone, graphite drawings

Beginning Drawing, self-portrait with symbolic object, graphite drawing

Beginning Drawing, one-point perspective from observation with added objects

Beginning Drawing, charcoal drawings with reductive mark-making, expiration of atmospheric perspective and added objects

2D Design, draw and cut doodles to construct studies in symmetry on a grid, by JP

Printmaking, multi-color reduction relief print

Printmaking, woodcut

Printmaking, reduction woodcut

Printmaking, linocut

Printmaking, Linocut

Printmaking, Multi-block relief print

Printmaking, multi-color etching and aquatint

Printmaking, reduction relief print, poster design and study of color harmony

Art Foundations, use Bauhaus tenets to design simple sculptures based on a grid

2D Design, study of value using painted papers

2D Design, cut paper to make portrait of spirit animal in a setting (such as a forest), and exploring figure/ground relationships

2D Design, color studies by reconstructing a work of modern art with areas of inverted colors

2D Design, exploration of value and color harmony through making a collage without color and then painting a new version using a chosen color scheme

2D Design, study using letter forms with no colors, and then duplicated as painting using matching values and color harmony

2D Design, portrait using only line (line has to express a word assigned to student

Beginning Drawing, exploration of atmospheric perspective through drawing a landscape important to artist's family heritage; drawings collected and printed as stamp collection

2D Design, color "inventory" project where students use the colors (in proportion) of a chosen artwork and make a new work: a protest poster of their own design

Student Work