Making Faces with Van Hamersveld

By Michael Bromka

The Carlsbad Museum sponsored drawing workshops on Saturday, August 8, with John Van Hamersveld teaching. His illustrations adorned Museum walls for an exhibition of famous movies, concerts, and album covers in bright colors.

Earlier, John’s elegant and eloquent wife, Alida Post, had narrated a walkthrough of his art. Now John, spry at 85, urged locals to draw.

His 5 p.m. workshop was open even to rank beginners (like this reporter). So many showed up that museum staff set up additional tables and chairs. We were each equipped with celebrity headshots, white office paper, and a Sharpie. Our task was to select one black-and-white image and duplicate it. Photos included Marilyn Monroe and other icons.

Among attendees were Liz Duffy, manager at Allen Cinema, retired industrialist/STEM teacher Bill Kingston, SENMC professor Alexis Clements, retired school psychologist Ellen Krumm, and local professional Chris Murphy.

One student placed his blank page atop the photo and lifted a corner to peek at its image.

“No tracing,” said John, “and no sketching. Draw lines boldly.” He uncapped a Sharpie to shimmy a 4” line, which deftly echoed a face’s contour. We all sought to emulate.

An hour later, Liz Duffy offered this feedback: “Absolutely awesome! It was an honor to do this. I had a lot of fun following his thought process on how to draw.

“The more you do it, the more comfortable you get,” she added. “Sure, it’s intimidating putting pen to a blank page. Humans tend to overthink. It’s refreshing to draw, now—draw! Relax and act. I knew this myself, but I’m glad to hear John and follow through.”

Liz admitted to being a lifelong drawer. She took art classes throughout her youth, even Advanced Placement in high school.

She also put together a couple of art portfolios. In recent years, Liz has taught summer art classes in anime and acrylic painting.

“Drawing can be a weird process. You learn a lot about yourself. Put pen to paper decisively. I like what you did, some cool stuff.” (This reporter’s sloppy attempt at Mick Jagger.) “Yeah, I see what you did, and it looked good.”

(A generous assessment, but the attempt was fun…)

Drawings of more experienced artists looked good indeed. Van Hamersveld’s stuff looks amazing—joyous and striking. Just to see him draw a single line is remarkable. But he’s been doing this professionally for three score years.

Ellen Krumm seemed satisfied with her attempts. But she confided that she hadn’t been cured of sketching. “Pencil plus eraser—as needed—that’s my process.”

The Carlsbad Municipal Museum routinely offers art classes inspired by each major exhibition.

On Saturday, October 10, there will be a 10 a.m. to noon class in Calavera mask-making, plus a 5-7 p.m. class to create picture frames themed for Día de los Muertos.

The current exhibition of José Guadalupe Posada’s works is on display until New Year’s Eve.