I’m not good at drawing. In fact, I’m positively dreadful. A few years ago, I took a watercolor class. My mother would have been proud of what I did—if I were still in the third grade, not a late ...

I take the hand of my student, who grasps the willow charcoal — soft, not medium — and together we look at the figure model. "It’s best not to hold the charcoal like a pencil,” I say, “so you can use ...