Portrait perfect class

Student drawing assignment goes beyond pencil & paper

Students in Jon Aesoph’s first semester drawing class will likely never look at yearbook picture time in the same way. While a student thinks the shirt they wear that day falls in line with the latest trends and their hair hanging shaggily over their eyes is what today’s look is all about — some people may think differently.

Mr. Aesoph’s class now knows you never know who may be looking at those shots in the future, as they looked at the Oak Harbor Class of 1958 pictures last semester.

“It’s been interesting, connecting former and present students,” Aesoph said.

Aesoph said he was eager to use the 50-year-old yearbook as a way to keep the lesson of drawing portraits fresh for his art students. So while it’s always good practice for his students to draw self-portraits, the black and white quality of the yearbook portraits brought a unique lesson.

“One of the best things an artist can do is to face one’s self down in the mirror,” Aesoph said. “I wanted something black and white to really make them focus on using lights and darks well, which is especially difficult when drawing a face.”

In this assignment the students were using charcoals, beginning with a dark plane and erasing pigment to create light and shadow.

When the students were introduced to the class of 1958 via their yearbook pictures the alumni left an impression.

“There was a bunch of laughing, pointing out hairdos and serious expressions,” Aesoph said.

The current Wildcats were bemused by the appeared maturity of the class.

“They thought all the seniors looked 40,” Aesoph said. “It was interesting for them to see how times had changed and how they were all required to look so formal in their pictures.”

The teacher and the students deciphered that girls were required to wear a dark shirt with some sort of white collar, boys had to have a suit jacket of some sort, and all made sure to have their hair perfectly coifed.

“We all had predictions on who was the jock and who the loners were,” senior Cody Sershon said.

When flipping through the yearbook, Junior Jennifer Jansen recognized a face in the class of 1958.

“His wife was my preschool teacher and he attends my church,” Jansen said of Roger Christensen, her portrait subject.

As of this week, Jansen had yet to break the news to Christensen that she’d turned his graduation portrait into a piece of art.

“I wanted to make sure I had done a good job,” she said. “This is my first art class.”

After positive reassurance from Aesoph, Jansen said she’s looking forward to giving the portrait to Christensen.

“I hope he likes it, I’m excited to give it to him,” Jansen said.

The project proved intriguing enough to Sershon that he decided to track down his 1958 grad.

“After the first day of working on it I thought it was weird that I was drawing someone I didn’t know,” Sershon said.

Aesoph wasn’t surprised by this extra effort from his student.

“Cody is very people oriented,” he said.

After a week of Internet research, Sershon found 1958 graduate Dave Milanoski 50 years and 6,000 miles away from his days at Oak Harbor High School. The grad now lives and works in Korea, employed in a management position at the world’s largest shipyard.

When he emailed an introductory “hi” to the subject of his artwork, the student said Milanoski was a little taken aback and hesitant.

“He wanted to talk to my teacher to make sure it wasn’t some sort of joke,” Sershon said.

Once Milanoski realized it wasn’t a joke and that Sershon intended him no ill-will, the current and one-time Oak Harbor High School students began corresponding via email.

Amongst the reminiscent tales the elder Wildcat shared was some of the lore behind the naming of Monkey Hill Road.

“There apparently was a family who lived on the land there who owned monkeys and they’d let them run loose,” he said. “It was just like, ‘hey, there’s a monkey on the hill’ and it stuck.”

For Sershon, the project proved to be more than a lesson in art, but the fact that no matter how long after graduation or how far they’ve relocated, the two groups of Oak Harbor students — past and present — could relate.

The artist found he had to change his work habits after realizing connecting with Milanoski had changed the direction of his portrait.

“It changed a lot,” he said. “I really had to start breaking down to the different forms and shapes that made up the face instead of the person I came to know.”

The student did this by working on much of the portrait with it facing him upside down.

“I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out,” Sershon said. “I’m tempted to find his address and mail it to him.”

Aesoph is hoping that if the class of 1958 has its 50th reunion this year, the portraits could be on display.

“It’d be cool to recreate the yearbook with portraits in the hallway,” Aesoph said.

Jansen said she hopes the tradition continues — who knows, maybe one day an art student will draw her.

“That’d be really cool,” she said.