Teaching portfolio
Fernando Guérard is an artist-educator experienced in Three-Dimensional Design, Sculpture, Foundations, Art Appreciation, drawing and design fundamentals, sustainable and recycled materials, and traditional and contemporary fabrication methods.
Teaching philosophy
His teaching combines technical foundations, craftsmanship, creative independence, experimentation, critical thinking, sustainability, and the development of each student’s individual artistic voice.
“I teach students to see structure before surface, to respect the physical language of each material, and to transform technique into personal voice.”
Selected student projects
Students begin by slowing down observation. Contour and blind-contour drawing develop hand-eye coordination, structural awareness, line sensitivity, and the discipline required to see rather than assume.
Students translate contour into three-dimensional structure through wire armatures, lightweight volume, and surface skin. Research into endangered species connects formal problem-solving with environmental storytelling.
Cardboard teaches students to build from a central core outward. Layered material becomes structure and skin, creating volume, rhythm, personality, and a professional finish.
Red-and-white cardboard animal head and mask sculpture
Using only masking tape, students recreate a shoe at life scale. The strict material limitation forces close observation, inventive problem-solving, and precise craftsmanship.
Front and top view of a masking-tape ballet flat
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Portrait and figure studies build anatomical understanding through additive modeling, armature, facial planes, proportion, and surface transitions. Direct plaster studies also introduce mass, void, restraint, and finish.
Green portrait bust study on an armature
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Woodturning teaches tool control, grain orientation, hollowing, wall thickness, finishing, and respect for the natural character of the material.
Pale wood-turned bowl with visible natural cracks
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Fabrication projects introduce abstract construction through metal rod, sheet material, welded forms, and cold connections. Students study line, plane, balance, rotation, cantilever, and sculpture in motion around the viewer.
Installation projects expand sculpture beyond the object. Students consider architecture, viewer movement, gravity, fabric, wire, light, temporary placement, and documentation as active parts of meaning.
Courses and teaching areas
Fernando brings university-level studio experience, professional fabrication knowledge, curriculum development, critique, and student mentoring to a broad range of courses.