Brenda Hoddinott
Award winning artist, illustrator, art educator, curriculum designer, forensic artist (retired), owner of Drawspace.com, and author of Drawing for Dummies, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing People Illustrated, and Drawing Book 1: Getting Started.
"My philosophy on teaching art is to focus primarily on the enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical and academic. Hence, in creating a passion for the subject matter, the quest for knowledge also becomes enjoyable."
Brenda Hoddinott
Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Brenda grew up in the small town of Corner Brook. With the help of various learn-to-draw books, she developed good drawing skills by the age of 16.
In 1982 Brenda left her well established career as a portraitist, graphic designer, and forensic artist, to move to Nova Scotia with her family.
In addition to resuming the various facets of her art career, she began learning to paint in oils. From 1988 to 1994, Brenda began exhibiting her paintings and drawings in provincial and regional art exhibitions and competitions. She was honored with more than twenty prestigious visual art awards during these six years.
Brenda and her partner John live in the suburbs of Halifax, Nova Scotia with their two SPCA rescue dogs, Timber (Huskador) and Katie (Rottbeagle).
Their blended family includes five adult children and two grandchildren.
Art Education Background
Brenda has developed art curricula, and taught drawing classes since 1980. Diverse teaching positions have provided opportunities for her to enhance the skills of students from all age groups.
She enjoyed teaching realism, surrealism, and fantasy. Favorite media included graphite, technical pen, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, conte, as well as oil and acrylic paint.
As supervisor of her community's recreational art department, she taught drawing classes from beginner to advanced, hired and trained teachers, and designed core curriculum for several children’s art programs.
By 1989, she had expanded her teaching portfolio to include painting classes.
In 1998, Brenda chose to end her eighteen-year career as an art teacher, to write curriculum for her first art education website, FineArtEducation.com (which was later renamed Drawspace.com).
In 2002, Brenda retired from her twenty-five year career as a forensic artist, to pursue a new career as an author of educational drawing books and electronic art-related curriculum.
Thanks to the expertise of a wonderful team of website developers, Drawspace.com is highly respected as a resource for fine art educators, home schooling programs, and educational facilities throughout the world.
Forensic Art Experience
Brenda's skillful rendering of facial anatomy was first recognized by municipal and federal police departments in her home province of Newfoundland in 1976, and she was invited to become their forensic artist.
From 1976 to 1982, Brenda worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in Newfoundland.
In 1982 she was presented with a commendation for her contribution to criminal identification departments.
In 1982 Brenda re-established her forensic art career in Nova Scotia. Criminal investigation departments throughout Nova Scotia have utilized Brenda's forensic art skills including all provincial detachments of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal police departments, Department of National Defense, and private investigative agencies.
She was first qualified and recognized as an expert in her field by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1989 and has provided testimony as an expert witness in all levels of Canadian courts, as a result of her many successful drawings.
In 1992, Brenda was honored with a commendation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
She became a member of The Association of Forensic Artists, based in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1992. In September 1993, an article on her work as a forensic artist was featured in their official publication, "The State of the Art".
Through this organization she accessed many articles and educational resources to further enhance her forensic art skills. She also learned cognitive interview techniques and adapted them to her specific needs in working with victims of and witnesses to crimes.
In 1993, Brenda began the application process to become a full member of "Forensic Artists International". She met all the requirements and standards of their by-laws, demonstrated satisfactory evidence of educational and artistic competence and was awarded a Certificate of Membership in 1994. Other female members of this organization included forensic artists Jeanne Boylan and Karen T. Taylor.
During Brenda's twenty-five year career as a civilian forensic artist, she has interviewed over one thousand victims of and witnesses to crimes.
She completed more than twelve hundred composite drawings resulting in hundreds of successful identification matches.
Literary Credits
- Drawing Book 1: Getting Started (August, 2009): Published by Drawspace.com, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- Your browser may not support display of this image. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Drawing People Illustrated (August, 2004): Published by Alpha - Pearson Education - Macmillan, Indianapolis, IN. On February 1st, 2005 Brenda was notified that she had won the Book of the Year Award for 2004, for this book.
- Drawing for Dummies (March, 2003): Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., New, York, NY.
- Drawspace.com (1998): Drawspace is the largest and fastest growing recreational art education website on the Internet. In 2009, Drawspace reached its initial goal of having 200 free lessons published on the site. The current goal is to bring the world's very best art-related authors and art educators together as teachers within Drawspace's virtual classrooms.
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