​Hartstown: a haven of activity!

In Hartstown Community School in Dublin, evening classes range from aerobics to Zumba, boot camp to computing, DIY to pottery, gardening to oil painting, Asian cooking to photography, crochet to yoga and lots, lots more!

Here, a student and tutor tell us of their experiences …

Dog grooming - you bet the dogs love it!

Lifelong learner
Ger Keegan loves the night classes in Hartstown Community School. “Every year, I look at all the local brochures and, inevitably, I end up going back to Hartstown,” says Ger, who has just completed a Dog Grooming night class and is currently participating in the Meditation and Mindfulness class.

“I feel things are well-organised and the place is lovely and warm. I find everybody lovely there and I love the cup of tea in the middle of the class – you get to chat with the others and it’s a great social element to the night.”

The Dog Grooming class was just the ticket for this dog lover. “I found it terrific, very informative. The tutor, Louise, was wonderful – as well as grooming, we covered positive reinforcement and feedback to the dog.” This practical hands-on course also includes dog handling, brushing, bathing, clipping, ear cleaning, nail clipping and dental care.

“Louise brought in a different type of dog each week and her grooming table and showed us great tips to help everyone keep their own dogs tidy at home.

“It was a most enjoyable class – you wouldn’t want to miss one!”  

The dog grooming tutor brings in a different dog every week to show grooming tips.

A tutor’s tale
On Tuesday nights, tutor Jason Deegan teaches the fundamentals of drawing in the Drawing for Animation, Cartoons and Comics class. It covers everything from designing and posing your own characters to an introduction to visual story-telling from Jason, an animation artist with 20 years’ industry experience. It is ideal for those with an interest in animated film, video game design or comic art.

Drawing characters is a skill in itself.

“I designed this module myself,” says Jason, adding that the animation field in Ireland is booming at the moment. “The class appeals to adults who have done some drawing and want to produce their own comics or characters. We cover everything from perspectives to storytelling, comic panels, storyboard panels – the focus is very much on drawing characters.

“Storyboards are still used to create storylines, so drawing is still important, even if a lot of TV animation is done on CGI – computer generated imagery.”

No surprise then that the class is still drawing a crowd … !

The animation class focuses on drawing characters.

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