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Lesson Plans


RE: To draw or not

From: D. Sterner (dsterner)
Date: Thu Apr 13 2000 - 13:46:43 PDT

  • Next message: San D Hasselman: "camp on a shoe string"

    my greatest learning experience was in a figure drawing class. My teacher
    took my pencil and drew in the margin the correct way of seeing. While
    doing so, she also talked me through her thinking process of what she was
    trying to accomplish. That experience strengthened my skills as an artist
    and I practice her strategy to this day. Her words of wisdom included:
    "Draw the shapes of things, not the things!" If anyone else is proficient
    in drawing, you what those words mean.

    As a result of this practice in my classroom I can hear the students
    prompting each other with those same words as response to someone's cry of
    "I can't draw this!" I seems to me that a result of students' instant
    appetites for success, they often reach for the first available tool.
    Sometimes that tool is incorrect - like painting fine detail with a mop type
    brush. My first reaction to a student's frustration is to check their
    tools. I check their physical approach next. Did they make a work
    environment for themselves? Or are their papers and notebooks crowding
    their workspace? I tell them to "get out of their own way" and set up a
    workspace.

    I have also noticed that tasks that include exacto-knife cutting are rarely
    a sit-down job. Painting is also not a sit-down job and I tell them as
    much. In turn, they mock me and push their stools out of the way to create
    a better working environment.

    I rarely need to draw on a student's work anymore. They are able to correct
    themselves, stand up to get the blood flowing and decide to engage for
    success on their own.

    The rest is easy...
    -=deb=-

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Diane [mselle]
    Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 11:00 PM
    To: ArtsEdNet Talk
    Subject: To draw or not

    Just have to add my two cents to the never-ending saga of to draw or not to
    draw on a students work.

    Teachers! wake up, art is a visual experience! Take a pad of tracing paper
    with you as you walk around the room. If a student has a difficulty,,,teach
    by showing, not bull****ing. Lay the tracing paper on the spot and
    demonstrate...that is if you can... 

    ---

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