Start with nonobjective drawing, work on line, shape, value, etc. This
will help build confidence. I like some of the exercises from Betty Edwards
too, but let them know that this is like warm-up drills for a basketball game,
part of practice, not art. In observation drawing choose very simple objects
to start. Toys are good, some of my middle school boys worked very hard on
drawings of toy cars (of course they played with them too). Toy makers have
already removed the non essentials. Stuffed animals, rocking horses, t.v. sets
and computers are not hard to draw because the shapes are simple and that builds
a lot of confidence. Try to start with things that have very obvious and
simple shapes. Bowls or baskets of fruit were one of the subject that students
learned to paint from in the academic tradition. The shapes are mostly
circles or ovals and you can teach about overlap, shading, color values, reflection
and highlights and bring in many other lessons. You can start with flat
shapes and work on overlapping (my kids always had trouble with that) then move on
to shading and creating form, then add color. Show them some Cezannes so they
don't feel that every shape has to be perfect...lots of art history lessons
can be introduced with this too.
