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Lesson Plans


Re: Drawing Lesson Help

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Pineo (pineo)
Sat, 12 Sep 1998 14:32:12 -0700

Hi,
I'm a first-timer. I have had access to the internet for a few days.
Up until now I have been looking at web sites that are pretty "academic"
or commercial. I was so excited when I found artsednet. I love how it
is made up of conscientious, good teachers, who are not perfect, talking
about the nitty gritty, day to day realities of art classroom life. The
first comment I read was about Noisy classes. That has always been my
problem. The suggestions were helpful and now I'm hooked.

I have some suggestions for Debra about how to jazz up her Drawing on
the Right Side of the Brain unit. I use this also. The first year I
pretty much followed the book and ran into the same problem of the kids
getting bored with the monotany of exercise after exercise. I have
found that the students want a sense of accomplishment of doing a
finished project and that the exercises need to be extended into some
finished product using an interesting technique, preferable color.

This idea is not a project, but it keeps the contour drawing lessons of
their hands fun. Have the students hold a cookie or piece of fruit in
their hand. They can take one bite for each 30+ sec. drawing.

Ideas for the negative/positive spaces section are 1) to have a student
pose in the doorway. This helps to frame the person and the students
can see the shapes better.2) Use shadows on the wall or have things
behind a backlit curtain. This helps to flatten things out into shapes.
3)Draw a silhouette of a tree or something else that touches all four
sides of the paper. Color positive shape solid with black crayon or oil
pastel. Then do a wet-into-wet wash over picture. The watercolor will
only fill in the negative spaces. 4) Draw a positive shape that touches
three sides of colored paper (neon paper is exciting). Cut it out.
Glue positive shape onto a contrasting piece of paper. Then glue all of
the negative shapes onto another piece of paper. Students can see that
the positive and negative shapes work together to make a total image.
And there are no scraps!

I hope these ideas help. I am looking forward to reading others ideas
on drawing lessons help. Maryanne