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Lesson Plans


Contour drawing motivation

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Karlawald
Sat, 25 Sep 1999 01:46:09 EDT

I've had a good experience I wanted to share. I'm a stickler for contour
drawing because I'm convinced it really helps many students "get" the concept
of visual thinking, and enables them to draw better. Quite a confidence
booster, and lots of other reasons besides. So we've been doing contour
drawings. It seemed to me they were not making much headway, and I was
flipping through some books to get ideas. I decided I really liked the words
of the authors, so I got them started on a drawing of a student model. They
had already had several days' experience with contour drawing, as well as
other drawing experiences, and I had talked to them about it till I was blue
in the face.

But on this day, instead of going around the room and helping them
individually, I read to them as they drew. You could've heard a pin drop, and
a few kids remarked afterwards that it made all the difference to them. I
read part of the first chapter in Bert Dodson's Keys To Drawing (I hope I got
his name right). It's a great book for this age group--I teach high
school--and they seemed to think it was a treat. (Maybe it was just a relief
from the instrumental music CD's I usually play while they draw!)

These authors have put a lot of time in on their wording, and I think it
helps give credence to what we say, to have them hear it from a "real"
authority. While we were at it, I plugged the book heavily. Would like to
hear if anyone has other books that would be good to read from.

Karla in Arkansas

  • Reply: Stubbyno2: "Re: Contour drawing motivation"