Day 1: Pre instruction drawings:
Ten-Minute Drawings
1. Draw a self portrait using a mirror.
2. Draw a stool from life.
3. Draw your hand from life.
4. Draw your shoe.
Write on each drawing:
full name
date
time in minutes
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!
Write what you think or feel about your drawing. Use one sentence
or two.
From now on, kids will record their name and date along with insights
next to every drawing they do.
Day 2: Experience The Shift
Purposes:
Classify 2 parts of the brain: symbol part and seeing part.
Begin to resist the powerful symbol part.
Show evidence that they are learning to see spatial relationships.
Have 4 kids come to the board and draw a profile of a face. Then
have kids come forward and draw an eye, mouth, nose, etc. Discuss
the apparent ease with which these drawings were made. Discuss the
strong symbols that our brain can recall and create with ease. Now have
the kids complete the “vase,” the other side of the face. Pay close attention
to the difference in the processes between the first and second face.
Analyze what was going on in the student's mind as they were drawing.
Talk about the fight, tension, or mixed up feeling that the artist experiences
at certain points of the drawing. The shift is trying to happen.
Model this process for the class and make a list of differences in the
processes.
| Left |
Right |
| Fast, quick |
Easy Slow |
| Aware of surroundings |
Lost in the drawing |
| Aware of time |
Not aware of passage of time |
| Bored |
Focused |
| Symbols |
Shapes |
| Worried |
Relaxed |
Kids fold a piece of 8 2 X 11 paper in half and will use it for drawing
practice. They will experience the shift to drawing zone. They now
have 4 areas to practice making the shift from symbol to seeing.
Do the vase/face exercise. See Drawing on the Right side of the Brain,
by Betty Edwards for details.
Have kids practice on their own paper.
During the second face drawing Don't think you are now drawing a forehead,
then a nose, etc…Think… I am completing the vase…what is the shape or direction
of the line?
Feel the shift to Seeing:
loss of time.
tune out noise.
connection with the object.
drawing is much slower
intense concentration
Symbols vs Seeing
For the final drawing, model a monster face on the board for the kids.
Have them complete a “gothic” vase. See Drawing on the Right side
of the Brain, by Betty Edwards for details.
Do monster face.
The goal is to turn off the symbol part and tune into the spatial part
of the brain. This will lead into the next lesson.
Make sure the kids understand the objective of the lesson. If
they think the objective was learning how to draw a vase, something went
wrong. Ask how many think the purpose of today was learning how to
draw a vase and see what happens. Have kids articulate the learning
purpose(s) of today.
Have kids record their personal insights about learning to draw.
Day 3: Learning to See...Techniques to Bypass Symbols.
Turn objects into shapes and lines for your mind to process.
*Use the analogy of learning to play the piano is much like learning
how to draw.
Turn the image upside down.
First review what was learned yesterday. Don't forget to make
sure the kids understand why we are doing these activities. Make
sure they know the targets and they are aware of the purpose of each target!
Use photocopy from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain...upside-down
Picasso drawing
Fight the symbol side in 2 ways:
Don't give into the urge to hurry, “This is taking to much time.”
Resist the urge to label and name the parts of the drawing.
Think only of drawing shapes and lines!
Draw on the board the example of how a student symbolized the head,
glasses, mustache, and mouth. Talk about what side of his mind he
used.
Students will spend the entire period on the Picasso Drawing.
Day 4: Blind Contour Drawing
Teach concept of contour. Demonstrate on board.
Model this process on the board by drawing the Sansavaria on back counter.
introduce blinders.
kids complete drawing of their hand.
kids complete drawing of their shoe.
stress the process is more important than the end product.
allow a set time, 5-6 minutes to draw and expect them to practice during
this time.
don't accept I am done.
follow the activity with a discussion about how practicing blind contour
will help you learn to draw better. Not only does it only allow you
to LOOK and SEE, it also develops coordination between the hand, eye, and
brain. By following the contour of the object your symbol side is
suppressed and the spatial side is empowered.
Kids practice blind contour entire period. Be sure to give kids
ample breaks between drawings. When done correctly, blind contour
is very exhausting.
Day 5: Seeing Negative Space
Introduce negative space. Teach using examples from the room.
Use the images provided in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
Pass out copy of horse and jockey. Show the transparency of the
negative spaces.
talk about how the negative spaces form the positive space.
Kids draw the negative spaces of the horse/jockey to make the image.
Kids spend one full period doing this activity.
Day 6 - 8: Contour Drawing
Start kids out drawing just two fingers. Model posing your hand
right next to the drawing space and then stress that the drawing be life
size. Model looking at the angles of the two fingers and replecating
the angles on the paper. Model checking the deawing by sliding their
poed hand on top of their drawing. Finally, stress slowing down and
looking. When the two finger look good, have the kids move onto drawing
the entire hand.
Kids practice modified contour drawings of their hand and shoe. See
Drawings
Pre and Post
Kids turn in the pre drawing of the shoe and hand
with the post drawing of the shoe and hand. Encourage kids to draw
at home.
Day 9: Relative Measurements and Sighting Angles
Practicing these exercises may take a few days.
Relative Measurements
Demonstrate, using a pencil, how to take relative measurements and transfer
these proportion to your paper. Practice using objects in the room
until all students understand how to take and use relative measurements.
Introduce Sighting Angles
Have kids sight the vertical lines in the room using the edge of a pencil.
Keep moving visually around the room to make sure the kids realize that
the vertical lines in the room are truly vertical. Then have them
sight the 2 angles made by the lines that form a corner of the room.
Kids draw these in a rectangle on their paper. Have kids draw another
corner. TEST: Have kids draw a corner of a large cabinet in
the room or other such object. The lines will not form the common
"y" angle in the corner. They will dip downward. Quickly check
the drawings and separate the kids who "see" correctly. They can
then tutor the others who have not really learned the skill.
Day 10 - 11: Drawing the Stool
Apply the lessons from the previous day to drawing the stool.
This is a great object to practice sighting angles, relative measurement,
and negative space.
See Drawings Pre and Post
Kids will turn in both pre and post drawings of
the stool.
Day 12: Drawing Portraits...Discovering Proportions Using a Grid
Introduce the idea of measuring faces by using a grid to measure several
student faces. Model this several times. Then, ask a student who
thinks they understand the process to come forward and select a few kids
to measure. Write the results of this on the board. Repeat
this a few times. Then ask for volunteers to draw a realistic portrait
on the board. Ask if anyone sees something strange about the measurements
from the grid and the drawn portraits. Kids will discover the correct
general placement of the eyes and other features.
Once this is understood, point out the general placement of facial features.
Have kids make an ideal drawing of a face.
Day 13: The Self Portrait
Review Contour Drawing.
Kids will use modified contour to draw their self portrait, keeping
in mind the general placement of features. See Drawings
Pre and Post
Kids will turn in both pre and post drawings of
their self portrait.
This drawing lesson continues to evolve each year as I watch my students
and learn from them.
