{ TEACHING ART }

This page has all my art teaching related posts, all combined as one thing.

So my students have been learning about composition. It was really fun teaching this to my 3rd - 6th graders. Here are some examples I did for the classes. I used a pencil to sketch, a sharpie to outline, crayons for coloring.

Finding the visual sweet spots — 

First I drew 3 examples on the white board. (I had them mostly drawn before the students got there. FYI.) I talked about good composition, vs. poor composition. (See photos below.) I also brought in a bunch of my landscape paintings & sketches for more examples. I had these scattered around the class room for students to look at.

Then after going over the dos & don'ts of composing compositions -  I had students divide their paper into thirds, using a ruler. Drawing two horizontal lines & two vertical lines across the paper, creating a nice grid. The 4 crossing points in the grid, become the "sweet spots". These "sweet spots" are generally good places to put a focal point, a change in compositional direction, a point of dark contrast or highlight, or other point of interest. I majorly stressed as students were drawing their lines that they "keep their lines LIGHT" because of course, when your drawing is finished, you erase all extra lines. 

Version 1. Middle? No. When designing the composition of a drawing or
painting you need to make it interesting to the viewer. Try not the place your
focal point dead center.  It's boring. Artist's no.1 no-no rule.

Version 2. A little better… Here change happens in the composition
when the focal point hits a "sweet spot" in the composition.
But it's not quote there - the horizon line is too close to the center of the paper. 

Version 3. The keeper! This composition offers a pleasing balance
while being more dramatic & interesting then version 2. The horizon line 2/3rds high.  

Here's a couple things I said as students were drawing: 

DO overlap objects to add depth to your drawing. 
DON'T place objects that almost touch or are "tickling" each others edges. 
DO group objects creatively - have fun!
DON'T balance equally - this is boring.
THINK about where your horizon line is - should it be in the center of your paper? 

Below is a colored drawing I did. When I normally draw, I totally avoid creating outlines. In real life there aren't any outlines around anything, right? So why should there be outlines in realistic drawings? It instantly turns any drawing, no matter the style into a "cartoon". << that's something good to talk about with students too. 

I did several fast sketches, all styled like the one below, with different compositions & subjects in them. I had my student chose which drawing they wanted to do - then they copied my drawings, found the "sweet spots" & designed their composition. Then they all colored their drawings. (I dearly wish I got some photos of their work - but I always get so excited & busy, that I forget to get out my phone to take photos…) Something I need to work on I guess!

Below is a really simple sketch I did of different types of composition — I printed these out & gave them to students. All my little compositions were inspired by Edgar Payne. I asked students to look at the various landscape paintings I had around the room, & see if they could spot any of these compositions within my paintings.

Types of composition: 

If you found this helpful or inspiring, please leave me a comment! I would love any feedback! Thanks! :) 

COLOR WHEEL —

Sunlight, or the light from an electric light bulb, seems colorless. We call it "white light." But, it truly contains the full range, or spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, turquoise & purples. When these colors pass from air into water or glass, they are slowed down & refracted by different amounts. 

A band of colors, as seen in a rainbow, is produced by the separation of the components of light by their different degrees of refraction according to wavelength.

Normally, when white light passes through the air, all its colors are bent back by the same amount so that they join together to make white again. However, if the rays are reflected while still inside the water or glass, they leave by different paths from those by which they entered. In this case, the colors are separated and can be seen as a spectrum with many colors bouncing around. 

The easiest way to produce a spectrum is with a block of glass called a prism. This has three flat faces running in one direction & triangular-shaped ends. However, if conditions are right, white light can also be split apart by other arrangements of glass & by water. A rainbow, for example, is caused by reflections & refractions of sunlight inside raindrops. It's so amazing!  

 Primary colors, secondary colors & tertiary colors.  

So then, how do we see color? 

The colors reflected by an object are those which give it its color. Something that appears white reflects all colors of light. An object that looks red reflects only red light & absorbs all the other colors. Something that appears black absorbs every color & reflects none. 

Three of the colors – red, yellow, & blue – are the Primary Colors, because they can be combined in different ways to produce every other color. A combination of two primary colors gives a secondary color.  
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After talking about color, I had students paint/draw their own color wheels, using the primary colors. It was loads of fun! (See the pic above ^)  We were using acrylic paints. - not the craft kind - but the real kind. 

I used styrofoam plates for palettes, had plenty of paper towels on-hand, & used recycled greek yogurt containers for the water. Students painted with care, & used fine brushes sized anywhere from 3-5. 

I old newspapers over the tables to keep them clean. I talked about how important it was to keep everything neat - only paint on the brush, palette & paper! Ultimate EVERYONE made a fantastic color wheel, had loads of fun, stayed relatively paint-free & learned some good stuff.  :) 

Here is a link to my Pinterest board: Teaching Art, where I have saved several printable work templates & homework sheets that involve the color wheel. 

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As a part-time art teacher & artist, things are always busy for me! (Hence, the lack of regular blogging these past months.) Some days are fast & exciting, other days are more challenging, but it's always fun. I love what I do.  This post is on what I taught my Kindergarteners - 6th graders. Last week I found myself in a last-minute pull-off situation. Thankfully everything worked out really well, I had fun, students had fun, & everyone learned something. Here's what I taught—
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Prep work: Teachers! Go forging! Gather up leaves, pinecones, thorny wood, bark, driftwood, seashells & good-sized rocks; looking for textures or stripes. I arranged everything on the tables where students would be working. I made (& stressed) the rule "look with your eyes, not your hands" otherwise, the kids would have been all over everything. Here are some pics of things I used for drawing inspiration, in addition to everything I had. (Teaching art is the probably the only profession where you steal things from home & bring them to work!) I felt funny as I toated my huge canvas bag into the school - it probably weighed 30 pounds - all the rocks & wood.

To the left are some examples I found online - textures created with pen - I used pencil with the students.
  
I told students to pretend they were looking through binoculars & zooming up on the object they were drawing while looking for patterns & designs.

When they were drawing the items I told them that they didn't necessarily have to draw exactly what they saw - but rather to be inspired by it.

I had students draw 9 boxes spaced as equally as possible on their 11x16 paper,  then I'd pick an object to focus on saying "look at the spotted rocks on your table, draw that" I would do my example of a rock, in my box on my paper that was up on the white board. Then they would do theirs. Or I'd say, "Let's look at the wood, do you see those lines running through it?" In turn we drew everything that was on the table.

We tried combining different types of lines together to create unique patterns.

The idea is for young artists to look at these patterns by observing the details in nature & saying, "what would happen if I zoomed in close & only looked at the shapes, or lines, or spaces?"

When drawing textures in nature - instead of just saying, "oh thats pretty", look & say, "that's beautiful, how can I use this, or be inspired by this?' Look at one particular part or shape & show it to the world through your art!

Then getting a little more technical, drawing details in this fashion is really more of a representational vs. abstract art. The details get so detaily they become abstract….
  
You can look at something in its raw form & see something no one else ever saw! You can create order, chaos & design. 

The best way to learn in to draw is to, doodle, create, look around & explore! Draw what you see, not what you think you see. I told the kids not to worry if their drawings didn't quite look like mine, or even what they were drawing - I said, "you are all learning, & everyone sees things differently." I always walk around while the students are drawing, helping those who really need it, or critiquing the art of those who were doing well. Kids are so fun! There are several types of "rhythmic line designs & patterns" - I told students to always be on the lookout for these rhythmic patterns.  I used the idea of music: it has a beat, a rhythm, a pattern. Abstractly speaking, drawing a rhythmic art pattern is like drawing the sound of music, creating sound waves & gestures. 
  ● Straight line design ● Zigzag line design ● Spiral design ● Curved lines designs ●

Here are some student drawings, 3rd graders. The K, 1st & 2nd graders' drawings were a little more wild looking; whereas the 4-6th graders were more neat/contained. I love seeing each child's perspective & how they chose to create their patterns. Each child is so unique! 

If you found this interesting, unintelligible or inspiring, please leave me a comment! I'm thinking about posting more on teaching & art. I would love any feedback! Thanks!

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Today in art class students got their hands dirty! We were working with willow charcoal & drawing fabric. I brought in sheets, silks, stripy & patterned fabrics, & soft & fuzzy blankets - so that students could see how the light reflected off of each different texture. It was a fun lesson —

- I ran a string across part of the room, & hung the fabrics over the string (like a clothesline). I turned off the lights in the room, & used natural light. (The classroom has an entire wall of windows, so there was plenty of light for us.) Using natural light, that sparked conversation of how important it is to always try and use natural light, or at least work from one main light source - when drawing from natural light, you have a 2hr time span before the earth has rotated so much that the light is completely different then when you started.

I also talked about color - how light is essentially color. The light reflecting off of the fabrics, the colors of the fabrics, etc. If you want to read more on color please go here.

Students endeavors — they all  did really good jobs! This is a mixtures of 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th graders work.