Grade 3
Drawing from the model [with Mr. B.]
(Halloween theme)
As an offshoot of my draw-with-the-teacher method I introduced the
tried and true technique of drawing from the model that is used in
most traditional drawing classes in art schools, museum classes, etc.
Since traditional nude models were neither available nor appropriate
for primary school age children, and bowls of fruit wouldn't exactly light up their eyes either, but using a model is a basic
exercise in looking and seeing, I devised some more appropriate and,
for children, alluring “models”.
By assembling various elements into a recognizable
integrated design based on shapes and concepts that had already been
presented and used in the previously discussed drawing with Mr. B
post, I created a model from materials I had in my preparation room
(studio). I had an enormous inflatable jack-o-lantern pumpkin, a
globe of the earth and some other lesson samples made of paper (bird)
and papier mâché mask-like objects [see right].
I then chose a couple of corrugated cardboard boxes of different
heights, put them together one in front of the other and covered them
with a large piece of material that had a lady bug pattern (more circles). Placing
the pumpkin (with flat thin plastic 'rope' for hair) on the top and the
bird on the lower shelf, the globe on the left and a little to the
back and leaning the mask-like objects against either side of the box
produced a colorful and fun model, albeit more than a little
challenging, for the kids. The cartoon-like quality of the model
distracted the children's attention from the actual level of
challenge it entailed.
Needless, to say, I didn't leave them hanging from a cliff by their
fingernails. I would start by pointing out the concepts we had
already discussed like shapes and lines. They could readily see that
the basic shapes involved were circles that they had already proven
to themselves they could do from the Panda picture. But this,
clearly, was far more complex and they would need direction as to
where to transpose the objects from a three-dimensional model to a flat
piece of paper. And so, once again, I worked on the whiteboard
establishing the layout and positioning on the paper while issuing
directions and commands.
Children don't readily see that there is big difference in the size
of the various objects, especially the pumpkin vis-a-vis the other
circles. Oh, they can see that it is bigger, but have difficulty
transferring that seeing to a proportional drawing on their paper. A close look at the picture will reveal that the pumpkin takes up the whole top half of
the paper and most of the other elements are on the bottom half while
the globe is in between (I later eliminated the globe to simplify the
picture, it tended to make it look too busy and confused the kids).
To teach this lesson I only instructed the children in the basic
layout and shapes [on the right without the globe] and left the
details to them to draw by looking at the model carefully and
encouraging them to represent it as accurately as they could while allowing plenty of room for creativity. I didn't insist on an exact reproduction, which is pretty much impossible anyhow. Everyone sees things differently while looking at the same thing. This lesson was a project for two weeks. We would draw the pencil sketch and black line it with felt tip markers the first week, and color and finish the picture the second week.
As in the previous post, the results were, of course, varied. But it
also gave most of the kids more confidence than they had before and a
pretty decent number of the drawings were really quite good and in some cases I would say more whimsical than mine. Which, of course, was a delight to see and encouragement for me that these methods were working.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment