Foundation lessons explained #1

Art lessons at Firstlight are carefully planned, but sometimes not so obvious as to why we’re doing them. For that reason, I’m beginning some blog posts devoted to explaining what our recent projects are meant to teach the artists. This is the first one.

In Foundations, we have been learning and creating, and it is all part of a grand plan. Here’s a list of some of our concepts and how they’re presented or used.

1 When trying to draw accurately, (not always necessary), there are 3 steps to accuracy that I’ve identified, that I think help tremendously.

• FRAME. Draw the shape of the picture’s rectangle with the same proportions, and everything fits inside better. You can’t fit a vertical picture into a square frame, or vice versa.
• BIG SHAPES. Drawing the largest shapes first, and seeing how they interact with the frame, is counter to our thinking, but the only way to draw accurately. Combining groups of shapes into bigger shapes, and identifying recognizable things, like a triangle, or a “banana-like shape”, is great.
• DETAILS. This is what the artist wants to do first. It’s the fun part, and will take up most of the time in creating any work. It must be put off, though, until last, or those beautiful details will all be in the wrong places. That is very frustrating after spending a long time drawing.

2 Another thing that we talk about a lot, is doing practice sketches before a final drawing or painting. During the practices, the student makes the “Learners” on purpose. Then drawing on the canvas, the problems have already been encountered and solved. It makes for much better work.

TIP: As a parent, you can encourage drawing accurately by asking questions that remind the artist to make a practice sketch first, or to follow the 3 steps. Be careful, though, not to say “mistake”, or “wrong way”. Use questions like, “Do you think it would have been more like you wanted if you’d done a practice sketch first?” or, “Did you not want to use the second step in drawing accurately?” We also try to remember that it is the artists’ decision whether or not to follow these steps, and it is GREAT when they ignore them and then don’t like their work. This is the best way to teach, by asking them to wonder if they could have created what they want if they had used these conceptual tools (not a phrase I use in class).

One of my favorite young artists did just this yesterday. She said, “yeah, but you need to let me do it my way.” I said ok. Later, she was very frustrated at the outcome and couldn’t figure out why. when I asked if I could help and show her how to make it look the way she wanted, she gave me permission. I showed her the big shape and how it was too small. I explained how the big shapes first will keep her from having to re do the whole thing. She sighed, and began erasing and got it just the way she wanted on the second go-around.

I call this method of teaching “discovery”. I can talk about key concepts until I’m hoarse, but until they want me to open a particular door, they don’t see a need for a key.

3 Games! We had a big game day recently with the “chair game”. What was that all about? Well, when trying to look at something in real life, or 3D, it is hard to see how it should be drawn on flat paper or canvas, which is 2D. If you have a photograph, it is easier to see the shapes. However, it is also harder to draw the life of things. Drawings actually look better when you understand the tactile feel of the objects and how they are formed in space. Drawing from real life, then, is essential to being able to progress as an artist.

One of the best tools for interpreting 3D objects into a flat drawing is to close one eye every now and then to see like a camera would see, without the stereoscopic vision we have with both eyes. The game challenges the artists to become a camera by closing one eye and finding out where the camera was when it took 6 different pictures of a simple chair. Turns out that a chair is not so simple after all. Most teams get only about half the number of points available, yet are always confident that they aced the test.

The game is designed to help them see with their eyes, as opposed to drawing what they “know” about the object. They have to look and study the chair very closely to figure it out. That is a skill that every artist needs to learn.

We do the chair game right after a two lessons that incorporate one of the 3 fundamental 3D shapes, a cube. The chair is a cube shape with a back on it, so it also reinforces the cube lessons.

The game also helps the group become more social with each other, which is great for artists, who don’t always seek out others. And it is just plain fun. If art isn’t a lot of fun, then why bother?

End of November and December:

Right now, we have begun a couple of FREE project weeks. The students get to finish up any work in progress and/or begin some new things using the techniques that have been introduced. Keep in mind that we like to let them decide if they want to finish a work. (It’s only when there is a pattern of not finishing that it must be addressed. That is a blog for another day, though.) It is almost always the artist who gets to decide if they are making a learner or a keeper. If they know they have a learner, (and the teacher agrees), and if nothing more is to be learned, why go on and use up class time to “finish”? It is better to take that new experience and create a keeper, letting the unhappy work become the practice.

Next up is two weeks of making mock-gingerbread houses! I know this seems very much like a craft, but artists sometimes love to get into a regular craft, and blow it out of the water with their cool ideas. We’ll be using cardboard boxes for the “gingerbread”, and real icing and candies. Volunteers will be needed and so will bags of candy.

That will finish out the calendar year, and we begin drawing faces and doing more paintings starting right after New Year’s.