Showing posts with label gesture drawing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gesture drawing. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2014

In the Art Room: Creating a Narrative with Fourth Grade

Have you ever done one of those projects where you just knew it was gonna be quick -n- easy, everyone was gonna be successful -n- happy, finish at exactly the same time -n- be ready to move on to that Next Big Thing?

Yeah, me neither.

Take this "quick -n- easy" figure drawing experience. 

My fourth grade created gesture drawings of their classmates roller skating in P.E. The intent was for them to use those drawings as inspiration for a figure drawing of an ice skater. That ice skater will eventually be added to a school-wide mural (I'll keep ya posted).
Sounds easy enough, right? 

Wrong, dudes. Wrong.

Have you ever taught figure drawing to the under-10 set? It's, like, seriously tough, ya'll.
This artist told me her figure is diving for a starfish.
AND it took them For-Eve-Errr. Like three separate thirty minute classes. If you're good at math you know that's an hour and a half, people! Granted, their results were pretty rad and they were pleased as punch with themselves. However, I wasn't about to let their drawings just get glued to some mural. So I made enlarged photocopies of each drawing, passed 'em back to the kids along with their chalk stars and asked them to create a narrative using the two.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to that gesture drawing bit.
Gesture Drawing: If you've not tried this with your kids, you really outta give it a go. My students loved it. We spent about 5ish minutes in the art room chatting about gesture drawings just being quick and simple sketches that are meant to capture movement. I demonstrated a quick drawing of a student running in place. We all agreed my drawing looked terrible by normal standards...but had I captured movement? Yep. We also had a quick chat about how we were visitors to the P.E. room and we were to work quietly and stay outta the way of the skaters. Then we gathered up clipboards, newsprint, charcoal sticks (which they loved) and cloth erasers and spent about 15 minutes drawing as many skaters as we could.




I love their finished results. They are all so different in their style. I really love how so many of them look like Keith Haring people...which gave me all sorts of ideas for future projects.
Gesture drawing was all fun and games until we returned to art class the following day. I told the kids that we were going to be creating ice skaters for a school-wide mural. With their gesture drawings in hand, the kids were to pick their favorite, use a wooden mannequin to model the same pose and draw from there. Which worked for some. Others were still stumped. For those kids, we regrouped and I broke it down a little more: turn your stick man into a thick man by adding lines on either side of the stick drawing.
The drawing on the right shows someone who made their "stick man into a thick man" while the artist on the right used a mannequin. We struggled with proportions and just how the body works...but in the end, I was pleased if their peeps simply showed some sort of movement. And had a head.
From there the kids were to add clothing to their figures and trace with a thin sharpie. It was at this point that I decided to make enlarged photocopies of their drawings...I just knew we'd come up with another project for them.
So, after coloring and cutting out both of their people (small original and enlarged photocopy), I challenged the kids to create a narrative collage.

And they were like: A-Whah-Huh?
So I busted out some Marc Chagall and we talked about how artists often tell stories with their art. We chatted about Chagall's work and some stories that might be behind them. Then I told 'em that they were to create a narrative tale with two subjects: their figure drawing and their chalk star.

At our supply gathering area, I laid out tons of painted, marbled and sparkly papers along with boxes of scraps. I told the kids that they were to come up with a story that they had to present to me before they glued it down. I did this because I really wanted them to cut out shapes, move their papers around and really think about their story instead of just cutting and pasting.
After presenting their idea to me, we'd talk about whether or not their collage really told their story or not. For some, that meant adding a background to set the scene. Often, they were sent back to their seats to continue working on the visual details of their story. There was some grumbling and some "but it's finished!" to which I usually replied "Nah. Make it even more awesome."

Once finished, I asked the students to write up an artist statement to accompany their piece. We talked about how an artist statement could either reveal the entire story behind the work...but how most artists like the viewer to create their own tale.
Which you'll see most of these artists liked the idea of...

(Inside scoop: I was told that this dude is "emo", hence the hair stylin's.)


When I was snapping photos for this post, I came across this funny artist statement by the artist of this collage...
Um, looney toones?! Ha!

Have ya'll taught figure drawing before? Do you have a sure-fire method? I know if I teach this again there will be some mucho tweaking. So I'd love your input. 

Thanks, ya'll!


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Sunday, December 15, 2013

In the Art Room // What the Art Teacher Wore #83

Dress Like a Tacky Christmas Tree Monday: When I was a kid, my parents allowed me to have a mini-Christmas tree in my room to decorate as I saw fit and it was just about the tackiest thing ever. When I ran outta real ornaments, I crafted some with construction paper and copious amounts of glitter. When I tired of that, I took to filling in the gaps with stuffed animals (who never looked to thrilled to have fake pine needles stickin' 'em in the back, go figure). It was bright, shiny and totes tacky. Kinda like Monday's outfit. sweater: ebay; top, tights: Target; necklace, belt, skirt: thrifted; shoes: Anthro
Hey, guys. Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words this past week. My sweet and caring father-in-law will be greatly missed by each and every person that had the pleasure to meet him. I have so many happy memories of him. I am keeping those at the forefront of my mind.

This post was actually written the week before last. After some time away from school, I'm excited to go back (even if it is for only 4.25 days), see the kids and attempt to pick up where we left off. I've got a couple of new routines I've been test-running in the art room that I hope to share with you later this week. Oh! And a couple DIY's up my wannabe-Anthropologie sleeve.

Until next time, squeeze your loved ones. I'll chat with you soon.
All my students, pre-K on up to 4th grade-land spent one 1/2 hour art class creating clay star ornaments. Our mission: to gift them to our parents in exchange for the gift of one dollar. The children are bringing that dollar back to the art room. Our service project this year is to help our friends in Asia (as that's the continent we are traveling this year), particularly those in the Philippines who were so badly effected by Typhoon Haiyan. What warms my heart the most about this project so far are the dollars coming in from the children themselves.
This is our third year to do a service oriented project. Our first year, we did a project very similar to Empty Bowls and donated the proceedings to a local homeless shelter. Last year, we created ceramic animals and "sold" them back to our parents with the proceeds going to a local no-kill animal shelter. This year, I wanted something quick and easy we could bust out in one class. So now my room is currently filled with these stars. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
Christmas Tree Skirt Tuesday: 'kay, I might have a slight addiction to making these skirts. I finished my second this weekend and now I find myself hunting them down at the thrift stores. Somebody stop me. It's not like I don't have an Everst-sized mountain of unfinished projects to tackle. blouse: Old Navy; tree skirt to lady skirt: DIY post here; tights: Target?; shoes: thrifted, Crocs
Our awesome PE teachers have the kids skating this week. After a super brief chat about gesture drawing, I took my third and fourth grade students down to the gym armed with clipboards, newsprint, charcoal sticks (which they thought was just about the coolest thing ever after I told them that I didn't use such an art supply until college) and chamois clothes. They were to fill three pages with as many sketches as they could in the 15 minutes that they had.
My Favorite Christmas Colors Wednesday: These colors remind of me of 1950's kind of Christmas decor which would be my fave on the planet. In fact, I'm so excited that this year I have out the aluminum tree (with a rotating color wheel light!) my mom bought for me last Christmas. Which is kinda funny cuz she just called me yesterday to tell me she bought me another of those trees with another rotating light. Looks like my mom is a hoarder enabler. Which is why I love her so. cuckoo clock dress: DIY dress here; sweater and tights: Target
Most of the kids really took to the gesture drawing. However, some of my more detail-oriented drawers (which is me) were stumped. They simply stared at the skaters zipping by in complete confusion as to how they were to make a "good" drawing. I reminded them that we were simply to show movement in our drawings and that was all. And to stop thinking so hard and just draw. Draw, draw and draw. Some had the bright idea to sketch the legs of one skater and after they zipped by, add the torso of another and the arms of yet another. This gave them a little of a montage sketch but at least is solved the problem of just having floating body parts.






Candy Stripes Thursday: Now I admit I have entirely too much clothing (seriously, I get asked a lot about my closet..it's time for a post!). But one way I've found to make my dresses work summer and winter duty is to simply place a sweater over 'em. This is a sleeveless summer dress that I topped with a thrifted sweater. sweater and shoe clips: vintage, thrifted; dress: European vacation score; tights: Target?; boots: Lucky Brand, found at Marshall's; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing

Once the got the hang of it, they were on a roll...pun intended. And I could tell they enjoyed it. In fact, one of the fourth graders said, "Mrs. Stephens, we never leave the art room!" I could tell just doing something a little different felt like an adventure...which is what art is always supposed to feel like, right?
Feelin' Mad Men-esque Friday: The weather here has been completely bonkers. One day, I swear it was 75 degrees and the next 30! I basically lived in this poncho on Friday which isn't an easy thing to do as I felt like I had bat wings all day. Which I kinda do and totally need to bust out my Jane Fonda tapes. Cuz, yes, I have them and yes, I still have a VCR. I'm retro, ya'll. poncho and dress: vintage, thrifted; tights: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina

Stay tuned to what becomes of our sketches. I'm pretty excited to share the progress with you!
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