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Drawing and color media: tried & true tips for art teachers

Arts & Activities, March, 2008 by Geri Greenman

Let's draw a big crowd, thereby drawing more students into our classes who will learn how to draw, enjoying this skill their entire lives.

The visual plan, a sketch, can mean many things, from a quick drawing to a short dramatization, but in any case, it's the beginning of an idea or composition that may develop--fleshing out its substance into a full-blown drawing, the start of a painting, sculpture or any artistic venture. It's the genesis!

The sketch is a kernel of an idea just hinted at. Perhaps it will be sketched on canvas with a turpsy line, later becoming a full-bodied painting.

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These two artistic functions, the idea and the sketch, seem to go hand in hand, connected by movement and coordination of the hand, eye and brain, an image built from an initial thought.

There is the thumbnail sketch, so named for its resemblance to a thumbnail. Typically small and rectangular, it's undefined, without shading or detail. Using this small format, students can move around a still life or figure, quickly recording what they see from many points of view.

There are bigger sketches that have a little more meat on their bones of line, and finally there is a final drawing that is more developed, beefier than the earliest ones.

There are exquisite drawings that are just elegant line, like laying a string on the paper and moving it around to become the subject. There are blind contour drawings that test our visual skills (and our honesty) by drawing without looking at the paper--studying the subject with our eyes, mentally guiding our hand. These and the continuous line drawings are, by far, my favorite techniques as both deal with the beauty of line, which is lyrical and fluid in its simplicity.

tip #1

WARM THINGS UP For middle- and high-school students, it's a good idea to review to see where they're at with their skills. Draw a large rectilinear shape on the chalkboard. While sketching, discuss the concept of spatial depth ... it's a good "warmer upper"!

The upper third of the rectangle suggests space that's further away from the viewer, while the center section is middle ground, leaving the lower third to represent the foreground.

Objects appear closer to the viewer on this lower section and should eventually have more detail because they are "closer" to the viewer. It's remarkable ... the artist gives the illusion of space on a flat surface!

This is also a good time to discuss * this sense of distance. Colors that are brighter and warmer appear to advance toward us whereas cool colors appear to recede.

tip #2

GET GROUNDED Objects such as, let's say, wooden architectural forms set up on a table will appear to be floating in space unless you ground them with an edge to the table they're sitting on and overlap them. A sphere is a sphere, but cubes, rectangles, cylinders and pyramidal shapes may show more distortion depending on their placement. If you have upper-level students, adding a light source is challenging, as even the sphere will cast elongated shadows on the table surface and onto nearby objects. These cast shadows are invaluable as they truly "ground" objects, and there are interesting value changes within those shadows.

tip #3

A BIT SKETCHY Sketchbooks with weekly assignments are a great way to encourage personal solutions to any given problem. Starting out with easier drawings that are a review of the earliest weeks of a course and then building in tougher problems and techniques will allow your students to choose their own subject matter in their sketchbook, building confidence as the course progresses. This visual journal is potent stuff and as the students look back, they can really see their skills improve!

Assignments in the sketchbook were challenging yet extremely beneficial. We had fewer in-class assignments because they took much longer to complete, so the sketchbooks were very important in learning more techniques, stimulating students' creativity in choosing subject matter, and gave them an opportunity to bolster their grade with another 17 "opportunities" grades, all while learning more in the process.

tip #4

STRIKE A POSE Middle-school and high-school students usually don't mind posing, so make it interesting by having a couple students recreate a seated pose. Let's say a somewhat huddled pose like Picasso's Old Guitarist. Do you have a spotlight and a blue bulb? What fun! The model will be toasty, but those drawing the figure will get more than the feel of the pose as they understand how color has the power to affect imagery ... it leads to great conversation and terrific artwork. On the other side of the room, another model with a warm-colored "spotlight" reflecting off their skin is looking as though they're basking in the rays of a setting sun, while the blue-lit model makes one feel chilled.

Request the help of kids from study hall to model for your classes. This is wonderful as it frees up your students to draw, experiencing drawing from life using a model (or models) with each of the colors affecting their skin tone and clothing, resulting in an interesting and powerful effect.

Drawing and color media: tried & true tips for art teachers

Arts & Activities, March, 2008 by Geri Greenman

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