head start - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2000 by Geri Greenman

In beginning drawing courses, I stress the importance of many basic "truths" in art. One such truth is that drawings can be beautiful works of art on their own, rather than simply being a "means to an end," a preparation for a future project to be completed in a different medium.

Another belief is that the subject matter of the drawings is incidental. What is important is the development of drawing skills and the emotional collaboration of the mind, hand and eye. Although there are many other truths in art, these two concepts have become the focus of a challenging lesson in the art of drawing.

It is often difficult to get younger students to accept that artworks need not be realistic interpretations to be valued and appreciated. Much of that feeling comes from a lack of understanding of composition, the elements of art, principles of design--"tools" that artists work with--and the creativity that artists bring to their work through their inherent aesthetic sense.

There's something exciting and refreshing about looking at a skillfully handled drawing, painting or piece of sculpture that stands alone on good composition. Several elements, like the use of strong technical skills, should be admired for their own sake. Those techniques that make a piece of artwork outstanding--without involving the emotions or preconceptions of the viewer--make a piece intriguing in itself. Oftentimes, subject matter involves us too emotionally or is so familiar to us that we "miss" the skill involved in the creation of art.

It's new, exciting and refreshing to look at a drawing or a design--or in the case of my class, a mop head/Remember, what we were drawing was not important; how we were going to approach it was. I chose mop heads because of their linear quality (though in all honesty I didn't want the students to approach it that way), and for their floppy, nondescript, abstract quality.

The mop heads of my youth seemed somehow more exciting and less restrained than modern ones. I liked the helter skelter, uncontrolled direction of the tentacle like parts. The new mop heads I borrowed from our building maintenance department were far more restricted than I remembered. These pristine, white strands were stitched in two places---probably to control them as they sop up a spill. For whatever reason, they seemed less romantic, but they would still serve my purpose, and that was to have the students find some beauty in a not-so-beautiful object.

I think the students realized that the subject was not going to help them entertain or intrigue the viewer on its own merits, nor was it going to be the type of drawing that someone would walk up to and say, "Wow, I love the way you handled the chrome on that bowl, and those lemon peels are incredibly realistic!"

Their mission was to use "chiaroscuro," a beautiful technique employed by Rembrandt and Caravaggio in which the light seems to creep out of the darkness, with a suggestion of light in the shade. Chiaroscuro is dramatic, and suggests form in a diffused way that also implies a sense of mystery.

I had the students darken an entire sheet of canson charcoal paper with vine charcoal. After that was accomplished, I shut off all the classroom lights, positioning a single spotlight on the arrangement of mop heads. I asked students to squint and to "lift off' the highlights they saw with their kneaded erasers. This was one of those times where the kids were somewhat vocal about not liking the subject, especially if they weren't immediately successful.

Several complained that it was too difficult or that they didn't understand what I meant by "not drawing a line with the eraser." Unfortunately, this was the most common approach the students chose: to not see shapes created by the light, but to want to draw with the white line that the eraser created for them.

Many said they'd give anything to be able to draw realistically, but I tried to encourage them in the face of their dislike for the mop heads. I suggested they see shapes, and once suggested by lifting out the light ... they could then go "into" the shadow and negative areas and develop actual, individual strands if they saw those strands.

In all honesty, I don't know if they felt these were successful, but I do. The drawings are strong examples of a dramatic technique, and they encourage the viewer to look beyond the subject to the artistic play of lights and darks and the compositional design of the picture plane.

As young artists, the students learned that the subject really shouldn't have to stand up on its own, and that the handling of any subject matter should be the key to a capable drawing. By drawing the mops, we had a head start on seeing abstractly and learning to appreciate the unappreciated.

Geri Greenman is head of the art department at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, and is a Contributing Editor for Arts & Activities.