Drawing With Children

These are some of the finished still life drawings I did with my public school fourth graders.

Using Mona Brookes' Drawing With Children, I drew a still life on the white board, while my students copied my circles, dots, straight lines, curved lines, and angled lines. (This is the simplest version of this particular lesson. You can make it more complex by adding a container of kitchen utensils.)

Then, I showed them a color wheel and explained complementary colors. I told them to choose two complementary colors: one for the table and one for the wall. Some also chose complementary colors for their vase and teapot.

I was also impressed by way they textured their tables (I showed them 2 examples), and the way each child shaped his or her vase differently.

Drawing With Children by Mona Brooks: Lessons 1 & 2

This week, I finally pulled out Mona Brooks' Drawing With Children, and did the first lesson with my students. Students use the five elements (dot, circle, straight line, curved line, and angled line) to produce pictures. In the first lesson, students draw a bird on a branch with leaves and berries. They can add whatever details they want.

My school used to have a wonderful MonArt teacher (MonArt is Mona+Art, as in Mona Brooks). Her name was Mrs. Green. Mrs. Green had students trace their pencil drawings with black marker, then fill in the space with markers, oil pastels, and paint. (Here is Mrs. Green's Cat in the Hat project. And here is her Hundertwasser project. And here is her tulips on newspaper project.) So, I had my students use thin black marker to outline, and fill in with crayons. No white space allowed.

Today, we did lesson 2 (level 3), a carousel horse. Some students chose to make a carousel horse, and some chose to make a real horse. Despite my inexpert example, my 4th graders' work turned out awesome!

I'm looking forward to using Drawing With Children on a regular basis throughout next year.

Painting Lesson

My three year old with artist Patrick McGilligan

Our friend, Patrick McGilligan, let my daughter help paint the window of our neighborhood video store, Vidiots, last night. He let her choose the entire color scheme. He asked her what color she thought the teeth should be, and she said blue, so blue they are. When asked what color his face should be, she chose her favorite color: green. An artist can paint things whatever color he or she wants them to be...

Girl with a Pearl Earring

I chose Vermeer as my public school 4th grade class' first artist, and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as our first picture for picture study.

One of the (many) things that fascinates me about Johannes Vermeer's work is the way he used the same costumes and props in all of his paintings. If you look closely, you'll see that many of Vermeer's female models are wearing this pair of pearl earrings. Looking through a book of Vermeer's paintings (there aren't very many - fewer than 40 paintings are attributed to Vermeer!) is like playing I Spy or looking through Where's Waldo? Can you find the yellow coat with the fur collar? Can you find the lion head finials?

The way I do picture study, with a class of thirty (or thirty plus students), is to have the students look at a painting, pair-share observations with their "elbow partner" (the person sitting next to them - close enough to touch elbows with), then ask students to tell me what they see. I did something new this year. I split the lesson in half. One day, we observed, discussed, and - after we had done a lot of talking/oral composition - wrote about what the painting.

"Her eyes seem like they follow you."

A couple of days later, we looked at the painting again and I told my students they were going to draw Girl. Some students started to put their papers over their photocopies and I said, "Nope. Draw. Not trace."

This assignment was met with lots of groaning and whining. "This is hard."

"I know," I told them. "It took Vermeer months."

Having students draw a work of art really shows how closely they're looking at it. These four nine-year-olds looked pretty closely:

Field Trip - Getty Center

My three-year-old creating an illuminated manuscript with dry erase markers

 The Getty Center has an amazing collection of art. This is a link to the collection website; click "Browse" and you get the option of browsing by object/medium OR theme/topic OR artist name. After seeing Degas' Dancer Taking A Bow, and Van Gogh's Irises, we spent some time in the Family Room.

Building a tube sculpture

Inspired by a David Hockney photo collage - Pearblossom Hwy

The Family Room is neat because little ones get to participate in the art, making masks, moving magnets and mirrors, constructing a sculpture, peeping into 70 tiny holes to view paintings, tracing insects, illuminating a manuscript, or curling up in a 18th century French bed with a bedtime story. (The link is to the real bed that inspired the little one in the Family Room.)

Taking a break with a cherry juice bar - Yum!

At the Getty, you pay for parking, but admission is free, and you can bring your own food and picnic.

Yes, you can walk on the grass.

Something we didn't get a chance to do (but I want to next time) is visit the Sketching Gallery.

Field Trip - LACMA

My three-year-old playing in the "noodles."

Painting in the Boone Children's Gallery

Yesterday my family visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We saw a special exhibit - Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Expressionism in Germany and France. Having been to museums in Europe, I've seen a lot of famous works of art (including the Barnes Collection, which is now in Philadelphia). I love coming face to face with a Matisse or a Gauguin. I feel almost like I'm experiencing something I shouldn't, like these images are reserved for books, but I - me! - I get to see the real paintings, every brush stroke or pointillist point. The exhibit was wonderful.

How does one take a three-year-old to an exhibit on expressionism? And, some might ask, why should you? To answer the second question first, you should because being viewing art in person is a habit that must be trained, just like picture study/viewing copies of paintings.

The three rules of HOW are:
1)Hands-on
2)On to the next painting!
3)What...?

Rule #1 - Take frequent breaks. Museums often have hands-on things for little ones to do. Do them.

Rule #2 - Keep it moving. Look for 1 element in a painting and move on to the next painting.

Rule #3 - Ask questions (but only 1 per painting). What shape are those apples? What is that man doing? What color is that woman's skin? (An especially good question for Fauvist works.)

We also visited James Turrell's exhibit "Breathing Light." We had to wait hours, but it was such a weird and enjoyable experience. Turrell's objective was to eliminate the viewer's depth perception, and it works. It's a bit like stepping into a scene from the original - good - Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the one in which the factory guests dress in white and enter the white TV room where Mike Teavee is turned into particles, etc. To enter "Breathing Light," we had to take off our shoes and put on disposable white booties. I had to tie the one-size-fits-all booties around my three-year-old's feet. Then we entered the installation and the lights started changing colors and it became disorienting, but in a pleasant sort of way. Fun for all ages.

My daughter also enjoyed the Boone Children's Gallery. Kids can sit and paint all day if they want, and there is no limit to how many paintings they can make.

Lastly, LACMA has a program called NexGen. Children under 18 get a free membership (and a cool orange lanyard to wear that holds their membership badge). Their membership enables one parent to accompany them to the museum for free, and it's good until the child turns 18!

Your Child is an Artist #2

A circle and line person my daughter drew a couple of months ago (2 years old)

In my last post, I wrote about Arthur Zaidenberg's Your Child is an Artist (1949).

Zaidenberg suggested children be given LOTS of (inexpensive) art materials, "lots of paper and many pots of paint and a wide variety of pencils and crayons for he will be induced to experimental and uninhibited productivity by a relatively unlimited supply." (pg. 60)

Zaidenberg's Basic Materials List:

pencils (drawing #2-#5; assorted colored pencils)

poster colors (a set of jars of paints)

water color set

brushes (5 in different sizes, "large brushes...will encourage him toward freedom of expression")

crayons (assorted colors; Zaidenberg suggested grease crayons; I use oil pastels in my classroom)

chalk (Zaidenberg suggested large flat pastels)

paper (large sheets of drawing paper and watercolor paper)

drawing board 24" x 36"

a child's easel

water jars, muffin pan for mixing, paint rags

~

SKETCH HABITS

"Habits are also most readily formed in childhood and once acquired are never a chore but part of a behavior pattern."

"The presentation of the first sketch book, preferably a bound one, should be made a significant occasion and each subsequent book should represent a step in the child's progress to be treasured."

"Persuade him to have a small sketch book with him at all times, to be filled with a rough record of all his adventures and the drawn details of their settings." (pg. 63)

Your Child Is An Artist

I've been looking through Arthur Zaidenberg's Your Child Is An Artist (copyright 1949), and have found some quotes I love and want to share...

"It only requires an examination of the lives of our friends and acquaintances to find comparison material for a study of the worth of a wholely 'utilitarian' education, i.e. one devoted to the study of such objects as will fit one into a successful career in business or science exclusively, as against an education which not only produces the competent, useful man but brings forth the man himself, in his richest potential, creative and appreciative of creation, able to express his emotions and understand the emotional expression of others." (32-33)

"It is my contention that this language [art], native to every child, lost in the inadequate educational process, can be reacquired." (33)

"The Austrian, Dr. Cizek, was among the first to introduce the theory that the teaching of art to children was a process of encouragement of the use of an instinctive language to be intuitively learned." (39) Adults tend to praise children based on how realistic their drawings are, and how they've gotten "better" at drawing something realistically.

"Parents should present their children with pencils, colored crayons and colored chalks at the earliest possible age, even at the risk of damage to the wallpaper." (59)

"One cannot teach drawing to a child...One can only prepare him to teach himself by supplying him with the tools, stimulating his interest, acquainting him with the importance of art and leading him on the natural graduated stages of his growth process into more and subtler artistic creation." (59) The author does suggest improving manual dexterity, mental dexterity, correcting misuse of materials, suggesting a child follow a path in which he or she showed an early aptitude.

"The 'don'ts' must prevent you from surrounding him with bad pictures in his home, suggesting second-rate pictures to copy and praising work of bad taste because they are 'popular' and done by 'successful' men." (59) No visual twaddle.

Tim's Vermeer

Tim Jenison's painting on the left; Vermeer's original painting on the right*

Tim's Vermeer is the most fascinating documentary I've seen this year. It's about a man named Tim Jenison and his obsession with discovering how Johannes Vermeer was able to paint the way he did. (Its PG-13 rating is solely for language - 3 words, one of which is in print and two of which are spoken in a scene where the wind blows down Jenison's window.)

Vermeer lived in the 1600s in the Dutch Republic. When Vermeer died, he left his family in debt, and there are only 34 paintings attributed to him (Van Gogh produced about 900); Vermeer probably painted very slowly. When you look at Vermeer's paintings, you'll notice they're mostly interiors. You'll also notice that some objects are used in multiple paintings (like the viola da gamba and the blue chair in The Music Lesson above).

Jenison is a successful inventor, and his success has afforded him the time and money to pursue his interests. A few years ago, he became curious about Vermeer's paintings. Jenison (whose company produces video tools and visual imaging software) thought Vermeer's paintings looked like video images. He had to figure out how Vermeer had done it. He read books about Vermeer. He traveled to the Netherlands so he could visit Vermeer's house. He learned to read Dutch.

Jenison believed that Vermeer must have used a camera obscura and an angled mirror. To read about this, click here.

To test his hypothesis, Jenison built a room that looked exactly like the one in The Music Lesson. He ground his own lens for his camera obscura, ordered a viola da gamba, and bought a Persian carpet for $8,000 in an auction. He had his daughter, on her month-long vacation home from college, pose in a 17th century costume with her head in a head clamp. He made his own paint.

Then he started painting. It took Jenison 130 days to paint his Vermeer, and he estimates Vermeer took just as long. Remember, only 34 paintings are attributed to Vermeer, and his career was over 20 years.
 
As Jenison painted, he noticed that he was painting the harpsicord with a curve - a mistake - but a mistake that Vermeer himself had made in the original. Vermeer would not have done this had he not viewed the room through a lens (a lens is curved and curved the harpsicord's straight lines).

Additionally, the human eye can't distinguish shades of white when they aren't right next to each other. This is demonstrated in the film. So how did Vermeer paint the white walls of his studio? You'll have to watch the documentary because it can only be explained visually.

Jenison's whole project took about five years, and his finished painting now hangs above the fireplace in his bedroom.

*This image is from genisyscorp.com.

Strawberry Patch

Here is a fun preschool art activity. You need red, white, and yellow paint, 3 Dixie cups, a wet wipe, a black marker, a green marker, and tiny fingers.

1)Dip an index finger into red paint and decorate the page with "strawberries."

2)Dip the other index finger into white paint and decorate the page with flowers.

3)Dip a pinkie finger into yellow paint and put yellow centers in your flowers.

4)Wipe fingers.

5)With your black marker, draw black dots on each berry.

6)With your green marker, draw green stems on each strawberry (up-down-up-down-up-down).

7)Still using your green marker, make vines by playing dot-to-dot with the berries and flowers.

How to Draw Crawly Things

Another guest post by artist Brenda Wood...

In a few more lessons I hope you’ll all be willing to admit that you can still draw (AND teach your child!). And I say “still” because you always could, but at some point, for some reason, maybe you were just embarrassed, and became reluctant to try.  Perhaps you heard a well meaning person say, "Well it isn’t exactly a Rembrandt,” to describe your copy work. Oh, see there’s that “copy” word again!  Take heart! Most, if not all of the artists we consider “the Great Masters,” spent time as copyists, attempting to duplicate line for line, texture for texture, the style and methods of those who went before! They were often apprenticed for that very ability to do so, in time even finishing work where the “master” had only drawn the cartoon (outline).

Therefore, to draw well, we must invest the time and effort to see well!  We must obviously take in, and retain some level of detail in order to create a resemblance. And the more the better! Michelangelo literally autopsied dead bodies, determined to understand the human form, what lies under the skin, what connects our parts and pieces, and makes us capable of moving in the ways we do.

There is a quote from Pablo Picasso which states, "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”  And I’ll paraphrase here a bit: First learn from those who have sought out knowledge and understanding ahead of you, and proven some things that always work, like, don’t squish your Play-Doh together, and rinse out your brush between colors unless you actually want some shade of brown!

But, let’s move on to the drawing part. Here’s a step by step exercise for drawing your very own caterpillar, with a couple of simple expressions thrown in for good measure. Note that as you add the backward “C” shapes, they should lie about mid-line along whatever squiggle you’ve started with. Similarly, if you’re doing stripes, the lines should conform to (follow the curve of) the surface of each body segment. The segments should get slightly smaller toward the end.

And after you get the gist of that, experiment with moving the white dot (reflected light) on the eyeball. It will change the direction your caterpillar appears to be looking. Slant the eyebrows (which yes, we all know caterpillars don’t have !) at a different angle. The effect of the tiniest variation may surprise you. So you see, it really is all about breaking things down into bite-sized pieces, and handy as well, if you ever need to know “how to eat an elephant!"

For other posts by Brenda Wood, click here and here.

How to Draw a Lemon

Enjoy another guest post by artist Brenda Wood...

OK, I would definitely suggest that each of you grownups do these activities as well,

because I can only guess how many of you have used the,”That’s wonderful, but I can’t even draw a stick figure” line, when commenting on someone else’s artwork. But please, not alongside your children.  They will inevitably compare, and may be dissatisfied with their own work. 

And when you are working with more than one child, it would be of value to seat them a little way from each other for the same reason.  Though if available space doesn’t allow, simply cut up a cardboard box (or a couple of manila folders glued together for added weight?) and make “blinds” for each.  And if you want an explanation, note simply that, this is not punishment.  Instead, each one is looking at the object to be drawn, from a different point of view, and you would like them to draw what they see, not what their brother or sister is seeing. 

Here you would do well, not use the term “copy” in a negative sense, as in, “…because I don’t want you copying your brother.”  There are so many things in learning, down the line, that you will want them to copy precisely!  And you can make that distinction where appropriate.

If you’re wanting to begin an art or nature journal immediately, I would recommend a few specific items:

1.     A spiral bound, 90lb. drawing pad (bound portrait or landscape orientation)

2.     A kneaded rubber and/or white plastic eraser (Staedtler Mars or Faber-Castell for instance)

3.     Individual pencil sharpeners, with a repository for shavings

4.     3 or so pencils with different “blackness” values (although a good old #2 will get you started in a pinch)

Don’t despair, we’ll move on to color soon enough, but for now, let’s begin with depicting familiar shapes and objects.  And just for a quick exercise in seeing things as simple shapes, or combinations of shapes – pick up the cardboard tube that comes inside either a paper towel, or toilet paper roll.  Now hold it with one palm flat against each end, under a light source.  Look at it straight on. What shape do you see?  Many of you instantly said, “A cylinder!”  Well, yes, but…we’ll get back to that.  First, what simple shape do you see?  Hint: a rectangle.  But you knew that! Now…why did you say a cylinder?  Better yet, why did you see a cylinder!? 

Because with the gradation of light from bright to dark, your eyes told your brain, the object was curved, and the object is familiar!

So, ready for your first attempt (accomplished artists notwithstanding)?  Pretend that it is your job to describe certain items to someone who has never seen such a thing.  For our purposes, this person does recognize simple shapes by name, but is not allowed to touch the object you are describing.  Your description alone must enable them to visualize it and draw it in 2 dimensions.  We’ll begin with a lemon.  Will you describe it as a circle, or go straight for the oval ?  Depends on your particular lemon, yes?  But, what next?

What if we added a triangle (equilateral of course) to each end ?  WOW !

If you have him color it yellow, and quickly pepper it with tiny dots to represent the pits in the skin, he could probably take it to the grocery store and buy the dozen or so you need to make him his first lemonade !

  

For a bit of finesse, erase the straight line across each end and add an arc with a slight break in it.  EXCELLENT JOB !!!

Guest Post by Artist Brenda Wood

Even before we are able to form a concept about something in our environment, we begin to test it for information; for texture, for taste, for relationship.  Then, in as much as it feels (for instance the satin edge of our first blanket) or behaves the same way at each encounter, ie., feeds us when we cry, we make a valuation of it in connection to our own wellbeing, and catalog it for future reference.

When we determine that an experience, a sight, or a sound, was a positive one, obviously it increases the likelihood we will be willing, or actually eager to experience it again. And so it is with Art.  If, within the reasonable bounds of safety (and an acceptable surface!), we are encouraged to experiment, we may attempt to recreate something that resembles (though how, often only a grandparent can see) an original.

But one thing I have discovered for a certainty, initially, most little ones desire to please!  And they thrive on genuine, upbuilding praise. Surely, they will push at the boundaries!  And granted, some much more frequently than others, but often only to make sure that they are safe, and the fence will not fall down.

Art is a very different “animal”, in regard to where the outer limits lie, as to a thing even being considered art, not to mention process.  And then there is moral value, another conversation entirely!

So, all that said, my first suggestion for you is, make positive, leading statements.  Ask questions!  Rather than say, “I LOVE your, uh…purple armadillo??”, and risk tears, and much shredding of paper, try, “Please, tell me about your painting!”  “I see you really like yellow!”  “What else can you think of that’s yellow?” “Would I be safe riding a bicycle, or going for a swim in the ocean with this?”

You might get an eye roll or two, but giggles are more likely! And what is there more beautiful than the laughter of a child !?

Painting

After dinner (I use that term loosely - my 3 year-old's "dinner" consisted of cucumber slices, 5 black olives, and half a stick of mozzarella cheese), she painted this picture. At first, I thought she was just going to paint the entire paper green, but then she cleaned her brush and painted a splotch of yellow. "Look, it's the sun." And then she painted a brown splotch and added two strokes. "This bird is flying in the sky." I love it.

By playing at art, she develops fine motor skills, learns about the elements of art through experimentation, and learns to clean her paintbrush before dipping into the next color.

Painting with a preschooler requires a lot of patience. There will be mess. And while it seems like making a mess is the little one's objective, as long as most of the paint is staying on the paper, the grown-ups need to stand back, be patient, and know that our little ones are able to see the world in a way we have lost.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas104106.html#f0MCpCw48pfLjLZz.99

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

-Pablo Picasso

Artist Study - Kandinsky

Today, Ms. Green started a new art project with my students. It is based on Kandinsky.

Their warm-up sheet

Ms. Green's Wassily Kandinsky board

Lots and lots of pre-cut felt circles

These projects will be 3-D. The trees will have stands (like the support behind a picture frame).

Wassily Kandinsky is considered the father of abstract art. Today, Ms. Green, the art teacher at the school where I teach, started a project with my students based on Kandinsky's concentric circles. The students will be making trees out of cardboard, covering them with newspaper to make them more visually interesting, and adding felt Kandinsky-esque circles.

Artist Study - Monet's La Japonaise

Claude Monet, via Wikimedia Commons

My 4th grader's La Japonaise, drawn with oil pastels

This year, I taught two terms of Artist Study. The first artist was Leonardo da Vinci, and the second was Claude Monet. One of the Monet paintings I chose to show my students was La Japonaise, a picture Monet painted of his wife Camille in a kimono.
  
"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naïve impression of the scene before you."  

 -Claude Monet

Art - The Cat in the Hat

Some of my students' work

In March, Ms. Green, the art teacher, taught my students how to draw a scene from The Cat in the Hat. They started with a warm-up sheet with items like an umbrella, a fish in a bowl, and a ball. This was their first art project with her (first and fourth graders have art the last trimester - March, April, and May - this year). Ms. Green used this lesson to teach about line, composition, and shading.

Tulips 3

A 1st grader made this!

Isn't this gorgeous? Ms. Green, the art teacher, shared it with me today. While my fourth graders are painting on newsprint, the first graders used watercolor paper because it is less delicate. Not only did she teach them about color theory, she also taught them that shading gives a 3-D effect and that objects have shadows. And this is possible because she challenges them, and scaffolds - very Charlotte.