Lesson Plan Prep – Last Class before Summer!

We are making our own sketchbooks to enjoy over the summer!  Here is where I am at!

Various Sketchbook lessons (from all those wonderful ideas!) I am going to put a few random pages throughout their blank pages so they have little mini lessons throughout the summer!

As found on http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/sketchbookhs.html

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

• Draw a portrait using light and shadow- place the light from different angles than “normal” -under the chin, behind the head, in front of the face.
• Study your feet and shoes. Draw them in different positions and from different angles and views.
• Draw studies of your hands. Try a variety of positions or overlapping them.
• Draw a figure in an environment from your observation- in motion, and standing still.
• Draw in imaginary place- remember to show rich details.
• Do a self portrait. This can be full body view or face only. Accuracy !! Gesture drawings of people, things, or animals in motion.
• Contour line drawings of figures or objects.
• Draw several studies of your eyes, nose, and mouth in a variety of positions and poses.
• Focus on drapery and pattern: a shirt over a chair, a sheet around a banister, etc.
• Draw everything you can see from where you are positioned: this can be from imagination, like if you were in a hot air balloon, ant sized, etc.
• Draw a man made object.
• Draw a metallic object and everything you see in it.
• Draw or design any kind of vehicle.
• Draw an object of interest from 3 different views.
• Draw using 2 point perspective.
• Draw the inside of a mechanical object.
• Filling the page with them, overlap two dimensional forms and pick a direction for the light to hit them from. Shade accordingly.
• Draw your reflection in any shiny surfaced object.
• Draw a landscape from observation. Remember to show foreground, middle ground, and background.
• Draw your home and what’s around it.
• Draw family members with things that they cherish.
• Draw the interior of your room and what’s in it- from wherever you’re sitting: on floor, up on bed, from ceiling looking down.
• Study the forms, shapes, lines and textures and colors of trees.
• Draw animals from life ( if you can’t see them live, copy them from a reference book.)
• Draw a plant with as much detail as possible using line contour and line variation.
• Arrange a still life and draw it with shading.
• Draw bottles and cans- have the cans crunched up for lots of detail and contrast to the bottles’ smoothness.
• Draw dishes in a drainer, with shading.
• Create a fantasy building and landscape.
• Create a series of positive and negative space designs.
• Draw a piece of furniture and use color to show the textures and shadows.
• Draw a still life with one to three pieces of patterned cloth in it. Show color and patterns.
• Focus on textures in a drawing.

MORE SKETCHBOOK CHOICES
(JUST IN CASE YOU NEED MORE INSPIRATION)

• Using color (no black) and light (white) create a Impressionist style landscape drawing- remembering to optically mix colors by placing compliments next to each other.
• Transform an object from a realistic view to a Cubist representation (using several different view points within the same frame) in a progression of 4 steps.
• Draw yourself using a strong light on one side or angle of your face, focusing on the shapes of the shadows of your facial features- excellent shading practice.
• Try several studies of DRAPERY- a towel, shirt, or blanket draped around or on another object to create lots of wrinkles; focusing on shapes of folds and creases and the shadows that are created by them.
• Advanced drapery- try the same exercise with a patterned cloth in color.
• Take out a library book on any artist of your choosing and duplicate their art work. ­Please make a Xerox copy of it for my reference.
• Create a series of drawings of people in motion- playing sports; doing housework; etc. Try to overlap several views of the action as it progresses- use light sketchy lines; it will help.
• Design a tattoo for someone particular- a celebrity; teacher; etc.
• Draw from imagination with s much rich detail as possible- if you were awakened by a crash in the middle of the night; what would it be from ??
• Draw yourself 50 years from now; including your surroundings, possessions, etc.
• Illustrate a favorite story of yours told by a grandparent; uncle, or other relative.
• Design a CD cover for a musical group ( no gangster rap, peace signs; pot leaves, or conventional, unoriginal or violent imagery will be accepted !!)
• Draw your greatest fear; your biggest hope; or your dream for your future.
• Draw a series of animals in motion.
• More Sketchbook/Drawing Ideas – list from Michal Austin
• 150 Sketchbook Ideas from Niskayuna Central School. Read through and select ideas appropriate for your students.
• * Illustrate your favorite poem
  * Draw the contents of a trash can
  * Drawing of a house plant (real or artificial)
  * Draw an object with a surface texture.
  * Draw tools used in certain professions
  * Draw a tennis shoe
  * draw a grouping of leaves
  * Draw something you might find in a department store display
  * Draw a large jar and fill it up with something (candy, toys, rock, etc)
  * Design a school desk
  * Draw your favorite snack food
  * Draw an object melting
  * Draw a bowl of fruit, shade it.
  * Draw hands holding something
  * Draw a mechanical object
  * word picture: select a word that bring to mind a mental picture,
  *Draw the word as the shape of the object. such as the word apple in the shape of an apple, or apples spelling out the word.
  * Draw popcorn
  * Keyhole: what would you see through a key hole
• - bookmarks for the school library
  - junk food with wrapper
  - part of a vehicle
  - instead of a hand… your foot ( no socks or shoe)
  - something not pretty (one of the 8th grades favoritess)
  - an interior of something (once a student did the inside of a jar of peanut butter)
  - inside of closet
  - 3 unlikely objects together
  - your Mother’s or Father’s choice
  - part of any object ( mystery draw)
  - a scene that depicts peace

Lesson Plan Prep – Valentine’s Day

The time has come for another prep day!  For the most part, today’s lessons will be somewhat focused on a Valentine’s Day Exercise, with our finished pieces being something that the children can “gift” to their parents.  So let’s begin:

Lesson Plan Prep, Class #1:

In this class, I have a variety of ages: 6, 7 (or 8), and 10.  So for this class, I think we are going to focus on Van Gogh’s flowers, and create our own versions using pastels & markers.  The students will be shown a variety of flowers (courtesy of a few magazines & miscellaneous books I have lying around).  From here, we will practice on sketch paper, making the shapes that we see in the various flowers.  Once the kids have grasp the concept that flowers can take any shape & size, we will begin our final exercise by drawing our vases.

Students will be encouraged to let their imaginations run free with the flowers, leaving  their backgrounds simple so as not to distract from the main focus.

Lesson Plan Prep, class #2:

Now that I think about it, I think the lesson above will be more than appropriate for this group as well.  However, I will need to stop and get a few more pastel boxes for the increased number of students.

Lesson Plan Prep, class #3:

In this class, we are still working on our pears, so the majority of the group will continue on as we have for the past few weeks.  However, one of my students did complete her shading exercise early on, so I believe I will have her focus on the Van Gogh flower exercise as well, focusing more on the detail of the flowers and her color theory.

I like it when lesson planning goes so easily as this!  I have some time to sit down and draw on my own now!!!

Teaching Drawing to Children

Before I begin, an bit of a foreword about my own experience, learning how to teach drawing to children:

I find myself sitting down, finishing my lesson plan prep for another kid’s art class.  This time, however, I am planning THREE classes, as I have been fortunate enough to grow so quickly.

I feel as if I am still approaching the child’s brain incorrectly, though.  I am trying to teach principles to young minds that either don’t have the capacity for it yet, or don’t have the patience.  I am still succeeding, but somehow I feel a lack in some aspects.  Are some of the children not feeling successful after a class?  Are they feeling stunted, or not good enough to compare to me??

It may be a bit of an irrational fear, as I am still learning myself, but I still want to improve.  I try to keep the kids’ ages in mind, and for the most part, am actually “reaching” some of my kids!  I just want to be better, I want to be successful, and I want my students to enjoy me.  Not to be intimidated by me, and definitely not afraid of me.

But, my inexperience is causing my fears.  It will soon pass as everything always does.  Continue being diligent, continue learning and broadening my horizons, and continue to push past the fears.  So I continue…

Lesson Plan Prep, Class #1:

For today’s lesson, or lessons rather, I have to prepare several DIFFERENT lessons, as all of my classes are on different paths.  For my home school class, we are going to continue working on our drawing skills.  Last week, we worked on our 15-Step Value Scale, learning the see the differences in values as well as to recreate those differences on their own.  After that, we learned that everything we see in the world around us has  3 sides, as we see in 3-D.  Every object has 3 sides, a LIGHT, a MEDIUM, and a DARK side.

There are three sides to every box. The light side (closest to the light), the medium side, and the dark side (farthest from the light).

Using our new found knowledge of the value scale and the 3 sided box, we then put these principles into practice!  We drew a pear!  A nice little object that has two boxes (a smaller one sitting on a larger, fatter one).  AND!  We shaded our pear!  All in an hour and a half.  Even my six year old was seeing the differences and putting them into practice!!

So to continue on this lesson of the value scale and 3-sided objects, I need to find a lesson that will take these principles and add one more concept.  Let’s say…..atmospheric perspective.  I think today’s lesson should include:

• Practice working on seeing & drawing our shapes
• Practice using the value scale to make objects look more realistic
• Practice finding our light source, and identifying our 3-sides to every object
• Practice using layers and overlapping to make the various objects look closer/farther away
• IMAGINATION

So, I think that just leaves me with a few choices.  And the easiest choice may be a still-life of various objects.  So….let me go find a few objects.  Basket, various globe objects, stuffed moose, small birdcage with white bird, jar of pickles, a glass vase, ball of yarn, tissue box….I am sure I’ll add a few more before I finish today.  A large variety of objects that will be displayed in a row, with each of the three children sitting in front of it from various views.

Using viewfinders, (if the children are having trouble choosing their composition with all the options), we will first try to SEE the shapes of our objects.  We will begin to SKETCH those shapes onto our own papers, before moving into detail.  The children will be instructed to establish the order of their objects as well, and to point them out to me, since this will not be a “watch me, follow me” approach.

Once their composition has been adequately established on their papers, we will move onto shading our objects to establish a “likeness”.  We will work on shading our objects for the rest of the class.  Once shading has been complete, the students will have an option to add creative designs to some of the blank objects. Let them tell a story if they wish.

Lesson Plan Prep, Class #2:

This class will be a light class, since my two regular students are on break.  So, I can repeat a previous exercise with the two new students that will be attending this evening.  So, we are going to do some painting!  Using watercolors, and watercolor paper, we will draw a happy TOUCAN, and paint him using our vibrant colors, all while learning about our color wheel!!

A wonderful exercise that lets us work with our color theory (how a color changes as it gets further away/warmer/cooler), seeing our shapes (bird drawn using our shapes as guides versus the scaling method), and our painting technique!  Plus, it is a fun and easy exercise for Ms. Erin!  And don’t worry, pictures will follow!

Lesson Plan Prep, Class #3:

My last class is the easier of the three classes to teach since all the children are 11 and 12 years old.  However, because they are entering into their pre-teen, and overall very confusing parts of their lives, I feel challenged emotionally to connect to these young girls.  I see much of my own past in them, that my heart aches for one, and is happily connected to the others.

And, unfortunately, due to absences, my class is also now on an individual track for a short time.  One girl, who was absent last week, still has to finish her initial value-scale pear and work on shading her main bowl of pears. The second, actually finished her bowl of pears last time, so I need to find an alternate lesson for her, and the third finished her value-scale pear, and completed the 1st of many pears in the bowl.

So this class needs very little prep-time, other than finding something for the second student to work on.  However, she is the younger of the three and has grasped her shapes very well, but still needs practice with her value-scale.  So I think I will have her do a more advanced still-life of Class #1′s lesson.  Working with her shapes, she must first SEE her shapes, PLOT her shapes on her artboard, and then begin establishing her atmospheric perspective.  Once she has finished this, she can continue working on her shading by shading the objects accordingly.

END LESSON PLAN PREP.  We shall see how well it works!

15 Step Artist Value Scale

There are three sides to every box. The light side (closest to the light), the medium side, and the dark side (farthest from the light).

 

To download your own copy, courtesy of Erin Harvey, please click here.

Wonderful Sites for lesson plan ideas!

http://www.teachartathome.com/index.html

Wonderful lesson ideas, project ideas, broken down by type.

I especially like the seasonal projects that it offers.  I must remember this one!
I really like this exercise for the holidays!

http://www.kinderart.com/

Lesson ideas, wide ranges.  Actual art lessons.  I particularly like this lesson on Pointillism.  Says it is good for all ages.

Another good lesson on PopArt using Ice Cream cones.  Good for ages 8-12.

Tissue Paper Painting (Sculpture rather)

http://www.theteachersguide.com/Artlessonplans.html

 

Lesson Plan Prep! I really do enjoy it.

I really do.  It is very exciting to be able to be working in a field where I truly do love what I do.  Not only do I get to paint and draw, be creative and happy, but I get to work with two wonderful little girls!  Both are 7, quickly moving onto 8, and enjoying their art classes (I hope!).  They are like little sponges, rapidly absorbing everything I say; so I am very concerned about being properly prepared.  I don’t want to disappoint my parents, or my students.  It took a leap of faith to get me here, teaching these wonderful little girls, but I am very glad I did!

Tonight is no different.  I am happily preparing tomorrow’s lesson.  I’m still learning myself, on how to do this (ALL OF THIS!), but I am feeling more confident with each passing day, each passing lesson.  Last lesson went fairly well, I believe.  I would give myself a 8/10.  I felt I fell behind a little bit when Ava started having trouble.  Luckily, Jodette was there and able to offer some help.  Ava’s painting turned out lovely, despite her impatience and hasty speed with a little too much water and too much black.  And I was very glad that Jodette came to help.  I think we will take a break from the watercolors with black backgrounds next class when I am all alone!!!

Tonight’s goal is to prepare a lesson that keeps on with our continuing lesson of seeing the “shapes of nature”, and using those shapes to help us draw the objects around us, along with the objects of our imaginations.  Both girls are starting to grasp the concept of shapes,  so we will continue to practice them.  But something about last lesson makes me want to teach a secondary lesson as well.  I learned this lesson last night, as I was reading through Mona Brooke’s wonderful book “Drawing with Children.”  I learned myself, that in art, just as it is in any industry, it is ok to have just ideas.  It is ok to have sketches, to have scribbles, notes, outlines, rough drafts, magazine clippings, instead of beautiful pieces of art.  There is no right or wrong art!  Everything I create as an artist is a piece of art.  Because ART is a form of expression.  Just as authors have notes, outlines, and rough drafts, we as artists have our sketches, our notes, our scribbles.  Any every one of those pieces have their part in our artistic creative expression.

So the lesson that I want to talk about with my girls tomorrow, is that there is no RIGHT ART.   I found this other blog on a similar topic randomly on google (click here, for the whole blog) and thought this was worth sharing, worth remembering:

There’s art that you might not like.

There’s art that is not technically sophisticated.

There’s art that might be judged harshly by some outside authority or arbitrary standard.

There’s art that does not please the artist.

There’s art that appears to be completely meaningless or confusing.

There’s art that doesn’t match the vision you had in your head.

There’s art that might bring up shame about your artistic skills.

There’s art that might get you in touch with some uncomfortable feelings.

There’s art that is not realistic.

There’s art that is messy.

There’s art that is childlike.

But none of it is really BAD art. There’s nothing wrong with the art itself. The art is just art.
What makes it seem bad is our expectations about what we think it SHOULD be.

It all has to do with the ridiculous expectations that we place on ourselves.  Free yourself from it.  Everyone has their own form of expression, their own levels of artistic ability.  Just because one does not have the same detail-skill as another, does not make one’s art the lesser piece.  On the contrary.  Each piece is unique to itself.  We love and accept all pieces as wonderful.  Change your perspective, change your outlook, change your outcome.

So with that in mind, let me go, research and prepare.  Find the wonderful things about art, and figure out how to relate them to a 7 year-old.  Wish me luck!  I’ll report back later.

Calvary Children’s Home Wish List Ornaments

Here are the photos I promised!  The glass ornaments you see are the ornaments that the children of Calvary Children’s Home made as a fundraiser for the 2011 Holiday Season.  We at Taqueria Tsunami have joined together with Calvary to display these ornaments, and to hang up special ornaments for each of the children.  It is our hope, that anyone wishing to support these kids will take an ornament, and following the Wish List on the back, allow us to collect a present for each child!

 

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Let’s help bring some Christmas Cheer to these kids!  Special thanks to Helping Hands Ornament Project for making this all happen!

Calvary Children’s Home Wishlist Ornaments in progress!

A few weeks ago, a few friends and I sponsored an ornament build for a local children’s home: Calvary Children’s Home.  We got together with the children, and brought in a variety of christmas ornaments, craft supplies, and paints.  We taught the kids how to handle the supplies, and with very little influence, the kids took off flying through the creativity brainstorm!

Overall, the kids had an absolutely wonderful time!  The blossomed under the love and affection from those who cared enough to come and spend the evening with them.  It is the most heart-warming feeling to see the smile and joy just beaming off their faces!  And in an effort to help them, we have decided to hang up their ornaments in the storefront of our new local restaurant, Taqueria Tsunami.  We will also be hanging up Wishlist Ornaments for each of the children, should anyone desire to support them this holiday season!

Each ornament will have the child’s name, age, and what he or she likes or enjoys.  On the backside, one will find each child’s appropriate clothing sizes, and a Christmas Wishlist.  We hope to have a gift for each child this holiday season, because all children deserve Holiday Cheer!

Photos to come soon!

Another wonderful class!

Woo hoo!  I finished my second ever kids class last night!  And I definitely have to say, that the second experience was MUCH better than the first time, for me at least.  The kids both enjoyed the various lessons.  I believe that both my kids thoroughly enjoyed both classes.  Even the mothers were excited when they came to pick them up.  If you could have seen me, I was beaming with pride!

I got there around three pm (for a four pm class), and had my tables all prepped and the lessons ready within a few minutes.

 I still had over half an hour to go!

By this time, I was quite anxious; both nervous and excited about the day starting.  I was nervous because of my inexperience in teaching, of course.  But I was excited because I am really excited to be pursuing this line of work.

To do something that you really love is the greatest dream I have!  I love being able to get lost in art, to share it with anyone and everyone!  So I will take whatever experiences that I get, even the scary, anxious ones!

So I sat back down, and started doing my own little watercolor of this little Toucan here.  I really hoped the girls would pick the Toucan!

Little while passes, and the girls are about to come in.  The creativity table is ready and waiting, with me ready to jump right in!

O.o  *excited*

Little while later, Jodette came in and we jumped right in.  We went over my lesson plan for the day, and with an approving nod, we moved onto the supplies.  I showed her all of the different mediums that I had prepared for various lessons.  She recommended keeping to mediums that are easy to clean, quick to dry (if necessary), and easy to use.  Noted!

I think she was actually surprised that I was so well prepared.  Hopefully she was reassured.  I believe that she was, because she said she brought plenty of things to do, so she sat in the back of the room, and observed!  (Yea, that didn’t increase my anxiety levels or anything!)

Well that’s the end of part 1, I will return later with the rest of the story!  It’s time to paint now!

Erin

Second Kid’s Class late-night planning session!

I am very excited about this.  I have been working on my second lesson plan for my kid’s art class that I started teaching last week.  I have two wonderful young girls, named Eva and Lydia.  They are both seven, going on eight, and are active little budding artists!

So to get to point, I want to dive right into talking about my next lesson plan.  The girls are a little younger than I was expecting, but I plan on molding them as quickly as I can to be far beyond their age group.  So, with that in mind, we are going to review the line and shape elements of art that we learned about last week and warm-up by doing gesture drawings of the shapes that we see in everyday objects and scenes in nature.

For example, the picture below is an ordinary picture of a little kitten!  Oh so cute!

 

 

Now, what shapes do you see in that image?  You should be seeing some triangles for its ears, a large circle for its head, circles for its eyes, rectangles for legs, ovals for feet, etc.  Here is a rough computer-gesture of the shapes the students will be drawing:

 

So seeing the shapes in nature can really help us understand our subject.  The shapes can also act as an aide in drawing the form more accurately, by using the shapes as a measuring guide.

Once the students have grasped this lesson, we will move on to drawing our final object in detail using a pencil.  Since our previous drawings have been more gesture-drwaings, and quick sketch like pieces, we want to make sure to take care with our detail on this final piece.  We have been practicing for this, so let’s give it a good dedicated go at it.

Once the students have accurately drawn, within each student’s capacity of course, then we will move onto continuing our lesson in COLOR theory and CONTRAST!  Woo hoo!  Yeah for Elements and Principles in Art!

So at this point, the students will be using either watercolor or oil pastel.  We need the bright and vibrant hues of primary and secondary colors (which we will review prior to painting with a watercolor or oil pastel demo by yours truly!).  And watercolor and oil pastels do a fine job of offering that vibrancy!

So, we will take an photograph of  an object, like a butterfly!  From a photo: 

Into a pretty watercolor!  Now, that part of this post, will have to come later.  I haven’t gotten as far as printing my photos out in color and actually doing my demo.  See I have to go over to my parents for that part, because I don’t have a color printer yet.  Christmas present maybe?  We shall see!

Anyways, Good Night young minds of the world!  I shall see you soon!

Erin