Drawing Lab

As an art teacher, I often hear people say that they can’t draw or aren’t good at art but wish that they were. There is an assumption that one must be good at drawing to be a good artist but that is not always true. I am always on the look out for good books to help students as well as my friends improve their drawing skills and grow as an artist. One book that I have found that has helped me to come up with ideas for sketchbook assignments (my students will remember the Picasso dogs!) and lesson plans is Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim.

This book includes 52 drawing exercises that the cover states will “make drawing fun!” I must say, I agree with this statement. This books includes a variety of ideas for drawing exercises that are fun and whimsical. Artists and aspiring artists of all ages are sure to enjoy working through this book. The drawing exercises are divided into seven units including:

• Inspired by Animals
• Inspired by People
• Inspired by Famous Artists
• Inspired by Children and Childhood
• Inspired by Imagination
• Inspired by Nature
• Inspired by Books and Culture

As you can see the book offers a wide variety in exercises and subjects. I love that the books includes a little bit of everything including portraits, nature and even art history. The exercises are fun and teach you important lessons in drawing. Some of the exercises are somewhat traditional but are presented with a creative twist. One of my favorite parts about the book is that it does not focus on drawing realistically. Not everyone (myself included!) is exceptional at drawing realistically and this books allows artists to explore other ways of drawing and applauds drawing creatively. I am also a fan of the colored examples for every exercise as well as the well written directions. If you are a person who would love to spend more time drawing (or you have a child who would like to draw more) but you are often intimidated by looking at a blank page or can’t seem to find ideas for your drawings, I would encourage you to check out this book. It is sure to make drawing more fun for you and will provide you with many great ideas.

Homework in art class???

Yes, that’s right, we have homework in art class too.  Every week the students in basic and advanced art are assigned a sketchbook assignment that is due on Friday. Sometimes the assignments relate to the projects we are doing in class, events in the school or are simply free draw assignments where students may choose to draw whatever they would like. Most students enjoy the assignments, but I always hear the question, “But why do we have homework in art class?”

I feel that sketchbook assignments are important for high school students for many reasons. First, just as in all other classes, homework teaches students responsibility and also reinforces the ideas taught in class. Also, sketchbooks provide more grades for students in classes where there may only be one or two project grades during a marking period. Sketchbook assignments allow the students to practice drawing techniques at home and show more of their artistic personality and creativity.  Sketchbooks are often like a visual diary where students can explore their feelings, thoughts and creativity through images. In this sense, sketchbooks teach students about themselves, their artistic style and also provide a place for them to vent and de-stress.

I can remember being a student in the very same art classroom where I now teach and wondering, just as my students do now, why sketchbooks were important. However, I still have my sketchbooks from high school and treasure the drawings and memories within them. The drawings captured important moments in my life and also chronicled my journey as a growing artist. I hope that as my students’ sketchbooks continue to grow throughout the year that they will also learn to love the work that they complete within their sketchbooks and look forward to doing their sketchbooks every week rather than dreading them just because they are “homework.” I know that I truly enjoy seeing the things that they come up with each week and watching them grow as artists throughout the year.

Oh and while I’m on the subject of sketchbooks…This week the students have the option to design an “art ram”for their sketchbook assignment. The images will be a part of a contest in which one will be chosen to be used for the header image on artroomRAMblings. I will posting images of the top three entries over the weekend for everyone to vote on!

Your Trash is Our Treasure

As clean out your home, do you ever wonder if anyone could use some of your trash that you are throwing away? Sometimes, the answer is “Yes! The art room can!” We need lots of supplies to help with our art projects. We use different recycled items to make sculptures as well as just to hold water and paint as we work.

The Top 5 Recycled Art Room Supplies

1. Plastic containers – yogurt cups, butter cups, etc.

2. Lids from those plastic containers

3. Egg Cartons

4. Newspapers

5. Foam trays

There are plenty of other things that we could use in the art room as well. Some other things that we could use include: wood scraps, joint compound, yarn, plaster and more. So if you are ever cleaning up around your home and find something that you think that we might use please feel free to ask or bring it in!

Transformation Drawings

I am constantly trying to think of new projects to challenge my advanced art students, but there are a few that I love and have done a couple of times. The first project that my advanced art students completed this year was a transformation project. I LOVE this project. I was assigned something similar to it in college and struggled with it for some reason but that’s probably why I enjoy it so much. It challenges the students right at the beginning of the year, prepares them for college level art classes and the results are very interesting and impressive!

For the assignment, the students have a choice of two assignments. Since it was the beginning of the school year, both were based off of the idea of “school supplies.” The first choice was to create an image using ONLY number 2 pencils. The pencils had to have all of the traditional elements of a number 2 pencil but could bent and shaped however they needed to be to form the image. Here are a couple of great examples!

The second option was to choose a supply/material from the art room and transform it into something else through a series of at least 5 steps. There were LOTS of great ideas for this option! I am always impressed by the creativity of my students! Here a few examples of their amazing creativity!