Cadavre Exquis

“The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.”

Some of you may be thinking, “What in the world is this woman talking about?” Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Apparently I don’t get around much because the exquisite corpse is something that has been around since possibly before the 1920’s.

How did I not hear about it? I don’t know. But luckily the student teacher I mentored this semester taught me how to use it in my art classes.

“The exquisite corpse” is a fun activity to help you come up with fresh ideas. Surrealists used the game to create some crazy art work. There are many websites dedicated to playing the game in some manner. The exquisite corpse can be played with words, images, and even video.

My student teacher gave my Art II students a brief introduction to ” the exquisite corpse” with a power point presentation. The presentation showed some art work that was created or influenced by the exquisite corpse.

If you want to read more about the exquisite corpse go to the sites below:

Wikipedia Article

ExquisiteCorpse.com

For Poets

The students were shown one site that is really quite fun and can be addicting if you are not careful. It is Corpsify.com. If you go to this site you can see images in the gallery of art work that has already been created. It takes three artists to create one piece of work and you are not allowed to see the other artists work until it is finished. If you have time, check it out!

So what did my students create? They created drawings of some crazy looking creatures. This is an easy activity. All you need: pencil and paper. If you want to create colored drawings, then the students could use colored pencil or markers. 

The students were given a piece of paper, 12″ x 18″. The paper was folded into thirds. Each student drew a head in the top third of the paper. I had to remind them to cover their work up when they were done. They also had to make sure at least two lines came down into the middle third of the paper so the next artist could see where to start their drawing. They traded papers.

The next artist drew the torso and arms making sure to make two lines into the bottom third for the third artist to attach to. I taped each section of the paper closed so that people would not be tempted to peek. Then the papers were traded.

The third artist was told to create the bottom portion of the creature. It could be feet or whatever their imaginations came up with. At the end of the class, the students were very anxious to see the artwork that was created. I had different students come to the front of the class and reveal the work. Then the creations were displayed on the bulletin board for all to enjoy.

 In introduction to this activity, my students played a word game. I wrote three words and then covered up the first two. The next person wrote three words after seeing my last word. They covered all the words except their last one. We continued adding words until everyone had been given a chance to contribute.  Some of the things we came up with were:

Blue Polar bears jump rope fast and furiously.

Foxes fainted in the heat .

Burning red leaves falling into my pockets .

Hot, buttered, yummy cookies make you fat.

Little fingers tickle pink kittens.

Slim, tall little pigs bite sweet delicious candy.

Do you get a visual from reading those? I do. Now all the words we put together did not make sense. Another way to play with words is to have a system. The way most people do this is to combine words from many people in a certain order. The order is:

The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun.

That is how the saying at the top of this article came to be. The originators of the game came up with that saying as they played the game.

So if you are having trouble coming up with some fresh creative ideas you might want to give “the exquisite corpse” a try. Have fun!

It is that time of the nine weeks. Sketchbooks are due. I both dread and look forward to this day. I look forward to seeing some really wonderful art work. I dread seeing some really badly scribbled drawings that took all of five seconds to complete.

You think I am kidding? I am not. I have watched some of my students scribble a drawing out in the hallway between classes and then turn it in expecting to get a good grade on it.

Grading sketchbooks can be time consuming and difficult. It is so subjective. I had to have some way to show my students what I was looking for in a sketch. So I spell it out for them when I give them the sketchbook list. I tell them how many points each sketch counts and how the points are broken down by value, effort, following directions, etc. If you want to download a PDF file of my sketchbook grading sheet click here. You are welcome to use this system for your grading.

I make copies of this sheet and cut them in half. Each student gets a half sheet and places it inside their sketchbook with their name and class period at the top of the page. If the sketchbook is turned in late the student must put the appropriate deduction at the top of the paper. For example: if a sketchbook is 1 day late, the penalty is 10 points off.

Here is how I break it down:

I require 5 sketches each nine weeks. Each sketch is worth 20 points for a total possible of 100 points. If I see work that exceeds my expectations I will give extra points.

Each sketch is graded as follows:

6 points possible for effort.
4 points possible for shading with at least 4 values.
4 points possible for following directions.
4 points possible for using the whole page.
2 points possible for paying attention to detail in the drawing.

As you can tell, I am not grading on talent. I have many students that would not pass if I graded any other way. I try to give my students a chance to succeed due to effort. The sketchbook counts as a major test grade. You would be amazed at the number of students that will not turn one in.

I would love to hear from other art teachers about this subject. Do you require a sketchbook? How do you grade their sketches? Do you give a list of required sketches or let them turn in what they want? Drop me a note and let’s start a conversation.

You might also like to read: Sketchbook Ideas For Children

“Observe Everything.

Communicate Well.

Draw, Draw, Draw.”

Frank Thomas

Thought:

Disney animator, Frank Thomas, gave the advice above to young animators.  I believe this is solid advice for anyone wanting to be an artist or wanting to perfect your craft.  In order to create, you have to understand. In order to understand, you have to observe.  In order to make the viewer understand, you have to be able to communicate.

You can communicate in many different ways. Artists use the elements of art to communicate. They use form, shape, texture, line, space, value and color to express themselves.   Learning how to draw the world around you is going to help you better understand. Drawing every day is going to make your understanding more complete.

The Agony and The Ecstasy by Irving Stone is a biographical novel of Michelangelo. When Michelangelo is a student in the novel he is not allowed to paint or to sculpt until he can draw. He draws for years trying to perfect his understanding of the human form.

I believe that we would all be better artists if we spent more time drawing. So this Friday, get out some paper, pencil, or pen and take some time to draw.

Prayer:

Dear Lord and Father of all:

I come to you today asking for blessings for all that are trying to perfect their creative abilities. Please focus our sight so that we might better understand. Give us the ability to communicate our emotions and feelings through the elements of art. Teach us as we draw. Bless our efforts. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Are you snowed in?

So, how’s the weather where you are?

I know that the weather has been a major issue in many parts of the country this winter. I have been adapting to living in the Portland, Oregon area after living in Hawaii for two years. Sounds tough, huh? Anyway, it is colder here than in Hawaii. Ya think?

Before I moved to Hawaii I always lived in Texas. Texas can have some extreme weather. You really never know what to expect from day to day.

So, why am I talking about weather? Because we can use the weather as inspiration. We can look out the window and paint the weather we see.  Or we can portray the type of weather day we want to experience.

Many years ago I painted a snow scene in the middle of the summer when we had no air conditioning. We were experiencing days well over 100 degrees. I decided to paint snow to give myself a mental lift. It seemed to work too.

So maybe you are stuck at home today because of some sort of weather event.  Document the experience in a drawing or a painting. Or use the time to imagine yourself in a more temperate climate such as Hawaii or Mexico.  Create something that portrays the weather.  If you need some ideas of how to portray weather in a painting, go to Google.com and search for “paintings of weather”. You can click this link too.

Have a great creative day!

The other day I was called to substitute for an Art teacher. YEAH!  I wrote a little bit about it the other day when I talked about the Reynolds High School Art Show and Auction.  I was asked to teach about blind contour drawing.

I was excited because I love doing blind contour drawing. I love the process. It is fun to see the reaction from the class when they find out how they are going to be drawing.  It gives the student a chance to do something they may have never done in their entire life.  Listening to the reaction when the students look at their work is a lot of fun also.

Teaching about blind contour drawing can be a little tiring when you have a large class. You really have to convince the kids that there is a reason for doing blind contour drawings.

Some of you may be wondering what a blind contour drawing is.  Well, a contour is the edge of something.  So, you are drawing the edge of an object.  Blind means not being able to see. No, you don’t draw with your eyes closed.  You draw without looking at your paper.  Yeah, it is a little strange.

Why draw without looking at your paper?  So, you can train your eye to look closely at details.  Another reason, to train you to switch to the right side of your brain. When you look at something closely, it bores the left side of your brain. When the left side of the brain can not see the paper the hand is drawing on, it gets frustrated. It allows the right side to take over. When the right side takes over, you get much better drawings.

Naturally the blind drawings will not be anything you are going to try to sell in an art gallery. They are done for practice. The more you do them the better you get at switching over.You will be surprised when you look at your blind contour drawings. Sometimes you will find clarity in these drawings.

Once you learn to switch over more readily, your drawing will improve when you draw actually looking at the paper.

Here are the rules I give my students for blind contour drawing:

1. Do not talk. (Talking takes you to the left side of the brain.)

2. Do not pick up your pencil. (So these drawings will be done with one continuous line.)

3. Do not look at your paper.

The largest class I substituted for had 36 students. It was a little crowded. I tripped over people as I went around the room giving encouragement after each drawing session. We drew our hand open, our hand in a fist, our neighbor, and our shoe.  It was a little difficult getting everyone quiet at the same time, but we did it. I could tell if the students really got into the drawing and switched to the right side. The amazing thing, all 36 tried. Some were more serious than others, but I felt it was a successful class.

If you want to improve your drawing skills, try to do a blind contour drawing. You just might like it!

When I taught Art in public school I spent the first six weeks of class time teaching drawing skills.  We practiced our drawing skills almost every day.  Since I love to draw, this first six weeks was always a pleasure for me.  That wasn’t the case for many of my students. Many students came to art with a fear of drawing. Who knows where that fear came from.

There could be numerous reasons a child would be afraid to draw. Someone might have made a critical comment about their work or made fun of them. Possibly the child was just extremely hard on themselves expecting perfection in their own drawings. Some students along the way had determined that they had no talent for art or drawing.

Well, I am here to say that children can learn how to draw. They can learn to improve their drawing skills.  You do not have to be born with an innate ability to be able to draw. Putting pencil or pen to paper isn’t as important as learning how to see, to really see.

If you teach a child to look closely at objects, then the child’s drawing skills will improve. A book I really enjoyed reading and feel is useful in teaching this skill is The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  When a child learns to switch from left brain thinking to right brain thinking, they will actually perceive better.  When they perceive better, they will draw better.

Here are some activities I enjoyed doing with my classes to improve their drawing skills:

1. Pure Contour drawings of their hands.  Students had to draw without looking at their paper.  They were not allowed to pick their pencil off the paper or to talk during the exercise.

2. Contour drawings of hands holding an object.  Students were allowed to look at their paper, but had to keep the pencil on the page the whole time. They also were not allowed to speak.

3. Contour drawings of the classroom with the furniture and students in the drawing.  Students set up their desks on one side of the room. They started drawing from left to right. Students drew with one oil pastel, so no one could erase.  These drawings always seemed to turn out great.

4. Gesture drawings.  Students took turns posing for three one minute action poses. Most students were very happy to be asked to be models, but I did have a few shy ones. I did these drawings along with the class. It seemed to encourage the students to see me drawing with them.

5. Upside down drawings from magazine or photographs.  I collected magazines from the school library. Each child was given a magazine.  The students chose a picture to sketch. The magazine was turned upside down and kept that way as they sketched. This process speeds up the switch from left brain to right brain. Reminding the students to look at shapes and not to name the objects they were drawing helps also.

6. Grid drawings.  Taught the students how to divide a photograph into sections and enlarge using a grid.

7. Outdoor sketches.  I rewarded my students occasionally with a class day of sketching outside when the weather was nice.  We had different locations where we sketched. Sometimes we would sit on the front porch of the school, other times we sat on a grassy area near the classroom or on the bleachers at the baseball field.  Students were allowed to sketch whatever they wanted.

8. Drawing from music. I played a classical recorded piece of music for the class to listen to.  The students listened without drawing. The next time the students listened as they drew. They used large sheets of paper and pencil to make marks on the paper that showed the feelings they got from the rhythm.These drawing were a fun release from realistic drawing. They ended up with interesting designs that the students later painted or colored with oil pastels.

Drawing can be fun for all children.  I hope this article has given you some ideas to help improve your child’s drawing skills.

I read an article the other day titled The Importance of Art Trips in Art Education. You can read it if you click on the title in the previous sentence.  The point of the article by Sarah Curtis is that students need to be exposed to art. They need to see the real thing.  Seeing art in posters, on the internet, photo-copied paper, or videos isn’t enough.  I agree with that.

But, taking students on an Art field trip isn’t as easy as it might seem.  There are costs that many school districts must consider. One such cost is not monetary.  It is the cost of missing other classes. Many administrators limit the number of field trips in a year for that reason. They don’t want students missing their core courses of Math, Science, History, and English.   With schools being graded by how well their students test over the core courses it is no wonder administrators are hesitant to allow classes to go on field trips.  Although, I haven’t heard of many administrators that did not allow students to miss two days of class for a track meet or basketball tournament. But that is an issue I won’t address here.

Another cost is transportation. I taught in a rural school district.  It took two hours of  driving time to get to a major art museum.  Our district only had a certain number of school buses.  There were a few extra buses but sometimes those were already spoken for. Many times if we wanted to go on a field trip we had to be back in time for the end of the day bus run.  Plus the school district had to pay a bus driver to drive us and wait while we were on the field trip. That was an extra cost as well.

Plus, when a teacher takes a class out on a field trip, that teacher will most likely have other classes that have to be taken care of. I taught a Web Design class, 5th and 6th grade Art, 7th and 8th grade Art and High School Art I and Art II. I was not going to take 5th through 12th grade together on a field trip. That would have been insane. So I usually limited my field trips to High School classes. So paying a substitute teacher for my other classes was an additional cost.

I have been involved with taking large groups of students on field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  The experience was always a little scary for me because I worried about how my students would behave. I have to say that I rarely had any problems.  Sometimes I combined my field trip with another teacher. It helped to have two adults. Asking responsible parents that you feel comfortable with to come along to help supervise is also a good idea.

The best field trip I ever experienced was with my Art II class. They were a small group of 8 to 10. I decided I wanted to take the students to a place I liked to go when I wanted inspiration for my own painting. The field trip was a quest to create art instead of looking at art.

I took several digital cameras on the trip for the students to use.  We packed a sack lunch and all the art supplies we would need such as sketchbook, pencils, colored pencils, pens, etc.  I took the students to one of my favorite places, the Rose Emporium in Independence, Texas.

The Rose Emporium has beautiful gardens with flowers, herbs, antique roses of every kind, vegetable gardens, garden art and more. I walked the students around the area and set up a schedule for the students to share the cameras.  The students were required to take photos to be used later in a work of art.  I also expected all the students to create some sort of finished drawing, page of sketches, or a poem written about the area.

I told my students I was going to participate in the assignment and would draw also. I found a semi-secluded spot and began to work. My Art II group was very trustworthy and I knew I did not have to police them every second. I could draw a while and then go check on them. The funny thing was that almost all my students gravitated towards the area I was in. They watched me as I worked. They asked questions. They picked my brain about the way I was drawing or why I chose a certain subject.

I could tell as we sat and worked together that these students were starting to see things other than a garden with flowers. They began to notice shadows, streams of light, different values of greens in leaves, negative space between objects. All the lessons on the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design seemed to come together in this one experience.  My students had learned to really perceive, to use their sight  in a way they had never done before.  I was impressed by their work and their work ethic. They got into the assignment.  They saw that I loved what I was doing and they wanted to experience that love also. It was great.

Do you have any Art field trip experiences you would like to share?  Any comments about field trips?  Any administrators out there that want to say anything to Art teachers?  Here is your chance.

The Golden Areas

When I first started out drawing and painting, I was so interested in getting to the painting part that I didn’t really give much thought as to why I was painting a particular subject or what I was trying to portray. I didn’t think about having a focal point or how the eye would move throughout the composition.

Many of my paintings were nice but I new they could use some improvement.  I found that if I wanted to have a composition that worked; I needed to plan a little in advance.  I needed to really perceive the subject matter and figure out how to make it the focal point of the work.

I began searching for information. I wanted to know the rules for creating a perfect composition.  I read books, went to workshops,  and asked artists how they came up with their compositions.  I won’t get into all that I learned. But I will share with you one trick I found that improved my painting and photography.

The trick is very simple. Place your subject in one of the four “golden areas”.

Where are the “golden areas”?  You can find the golden areas on your canvas or paper by dividing the height and width of the surface into thirds horizontally and vertically.  If you draw lines dividing the surface into thirds; the four “golden areas” would be where the lines intersect.

Let me give you an example:  Let’s say we have a piece of drawing paper 12 inches in width and 9 inches in height.  If you divided the width into thirds; you would draw vertical lines at 4 inches and 8 inches.  If you divided the height of the paper into thirds; you would draw horizontal lines across the paper at 3 inches and 6 inches.

The golden areas of that paper would be where the lines intersected.   The four golden areas would be at a point at:

4″ across and 3″ down,
8″ across and 3″ down,
4″ across and 6″ down, and
8″ across and 6″ down.

Refer to the image above if you are need a visual.

With four golden areas you have four places to put the main subject of your work.  You don’t need to actually draw the vertical and horizontal lines on your paper. You don’t need to measure. You can approximate.

I take thousands of photographs for reference materials for my paintings. I have found that thinking about the golden areas when I am taking pictures really improves my photographs also. I can compose with the camera. Having better photographs to work with helps when creating a design.

When you begin your next painting or drawing start off by thinking about the placement of your subject in your painting or drawing. Would your composition be improved by placing the subject in one of the four golden areas?

If your child is interested in drawing, buy them a sketchbook. Any size will work.  They don’t need special pencils, a #2 pencil will work just fine. A #2 pencil can be used for shading. They can press harder with the lead when they want a darker value.

If you want to splurge, you can purchase a set of drawing pencils with hard and soft leads for shading and a kneaded eraser. It all depends on your budget.  You can buy crayons, markers, pastels, whatever you desire to make their sketchbook more interesting.

Having your child keep a sketchbook will provide a record of drawing improvement. Naturally, the more your child draws the greater the improvement.

When I was teaching Art in Junior High and High School, I required my students to do five sketches per six week grading period. If you homeschool, you can ask your child to do whatever number of sketches you feel they are capable of doing.

I allowed my students a certain number of free sketches. Free sketches are sketches of anything they want to draw. I also gave my students a list of required drawings.  These required drawings forced the student to plan, to do some research, to think about how they wanted to capture the subject.

Some of the required sketches were put on the list to get the child’s imagination going.  The imaginary sketches had to come from their own visualization of the subject.  A few sketches on the list required the student make choices; like drawing their favorite cartoon character.

I also mixed things up a bit and asked students to use colored pencil or marker on a few of the sketches in their sketchbook. My goal was to keep the sketchbook assignment fun, so that the students would look forward to the list each grading period.

Quite a few of my students would knock out the sketchbook drawings in a few weeks and would beg me for the next list. They couldn’t wait to show me their work. I usually gave those students extra credit drawings to do or I took a moment to look at their work and give suggestions on how to make their work better.

Sometimes I let the students as a group make up their own sketchbook list. This gave them a sense of ownership. It was interesting to hear the ideas the students came up with. We wrote all the suggestions on the chalkboard and the students voted for five of the ideas.

I kept a list of the required sketches for each class posted in the classroom. I handed out a list to each student at the beginning of the six weeks. I even emailed the list to parents that requested I do so.

Here are some examples of sketches my students were required to draw:

1. a free sketch
2. a zebra
3. their hand holding a pair of scissors
4. an imaginary pizza with all their favorite foods as topping (ex: Could be candy and ice cream cones as toppings.)
5. a horse running in a field
6. a pile of dirty clothes
7. a corner of their bedroom
8. their bare feet
9. favorite cartoon character
10. a tree
11. a still life of five things from the kitchen
12. a dog
13. a self-portrait
14. a page full of different types of sea shells
15. a spider in a web
16. a family pet
17. a beach scene
18. close up of a wildflower
19. a page full of human eyes
20. sports equipment

The high school students’ sketchbook list was a little more complicated. At times, I asked the students to use one point or two point perspective. Sometimes I asked for a sketch of a famous artist’s work, like a drawing of one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions. I tried to make the sketchbook list fit the students experience.  Each year I asked a little more from my students.

All parents, whether homeschooling or not, can use any of the ideas above. Adapt the sketchbook assignment  to fit your child’s needs and interests. Do what you can to help your child develop his interest in drawing. You will be surprised when you see your child’s progress.  Happy Drawing!

You also might enjoy reading: Grading Sketchbooks

Shadow Tracing

When my kids were visiting from Texas we made a day trip to the northern section of the Oregon coast. We went to Cannon Beach, Indian Beach, and Seaside.  Swimming was not the main activity on the beach because the water was very cold.  We did see some surfers in wetsuits braving the elements. My son even took a quick plunge just so he could say he did.

So what were people doing on the beach?  They were building sand castles, taking long walks, flying kites, collecting seashells, riding bicycles, feeding seagulls, and making designs in the sand. 

Some of the sandcastles were quite creative with seashells, seaweed, and pieces of driftwood as decoration. Shovels and buckets were used to mold the wet sand into the desired shape.  Two little girls drizzled a water/sand solution over their sandcastle to give it texture.  I loved building sandcastles when I was a child.  Making sandcastles is not an unusual activity to see happening on the beach.

Later in the day, I noticed a young boy bent over intently drawing something in the sand. His mother stood watching.  She wasn’t just watching, she was posing. 

She stood with her arms at a 90 degree angle from her sides. Her fingers were spread wide.  Her feet hip width apart.  I looked closer.  The child was tracing his mother’s shadow. 

I was immediately impressed.  What a great idea!  What an easy activity to do.  Supplies needed are a model, a stick and a smooth area of sand on a beach.  Substitute a concrete driveway for sand and sidewalk chalk for the stick and you have an activity you can do at most homes or schools. 

Tracing cast shadows can give a child the ability to understand how shadows are affected by the shape and size of objects as well as the angle of the light source.   I plan on doing this activity with my grandchildren when I go back to visit.