….my grade two class always embraces my lessons and can’t wait to start
This is the same assignment that I gave to my grade one classes but I asked the grade 2s to add some colourful doodles around their portraits. Dali, Picasso and Warhol never looked better.
….I just signed up for two more art classes
In January I decided to take another year long course with Carla Sonheim called Y is for Yellow. Every two weeks there’s a new lesson with homework. So far I haven’t been very good about finishing all the assignments but there’s one that I really liked and I keep drawing more examples of famous artists.
Today I signed up for a 31 day sketchbook challenge that starts tomorrow and another sketchbook class that goes for six weeks. The first mini assignment for Sketchbook Skool was to put some ink blots on paper, press it against another piece of paper, let it dry and then draw a sketch around what you see. This was fun to do and was somewhat similar to some of Carla’s assignments from past classes.
Here is what I did today:
Last week I shared my Dali sketches with you. When I demonstrated the technique with my grade two class on Friday I did another Dali and an Andy Warhol. I took them home on the weekend and finished them. I haven’t added the doodles yet. I think I’ll leave the Dali as is and only draw doodles around the Warhol piece. What do you think?
….I was hesitant to teach this lesson to the little ones
How much can grade one students do? How far can I push them to try something new and something somewhat difficult? I found out today.
I thought I would try teaching my class how to draw portraits from photos. This was actually an assignment that I was given this week in Carla Sonheim’s on-line class Y is for Yellow.
I printed up several photos of some famous contemporary artists, including Picasso, Dali, Frida Kahlo and Warhol. I showed the class very quickly how to use the negative space around the photo to start drawing and how to lay out some points on the paper to help guide the pencil from one area to another.
Most of the students were very excited about starting and many of them chose to draw Dali. One student, however, was not happy with the assignment and didn’t even want to start it. I asked her what she was going to do because this was the assignment. After a few minutes and some gentle encouragement she asked me if I would help her. She chose the Andy Warhol photo to copy and I helped her with placing some of the key points onto her paper. Once she started she quickly found success. Here are a few examples of their work:
Pablo Picasso
Salvador Dali
Frida Kahlo
Andy Warhol
Mama Cormier 