Blind Contour Drawing in the Classroom

My students did blind contour drawing for the first time last week. I learned about this drawing method after I started teaching, while reading ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards. However, I had been taught to draw using a method that was based upon similar principles but was carried out in a different way.

I understood how blind contour drawing would help my students to focus more on what they were seeing and would help them to ‘turn off’ the verbal mode our brains often naturally gravitate toward when drawing. However, I did not understand how doing this activity would help them draw better in the long run. I was not sure how well my students would be able to control their line quality while doing this exercise. I also could not imagine my students really enjoying this exercise or focusing for very long while doing this.

I did some blind contour self portraits and actually enjoyed seeing the results. I realized that it is possible to capture contours very accurately while doing this, and I actually ended up with some interesting and expressive lines.

When we did this in my classroom, I was pleasantly surprised at my students’ reactions to the assignment. Some thought it was fun, and this exercise was so different from the way that we have drawn before in class, that it really caught their attention. I explained what a contour drawing was, and demonstrated by drawing a student’s portrait. I told that during this drawing exercise they would not pick up their pencils, and how this actually can help you gauge the distance between features (I think so, anyway). I emphasized the importance of slowing down and carefully observing all of the slightest nuances of a single line. I demonstrated this, and the students were surprised at how slowly I was expecting them to draw.

I then chose one student from each table to be a model, and explained what ‘outside contours’ and ‘inside contours were, pointing out that it was important to include both in their drawings, but they could decide where in the drawing they wanted to go from one to the other. The students then drew their models ‘in the air.’ Almost all of them drew the outside contours first, and then the inside contours, according to the models. In the second ‘air drawing’ I challenged them to pick a more unusual point to go from outside to inside contour.

We moved on to the actual blind contour drawings, using pencils. I had never thought of using a piece of paper as a shield, to keep the students from looking at their paper. This is something I had used in piano before, but never in drawing. The idea of putting the pencil through the ‘shield’ works very well, and was definitely a new concept to all of my students.

They did one minute, two minute, and five minute drawings. I was delighted to see many of my students fully engaged, trying their hardest to do careful renditions of the portrait models at their tables. Some students were drawing more slowly than they usually do, and my classroom was actually very quiet for almost the entire activity (which isn’t always the case). Many of the drawings they ended up with were descriptive in different ways than their usual drawings were, and were more accurate, in some ways, than drawings where they were allowed to look at their paper.

I think I would like to use this activity in my classes on a regular basis, and I see that as being a possibility since it can be done in short intervals. Our next project will be contour self portrait drawing, and although they will not have ‘shields’ over their hands, I will encourage them to apply the new concepts they learned from blind contour drawings to their self portraits. We will practice some ‘air drawing,’ and my hope is that they will take their time and pay close attention to the contour lines they draw to make their portraits.

Ideas Which Stand the Test of Time

Both students and teachers have asked my why it is important for us to study art. A colleague of mine commented the other day that art is fine for those who particularly enjoy drawing, but it isn’t really for everybody, and he has never understood why it is important for us to study art history. People with his point of view are one of my motivations for teaching art.

A prevailing opinion in our society seems to be that art education is superfluous, which is why it is one of the first programs to be ousted when budget cuts are made. Art is not tested in state and national tests, and I haven’t yet heard of a ‘Monet Effect’ (although statistics have shown that children involved in any of the arts tend to have higher grades and test scores). Some would ask, with such a limited amount of time and resources for to teaching our students, is it really advantageous to devote much of that to art education, especially to those who aren’t ‘gifted’ in art, or naturally interested?

I would definitely say that the enrichment provided to students by art education is vital. After all, our ability and need to work creatively is one attribute that makes us distinctly human. Since the beginning of time, people have used their creativity to make sense of their existence and world around them by describing it, reflecting on it, and asking questions about it. In our exploration, we have produced stories, poetry, plays, games, paintings, mathematical equations and scientific theories, resulting in everything from the Enuma Elish to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It is important for us to keep asking genuine questions about life and our world, as well as listening and responding to those who have already given us their point of view. This is a significant part of our humanity.

The theme of exploration ties all of human activity together, which is one reason art has strong connections to every other field. We aren’t usually quick to group science and math with art. However, once you realize the common motivation for all disciplines, you start to see that each one is a voice in the same great conversation that has been going on for centuries.

How do we, as art educators, impress this idea upon our students? One of the first principles that has impressed me since I’ve started studying art education this semester is the focus of one main idea throughout a unit or year. A ‘unit’ to me has always been a set of lessons with a common theme, such as ‘The Middle Ages’ or ‘Africa.’ However, I am very attracted to using an ‘enduring idea’ as the foundation for a unit instead. An ‘enduring idea’ crosses over the somewhat artificial boundaries we have drawn around individual disciplines, and is significant throughout time. Basing a curriculum on this shows students (and teachers) that art is relevant to all of life.

Ideas in this category might include ‘the relationships between humans and nature,’ ‘similarities and differences between dreams and reality,’ or ‘the nature of time.' In teaching units based on questions such as these, the teacher should incorporate disciplines other than the visual arts which address the same question. For example, a unit on the relationships between humans and time could include discussing John Cage’s 4’33”, and The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali. Creating rhythm in music and in printmaking could also be explored simultaneously. Lessons should not merely touch on connections among disciplines or tip their hat to the enduring idea, but should be measured by how deeply they challenge students to think about the enduring idea, and by genuine connections made among multiple disciplines.

Putting together a unit based on enduring ideas will take more thought than the units I have been used to, but it is true that you reap what you sew. Such an approach will most likely produce better thinkers, who are more aware of how understanding and creating art is important to every aspect of life.

Discussing da Vinci's Drawings

Yesterday we looked at drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci, in preparation for making Renaissance-style drawings from nature. My original goal in this discussion was to highlight his hatching technique, line quality and subject matter. However, as I was preparing for this, I realized it would be a perfect opportunity to touch on a couple of the ‘big ideas’ I had been thinking about emphasizing in my teaching.
In class, we discussed the many different purposes art can have—even within the work of one artist. As we studied drawings of inventions, skeletons, plants, people and animals, we talked about the variety of reasons Da Vinci had for making his work. He drew an object as a way of studying it more carefully, or committing it to memory. He also drew to invent or design something new, or to improve his skill level of drawing a particular subject. Other times he drew in order to make a beautiful drawing as a work of art, or to prepare for the creation of a painting.
This brought us to talk about the fact that sometimes when artists draw, their purpose is not to produce a finished work of art. Instead, the process is more important to them than the finished product. Among other purposes, Da Vinci used the act of drawing to more carefully observe his subject. I am hoping that my students’ experience of drawing from nature will serve the same purpose for them.

The Color Wheel: Variations on a Theme

I walked my students through making a color wheel last week, reviewing the mixing of colors. We also talked about the signicance of complimentary and analogous color schemes. Students then made their own color wheels, having their choice of any medium or form. They came up with some pretty creative color wheels! I encouraged them to 'think outside of the box,' and one student took me quite literally.

Teaching Students to Think About Art

I have been reading and reflecting on encouraging creative thinking in the classroom. This may be more challenging than it has been in the past. As a society, our abilities to work and think creatively are affected by the ‘instant gratification’ mindset that dominates so many aspects of our lives, from microwavable dinners to e-mail. We have gotten to the point where we take for granted what we hear and see coming from television or the internet. Images are not as thought-provoking as they used to be, since we are inundated by commercial ones on a daily basis. We barely see them after a while. As art educators, we need to train our students to work against this tide—to see art as a process, rather than merely a product—a process wherein they slow down and think about what they want to accomplish, and take time to decide upon the best way to go about doing that.

However, as I’ve read about characteristics that would ideally exist in a ‘mindful’ classroom, I’ll have to admit that my classroom does not exhibit many of these, at least consistently. I think one problem is I dedicate all of my students’ class time to working on art projects, and do not give them time to really think about what they are doing. I discuss their creations with them individually, but have not blocked out substantial time in the class period to focus on talking, as a group, about their work. We also do not spend large amounts of time simply having dialogue about art.

Why do I do this? After all, my classroom routine certainly did not arise out of my artistic habits. When I set out to make a painting, the steps of coming up with an idea, and developing the perfect composition, are very large and important parts of the battle. Throughout much of my teaching career, I have thought that a good way to keep my students engaged was to keep things moving. I have expected my students to be most interested in hands-on activities, so they have dominated my students' class time. However, as an art educator, I should be teaching my students, as a class, to stop and think rather than merely do. The 'thinking' part should be a more important part in my curriculum, one that deserves its own allotted time.

How can I change this? I am attracted to the structure of hands-on activities, so the best way to promote ‘brainstorming’ or ‘information gathering’ time would be in a very structured format. It should be part of the classroom routine, like that of passing out supplies, or cleaning up at the end of the class period.

I have decided to incorporate ‘thinking time’ into my classes by adding a couple of structured activities to the routine. These will consist of regular writing in art journals, and group critiques. Art journals are something I have used sporadically in the past. One reason I did not use them this year was that I did not have a unified vision for the purpose of the journal entries, so I preferred to devote more of the class time to working on projects. However, I am inspired by the idea of focusing on one two larger questions or ideas throughout the year, which would also be reflected in my lessons. The journal assignments would center on these, whether they involved looking at another’s art, reflecting on one’s own art, or coming up with new ideas. I would also like to use the journals as springboards into class discussions. With these discussions, as in the journal assignments, I would focus on asking broad, open- ended questions, and will encourage my students to take time to think about their answers.

The concept of taking class time to do a critique is something that was new to me in my college studio art classes. I found critiques to be motivating and inspiring. They helped me realize that people looked at my paintings and actually thought about why I made them the way I did. This encouraged me to think more about how I chose to express the ideas and emotions I wanted to convey (or at least let me know that my choices did convey ideas and emotions). They also helped me to assess my decisions and feel more confident in developing my artistic voice.

In addition to everything critiques helped me learn about my own art, they also taught me how to engage with another artist about their art. It was here that I learned how to ask the ‘why’ questions about a piece of art. I was also able to see firsthand how a fellow student went about the artistic process, and compare it to my own method.

Until now, I had not thought about using critiques in my middle school classes. However, I would like to try to do this regularly. The day after a project is due, my goal is for my class to be in the routine of spending most of the 50-minute period in a group critique, although every student’s work may not be featured in one day. I may also try breaking my class up into groups of four or five to accomplish this, in order for every student to be critiqued. A good way to start this activity might be to give students a list of questions they might ask the artist, in order to help them develop the ability to ask meaningful questions about a work of art. My hopes for this activity would be that it would have the same effect on my students that it had for me—that it would help them to ask questions and make decisions in a more thoughtful manner.

As I use these two ideas in my classes, it is my hope that my students will develop substantially in various areas of creative thinking. I want them to be able to step back and look at their thought processes, elaborate on their ideas, and take ownership of them. I want them to work on the edge of what they know, and to see the intrinsic value in creating something meaningful. Teaching them to slow down and think carefully would be a significant step in that direction, and devoting time in class to this would help them to see its importance. It is my plan to have both of these practices worked into my clasroom routine within the next couple of weeks.

Paper Mache

In Language Arts, seventh graders are reading 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London. In order to integrate this with Art, they have been looking at Northwest Pacific totem poles and are constructing their own totem pole models using paper mache. They started the building process this week. It was messy......but fun!

Where Do Artists Get Their Ideas?

“Artists often get their ideas from their surroundings and experiences.”

A good way to introduce this idea would be to start a class discussion with the question “Where do artists get their ideas?” One common misnomer about artists is that all of their ideas simply pop into their heads from out of nowhere. The mystery of ‘inspiration’ makes some people think that it is a gift that is bestowed upon the ‘enlightened’ artist, with little or no effort on their part, and all they have to do is translate their vision onto a canvas for ordinary people to see. (Granted, there are instances where artists create pieces based on dreams, but even these are technically drawn from life experiences.)

To teach this principle, I could show students a series of several artworks, perhaps by famous artists, and explain how each artwork arose out of the everyday experiences of the artist. Some artists, such as Rosa Bonheur and Edgar Degas, purposefully placed themselves in certain environments, or around certain subjects, to make their favorite subjects part of their everyday experience. Others just made art from that which they happened to see throughout the course of an average day.

Following this discussion, the students could research the art themselves. They could even create and perform skits which involved actual people, places and things which made their way into the work of the artist, and showed a bit of the artist’s creative process. Assessing the students’ understanding in this case would involve evaluating how much of the skit actually linked the artist’s work to the artist’s life, rather than simply showing them as co-existing.

Another way to drive this point home would be to use the students’ art journals. In order to do this, it might be beneficial to have the students focus on studying the lives of a small number of artists throughout the year, by means of internet research, reading time, unit projects and or class discussions. As a starter exercise for multiple classes, I could show them a slide of one of the artists’ works and have the students hypothesize about the inspiration of the artist’s ideas, based upon what they know about the artist’s life. In assessing this, I would to see that the students drew upon the knowledge they had about the artist’s life, or that they tried to look at the subject through the artist’s eyes, in order to come up with their answers.

Students could see this truth at work in their own art by keeping a sketchbook. In using this tool, I would instruct them to draw items, people and places from their lives, and encourage them to incorporate their drawings in class projects. I would especially challenge them to think outside of the box, looking for beauty or interest in objects or places that they might not normally think to create art about. They would be required to write a sentence or short paragraph about their drawings, explaining why they chose to draw what they did, and how each person, place or thing is significant or interesting to them.

In assessing these, I would look to see that the drawings and writings had strong connections to one another, and were, in fact, part of the students’ life experiences. I think this would be easily reflected in the writing and in the detail and uniqueness of the drawings. By doing this exercise they might see firsthand how many ideas an artist tries out in his sketchbook before incorporating one or two of them into his artwork. They would also understand from personal experience how an object that may seem mundane in everyday life can be transformed as the subject of an inspired work of art.