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Elementary school art
Apr. 14th, 2011 01:05 pmI just finished the last art lesson of the year (that I have to come up with) and all that's left is to prepare the art show. It's the first time I've ever volunteered for anything of any presence (I've gone on a couple field trips and sent a ton of food for various events). Usually I have small kids who would be rather disruptive, but this time there really was no one else, so I did, it kids and all. I'm really glad the 2YO and 6YO cooperated, and also that there was another parent there so I wasn't on my own.
Anyway--a few observations on elementary school art.
1. Even small kids are sensitive about their art and their abilities. This is maybe the most important thing to emphasize--art is individual. It's a combination of the subject you're trying to portray, and your "voice" or personality as you portray it. There's not a right or wrong about it--just creativity. Kids often get very tied up in doing it "right"--I can't tell you how many times a kid would ask us to draw something for them. But that's not what it's all about. I want their personal expression. I already know what my own looks like.
2. Art is not craft. Crafts use art supplies, but basically they're all supposed to look the same. Art is being creative; craft is just copying. I think this is something that adults have to guard against sometimes if they are crafty but maybe not into drawing themselves. The point is NOT to make all the ducks look exactly alike, all neatly colored inside the lines and color-coordinated. That's a useful skill, but it's not art.
3. When you're running an art class you should encourage creative differences, but think ahead on where you want your lines to be. I think the kids do need some kind of bounds so they know what to focus on. So--if you're doing undersea paintings and teaching kids how to draw fish, and someone wants to stick an octopus in there, great. But maybe it's not the time to start up a paper mache project.
4. Portraits freak people out the most. Naturally, that's what we did today. I taught them how to draw faces--ie, proportions, where things actually go on a face (the eyes are a lot lower than you'd think, for example. Homo sapiens actually have very large brain cases, unlike say, the Neanderthals, which means our eyes are lower, closer to the middle of our heads. We are not Neanderthals.*) After plotting out just where all the parts go, I had them study their own faces in a mirror to refine for individual differences. I showed them pictures of Olmec and Easter Island and Nemrut Dagi heads for examples of head shapes, showed them some drawings I'd made, and also the Mona Lisa. Some of the kids bagged what I taught about proportions and drew themselves as they always do. A couple of them apparently found the whole idea so disturbing that they drew robot heads/devil heads and declared themselves done. One boy was very upset because he didn't think his picture was working. The thing was, it really looked like him! He completely caught the shape of his own eyes and you could recognize him in it very well. That's what was fun--the pictures weren't photorealism--but you could see that many of the kids had caught something of their own personalities in the picture. I wish they could have understood that. That's why I had them draw from a mirror and not a flat photograph, actually. It's not just the copying--it's the spark of life I was hoping they'd pick up on, and most of them did.
Anyway--a few observations on elementary school art.
1. Even small kids are sensitive about their art and their abilities. This is maybe the most important thing to emphasize--art is individual. It's a combination of the subject you're trying to portray, and your "voice" or personality as you portray it. There's not a right or wrong about it--just creativity. Kids often get very tied up in doing it "right"--I can't tell you how many times a kid would ask us to draw something for them. But that's not what it's all about. I want their personal expression. I already know what my own looks like.
2. Art is not craft. Crafts use art supplies, but basically they're all supposed to look the same. Art is being creative; craft is just copying. I think this is something that adults have to guard against sometimes if they are crafty but maybe not into drawing themselves. The point is NOT to make all the ducks look exactly alike, all neatly colored inside the lines and color-coordinated. That's a useful skill, but it's not art.
3. When you're running an art class you should encourage creative differences, but think ahead on where you want your lines to be. I think the kids do need some kind of bounds so they know what to focus on. So--if you're doing undersea paintings and teaching kids how to draw fish, and someone wants to stick an octopus in there, great. But maybe it's not the time to start up a paper mache project.
4. Portraits freak people out the most. Naturally, that's what we did today. I taught them how to draw faces--ie, proportions, where things actually go on a face (the eyes are a lot lower than you'd think, for example. Homo sapiens actually have very large brain cases, unlike say, the Neanderthals, which means our eyes are lower, closer to the middle of our heads. We are not Neanderthals.*) After plotting out just where all the parts go, I had them study their own faces in a mirror to refine for individual differences. I showed them pictures of Olmec and Easter Island and Nemrut Dagi heads for examples of head shapes, showed them some drawings I'd made, and also the Mona Lisa. Some of the kids bagged what I taught about proportions and drew themselves as they always do. A couple of them apparently found the whole idea so disturbing that they drew robot heads/devil heads and declared themselves done. One boy was very upset because he didn't think his picture was working. The thing was, it really looked like him! He completely caught the shape of his own eyes and you could recognize him in it very well. That's what was fun--the pictures weren't photorealism--but you could see that many of the kids had caught something of their own personalities in the picture. I wish they could have understood that. That's why I had them draw from a mirror and not a flat photograph, actually. It's not just the copying--it's the spark of life I was hoping they'd pick up on, and most of them did.
