The Power of SEEING

This week, as always, we started with 20 minutes of sketchbook time. When I visited two boys sitting next to each other I saw a pretty interesting drawing interaction. It looked like they were both drawing the same thing (a bowl of fruit) so when I asked if that was the case, they both said yes. After a minute, one boy claimed, "Oh! Mine's an ice cream sundae!"
It was interesting to see copying between the two boys but when it was pointed out one boy changed his drawing to be different.




After sketchbook time, Marietta taught her lesson on "The Power of SEEING". She taught the students how to take time in looking at the subject of their drawings (their shoes) and she emphasized seeing the details and seeing what is actually there instead of when they think they know about the subject.
Marietta chose to teach her lesson standing on a large wooden block in order to allow everyone to see the drawing demonstration she showed. Also, I think it was more interesting for them than a teacher standing on the floor as they are used to.

It's been a challenge to keep their attention while we teach the lesson. (The first week we had them stand around our bulletin board while we explained things and the second week they sat at tables as pictured above). I think next week I'm going to employ a PowerPoint when teaching in hopes that they'll stay interested for longer.

Students started with a practice blind contour drawing of crumpled up paper. When students were working on their blind contour drawings we encouraged them to look at their drawing as little as possible. Here, you can see Griffen holding the paper off to the side while he draws on the table. The majority of students were hesitant to do the blind contour drawing because they were afraid to do a "bad" drawing. We kept emphasizing that it was not about the "technical quality" of the drawing but more about the practice of actually seeing an object.

After they practiced blind contours with crumpled up paper, they moved on to drawing their own shoe. The project was to do 3 drawings: 1 blind contour drawing, 1 regular contour drawing, and 1 contour drawing with shading. The students were encouraged to do each drawing from a different perspective of the shoe.

Some students finished their drawings early so Marietta introduced the Exquisite Corpse game to them and most of them seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough so Marietta & I hung paper on the walls for them to draw on. They seemed to like that as well because they all flocked to the wall as soon as the paper was hung.

Overall, it was a very successful lesson and the majority of the kids seemed to enjoy it (one had even done it before).
To display their work we are planning to mount the 3 drawings side by side like a triptych on foam board or mat board.