Oh, what a beautiful morning!

[conuly]

The sun is shining (or it was when I started this post), the birds are singing, Ana has shooed me out of the way while she makes dinner....

So, yesterday we started online writing course numero uno, which is a weight off my mind.

Here is assignment one:

1. Begin by drawing several intersecting shapes on a white board or piece of line-free paper. They can be shapes such as a diamond without the edges touching and two vertical lines running through it, or a circle that has spokes that do not touch, or a ladder that is propped up by two angular lines on the sides. Anything will work as long as it is simple (not too busy) and yet not too easily described (i.e. don't just draw a rectangle in the middle of the paper).

2. Look at this picture with your kids. Tell them to study it carefully. Walk them slowly through each part of the drawing. Ask them to describe what they see. As they speak, you should draw exactly what they SAY so that they can begin to see the results of their descriptions. For example, your daughter might say, "Draw a line on the paper." As soon as she makes such a general statement, draw a line that is totally different from that in the original picture. She will instantly see that she didn't give you enough detail. Feel free to prompt her with comments like, "Is it a curved line or a straight one?" or "Does the shape of the drawing remind you of anything?" or "Can you tell me how many parts it has? How many straight lines will I be drawing?"

I learned something from assignment one. I learned that, left to her own devices, Eva instantly and automatically begins describing abstract art with enough detail to be a blueprint.

"You have to hold your paper with the top part down and the margin on the left. Use your orange pencil, and draw a straight line 18 lines up* in the middle of the page. Okay, now move about an inch to the left, and two lines up, and use the blue pencil to draw a circle that's half on one line and half on another."

This is the point where I burst out laughing and gave up. Maybe I'll try again today, but with art-art, like, stuff that already exists.

* We were using looseleaf paper, because I didn't want to dig up drawing paper.

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Comments

[steorra]

I laughed too.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I approve of Eva's approach. I suspect she'll do well when she reaches the point in her art education where you learn to enlarge/reduce things by the use of guidelines to break the image into smaller chunks to copy.

I have to say, I think it might even work better on lined paper as you did it than the specific instruction to use plain paper. It gives a frame of reference the pupil can use - or not reference, leaving you able to put the shapes in the wrong places.