Halloween is here! Bats, Haunted houses, spooky ghosts, and Jack O’Lantern… Students were excited to learn about the ways to decorate their Halloween spirits. This week, students were divided into two groups: one focusing on painting and the other one on drawing so they get to choose on the topics they are more interested in and be more engaged in smaller groups. I found that older students tend to be more interested in drawing while the younger ones are drawn towards painting more.
Students used their imaginations followed by an example drawn on the board while drawing these creatures. The step-by-step approach for drawing is a good way to teach children to follow directions and give them a good understanding and example of what and how to draw in the future. Many students exceeded my expectations without and prior drawing backgrounds, were able to add their own imagination to what was already shown on the board. From this experience, many learned the basic concepts of shapes, lines, and proportions.
Not to fall behind the drawing group, the painting group’s main focus today is mixing colors and the relationship between colors. Since it would take a long time for them to draw first, I printed pre drawn images and ask them to fill the colors in. It might sound simple at first, but many surprised me by them creating the backgrounds and adding elements to the pre existing images. What a colorful series of art!
In the end we put all our works on the wall and everyone enjoyed an artist and fun time preparing for Halloween!
Class 5
In the following weeks, we are going to recreate Van Gogh’s Farmhouse in Provence. Many students have previously expressed interest in painting houses and animals, so it would be a fun way to combine both aspects.
Since one of the main focal points is the farmhouse, we began the first class practicing drawing objects in 3d rather than 2 dimensions. It was a little overwhelming for many children, as well as the staff there, but by following the steps of drawing a cube and learning about the idea of perspective and relation, many quickly grasp the idea of imaging in a 3 dimension world.
We then also added an element of a cat, which is a common animal associated with artists. Students learned to draw the cat from three circles, then transformed into the shape of the body and the head. Many were surprised of the result of how magical and simple drawing can be.
Next two classes we are going to start drawing the farmhouse and trying to recreate that image.