Gesture Drawing

Today we will be talking about gesture drawing.  When doing gesture drawings, there are some key things to keep in mind.  These keys are called the 7 L's of gesture drawing:

Draw Loosely!

Draw Lightly!

Draw Lines of Action!

Draw Lines of Rhythm!

Draw Long!

Draw Large!

Draw Lively!

Gesture drawings are typically used for motions, so when doing this, one student needs to act as a model and pose. This is a fast drawing,  You can either let the student draw for 30 seconds or 1 minute and they're just drawing the shape of the person, not too much detail.

 There are many ways and mediums you can use with gesture drawings, and they include drawing from a still life, using India black ink or soft pastels.  Soft pastels is my favorite because you're including various colors.  Below is an example.

This is a fun activity to do.  A lesson you could do is like the one above.  Have the students draw a model with the soft pastels, since it's a different type of medium and it's messy! so students can really get into the art :)

What will your Classroom Expectations be?

Classroom expectations are the key to success to have a great classroom setting,  For my students, I would have rules and expectations that will allow us to have a great classroom.

Expectations:
1.Respect your art, your art materials, and your classmates.

2. Keep noise level at the minimum.  Respect teacher when giving instructions.

3. Cellphones are allowed, except for when the teacher is talking.

4. NO horseplay with materials.

5. Clean materials and area at the end of every class.

6. No food allowed.  Only closed bottles allowed.

7.Use your class time effectively.

8.If you have questions or need help, don't hesitate to ask.

9. It's okay if you make a mistake. Mistakes are okay!

10. EVERYONE is an artist!!

Contour Line Drawing

Contour drawing is an artistic technique where the artist sketches contour of a subject by drawing lines that turns out to be an outline of a drawing.

Today, we'll be talking about two types of contour drawing: Blind Contour and Modified Contour Drawing.  You'll need colorful or just simply black Sharpies (preferably color) and your paper (Newprint is great paper for this type of lesson), Pencils are a no-no so you can't erase your mistakes.  Mistakes are okay in art, I promise!





Blind Contour
You will need to hold their left hand in a position you can hold and draw, or your right hand if you're left handed. and have your hand far away from the paper so you can't look at your paper  (it's called blind contour for a reason).  Without looking at the paper, start drawing the outline of your hand while staring at it.  Try to not pick up your marker, but it you do, continue at the same place you picked the marker up from and keep drawing the lines of your hand.  Keep drawing until you finish the outline of your hand.  Once you finish the outline, THEN you can look at the paper and see what you've drawn.  Repeat this for 4 more different hand positions.  You'll be surprised at what you draw.






Modified Contour


This technique is everyone's favorite because now you can look at the paper!  With this one, you will still hold your hand in a position and draw the lines of your hand while still focusing mainly on your hand, only checking your paper to see how it's looking.  This type of contour should be more detailed since you can see what you're drawing on the paper, but still try not to pick up the marker if you can help it.  Repeat this also 4 more times either on the same sheet of paper or you can get a whole new sheet.


To turn this into a lesson, you could have students take turns being models and have the class draw both a blind contour drawing and a modified one on big sheets on paper (again, Newprint is the key).  Depending on how long your class is, each student could be a model.  This is a great lesson to do at the beginning of the year, because it's fun to do and you don't want to put too much on your students soon as school has started!

First Day Jitters?!

The first day is always so exciting, yet so scary, especially teaching adolescents.  Even though they learn better than younger children, it's harder to motivate them and manage them due to the many changes they go through, both physically and mentally.  Like DJ Khaled would say, the key to success is to make your students feel secure, respected and motivated to learn by creating a positive environment the first day of classes because the way the first day goes is crucial to how the rest of the year will go

Here are some more keys to success:

1. Be Prepared!
You need to come to school on the first day and be prepared for everything, including having your outfit and materials ready and getting familiar with the names of your students.  You should already have the roster of your students before the first day, so you can practice going over their names and pronouncing them correctly.  Also, create a seating chart for them, only for the first week to help with getting to know who is who.

2,Just Smile :)
Relax! Smiling wont hurt anything.  It lets your students know that you're excited about having them in your class.  If all they see is your frowning face, they're already going to dislike you or think you're the "mean" teacher.

3. Expectations
Establish with your students your expectations of them and what they should learn in the classroom.
  Maybe even let them create the rules and write them out to place around the class so they can see these rules daily.  This way, they know what they're suppose to do because they came up with it.

4. Be Organized.
Keep a schedule for each day to manage time effectively.  If you have procrastination issues like me, this will be very helpful to keep track of everything that needs to be done.
.  The first day can be used for rules and getting to know your students as well as them getting to know you and each other using ice breakers.  You can start a lesson but its not necessary,  You all are both getting back into the routine of school, so they don't need too much being thrown on them the first day.  I never liked "learning" on the first day so wouldn't suggest it for my class.

Finally, expect things to go wrong the first day.  It's suppose to go wrong.  The important key is to breathe.  If something doesn't go as plan, don't panic.  Just try again.  The first day is important, yes,  but you have many days to try to get it right!