2008 Student Sketch

I was marking sketchbook drawings today in my Grade Seven art class!  Amazing!  I suggest, “Use all of your space OR crop!  Develop everything about it!  Date your work!  You are likely to be a famous person one day and they will auction your work, knowing that it was done soooo many years ago and so likely, it is really valuable!  Use at least five values.  I want to read black, white, dark grey, medium grey and light grey!  I want to squint at each and every drawing and see these five values.  And…I’m going to make you squint at your drawings too!  Explore something different every time you draw!  Do you scumble? smudge? hatch? cross hatch? stipple?  Look at your marks!  Wowsers!  The content of your drawings?  Does this have meaning?  What do you love about this subject?  What frustrates you about this subject?  MAGIC!  Every term….10 completed sketches…that means…by the end of Grade nine, you will have three sketchbooks and ninety drawings!  This will make an archive and you will be on your way!  Wait and see how much you have discovered about your visual world in just three years!  Amazing!” 

The drawings I saw today were amazing!  I especially loved an elephant that a young lady drew and I suggested that its whimsical profile would pop forward more if she pushed what was behind it into a darker value!  I had her step back as we explored that idea…and she squinted…and she nodded her head! (I will photograph her elephant tomorrow!) And…as I finished my personal conference with each and every artist, I recognized each by having the class salute their achievement with applause.  It was a grand celebration!

Genesis