Drawing Rendering: 7th Graders Learn to See

It is always exciting for me to teach a student to draw. Many come into my class with the preconceived idea that they are doomed to a life of poor drawing skills. But I know, through 30 years of teaching art that anyone who follows my direction can indeed learn to draw. Betty Edwards knows the secret, and thousands of others. But you see, being able to draw isn't an exclusive birth right. Anyone can learn. Anyone can learn to draw.

I begin talking to my students about how our brains function, and the duties of the left and right hemispheres. The left brain is vitally important in our day-to-day function however when it comes to rendering (drawing what you see), it really  is more of a hindrance than an asset.

The left hemisphere is our logical, sequential side of our brain. It functions linearly, it memorizes, it sorts, it has order. Our right brain is our creative side. It lives in the moment. It is spontaneous, free, expressive. I call it the "fun" side of our brain but that's just me. I like to have fun.

All of us (unless somehow impaired) have the function of both the left and the right brain, but for most individuals, one side seems to be more dominant than the other. There are uber gifted individuals who are strong  in both hemispheres. Spontaneous order, how awesome would that be?

As a child we were taught how to draw certain things: a tree, a sun, a house, an eye. These images get stored in our left brain, much like a computer hard drive. One of our left brain's function is storing information. These images act like clip art.

The left brain can be very dominant. It is nurtured more than our right  through the natural activities of our day. At this point in my "You Can Learn to Draw" lesson  I draw an illustration of a stick man with bulging muscles (left brain) and a meek, more weaker stick man (right brain). Notice how they are both smiling, that's because they are both happy.

Because of it's dominance, the left brain seems to want to do everything. So, when you sit down to try to draw something you are looking at, the left brain seems to take over. The more passive right brain allows this to occur. Since the left brain functions by things it has "learned" it will rely on information that is stored rather than what it sees. This is where the conflict happens. So, the task at hand is to quiet the left brain while we are doing right brain stuff, so the right brain can do what it does best, without having the left brain interfere. When it comes to rendering, we definitely want the right brain doing the work.

 

I know this is all a bit of a tease, but our 7th grade students just spent the last few weeks working on rendering. They learned to let the right brain draw, and they quieted their left brain so the right brain could do what it does best. Just look at the results! Please note: most of the examples are done by students who believed they couldn't draw. Pretty exciting isn't it?

           

    

MMS FaceOff 2-D Special Effects: Old-Age and Animals

It's MMS FaceOff Season 2 and we are well into the project! We had such success with our project last year we just had to do it again! This year we have an added bonus!

Jenette Noe, student teacher extraordinaire from the College of Idaho, has come with her own arsenal. While as an undergrad she took a very extensive stage makeup class. She has been teaching the students
 2-D makeup effects as I add the 3-D latex prosthetics to the mix.

The students began their first facial schematics by searching for old-age imagery on the internet.

We took photos of each student and they used their photo to outline their face onto tracing paper.These are examples of old-age facial schematics completed on the tracing paper. The students used color pencil to simulate stage-makeup.

Next we had the students get into partners while they practiced the old-age effect. We had them use acrylic paint (white, gray, and black) for this first exposure; it was available and much cheaper than our more expensive Ben Nye makeup. 

Next the students researched animals, prepared their facial schematics of their chosen animal and practiced applying paint/makeup to their own faces. They used a hand mirror for the application.

 

Stay tuned for the final 2-D animal looks and for the upcoming 3-D prosthetic phase.  Meanwhile, check out the weekly FaceOff series on the Syfy channel.