I am having so much fun with my older class.  I really want to help them take their drawing skills to the next level.  I am incorporating exercises from Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  One exercise from the book is to copy Picasso’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky, upside down.  This forces the student to use the “right” side of the brain for drawing and turn off the logical side which tries to label what we see.  Students were forced to look at the relationship of lines and shapes with each other.  One might think this would result in terrible drawings, but in most cases, the drawings appear to have been drawn with much more skill than if they had drawn them right side up.  I kept reminding them not to think “chair,” “hands,” “face” but to just look at the relationship of one line to another.  As they were drawing, it would become very obvious when they switched back to their logical brain.  They began to draw symbols, and their drawings suffered.  Some were able to catch themselves and switch back to right brain thinking.  That was so great to see!

This was a tough project.  Yes, there was a bit of grumbling. : )  I kept telling them this was good for them and would improve their drawing skills.  I also promised if they ate their art “vegetables” there would be art “desert.”  : D  I brought a box of cool new materials to add color to our drawings. I brought Stabilo Woodies, Derwent Inktense pencils, Derwent watercolor pencils, gel crayons, Neocolor crayons, etc…  After all the hard work they put in on drawing these, I am giving them complete freedom to complete these projects in color how they choose.

I am amazed how well they did drawing these.  I think a few of them were amazed too.  I look forward to seeing them in color next week.  Here’s a sneak peak at how they are coming along.