Gesture Drawings

Gesture drawings are today's topic! How to teach gesture drawing to adolescents is the question. First I would make a power point about that has the definition of gesture drawing which is the basic drawing of an essential form of a pose, often taken from life, these poses will often show motion. When you are teaching gesture drawings always remember 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 not meant to be precise and meticulous, the lines in them are drawn quickly and in long, large movements (the 7 L's!)  Then when it comes to application in a classroom you can ask your students to volunteer and take turns posing in front of the class so your students can try drawing a variety of poses. Gesture drawing can be hard for some students to understand so using larger utensils may come in handy. Give them short amounts of time. Generally a pose should be drawn in less than a minute. 

If students get the majority of the large picture drawn in they can then go back in with the details. If a student is still struggling with the idea of gesture drawing attach a marker to a yard stick and take paper and tape it to the floor. Have them draw the same pose but with the yard stick marker. This will enable them to understand better that gesture drawing is not about the small details as it is nearly impossible for them to draw the small details with the yard stick.

To make this type of activity into a piece for display have the students do an extended gesture drawing by having them draw several poses showing the range of movement. This type of exercise could turn into a wonderful study of the body.

What Rules the Classroom

Rules of any classroom are not just about controlling the masses of teenage hormones and reigning in the attention of students but they are also about safety, and in art that is imperative due to all the hazards of an art classroom. In the art room there are heavy, sharp, hot, and spinning tools of chaos if students are not acting the way they should be. 

First of all, behaviors have to be started the first day of classes! And they have to be consistent, not only consistent in the amount and ways you apply them but also that you apply the rules to everyone, always. PREVENTION is key! This does not mean you have to have a long lecture about behavior and scare students away from touching anything. It means that you control the situation that students start the semester off with. You introduce them to safety rules the first day and set a reasonable amount of rules for the classroom. The first day preface the semester by saying, "You can choose where you sit, but that is a privilege, and if you are not able to complete work on time due to talking too much or other distractions, or you distract another student, that privilege will be taken away and I will come up with a seating chart." Do not be afraid of implementing a seating chart the first day, it is important to decide whether or not your students can handle it very quickly because the habits that they develop the first week will continue through the semester. Another easy way to be preventative in nature is to know your students, know how long their attention can be held for and be able to get through the lecture quickly and have them working. Most instances of misbehavior or of incidents at all are most likely to occur during transitions so keeping the classroom flow and fast transitions are important.

Another point that is important to make is how to be preventative by being proactive and getting to know your students. Listen to what is going on in the hallways before and after classes, get to know their behavior and take an interest in them daily. 

When prevention is no longer an option, you need to go about intervention in the least disruptive way possible. How do we do this? Well first start out with small warnings, they don't even have to be verbal. If a student is talking during your lecture go and stand closer to them, your presence will remind them that they should be listening, if this doesn't work try touching their desk. If the whole class is being too loud and you are trying to get their attention, try not talking. See how long it takes for the students to notice. If this doesn't work go to the door, turn off and on the lights until the class quiets down. Raising your voice is a last resort, and another reason you don't want to raise your voice is it's ineffective in the long term, shows the students you are not in control, and is disruptive to other classrooms. Be cool. Stay cool. You got this.

When there is a consistent behavioral issue in class you may need to take time to pull a student aside. This is only when you have tried every other option. Taking a student out of class or out of their work is disruptive to the classroom (if you are lecturing,) and embarrassing to the student (if done improperly.) Public humiliation is unacceptable, do not embarrass a student into behaving, it's ineffective and will cause harm to the student. When talking to a student about their individual behavior that has now become a serious issue and you need to take them aside, approach the student in a concerned way. Do not attack or condemn the student's behavior this will shut them down to the conversation. Ask them why they are acting a certain way. Show that you care. 

(Side Note)

I had a camper once who was the sweetest boy you could ever meet, at six years old he would hold doors open for everyone consistently said "thank you" and "please." He was just an overall blessing to work with. But one day he got into a fist fight with another little boy. I was extremely concerned as this was not normal and was alarming that it would disrupt the group flow so while another one of the counselors worked with the group I sat down with him and we talked. It turns out he had been being bullied (not by the child who he hit) but by kids he knew outside of camp. I asked him why he thought that was the solution to being angry. He said "I don't know, when I get mad I don't know what else to do, I know I shouldn't do it but I don't know any other way." So I told him whenever he felt angry he needed to come to me and tell me so that he wouldn't get hurt, or hurt someone else and that we could all have fun, and if he came to me I would help him calm down. Later in the week he came to me and we would count to ten, we breathed deeply together and he took time to think more clearly. Which was amazing for a six year old.

Back to Business!

If nothing else works and there is a confrontation, these are the things you must remember in a confrontation:

YOU ARE THE ADULT.

What that means is that you have a more developed frontal lobe, and have better (hopefully) decision making skills than a teenager. That also means you need to stay calm and speak respectfully. If this confrontation needs to happen take it outside of the classroom by getting a teacher to not only witness the conflict but also watch your class. You need to be objective when having this confrontation. Remember again YOU ARE THE ADULT. Be mature and listen to the student. A lot of confrontation in the business place (I think this applies most places) comes from people not feeling like they are being heard. And lastly but most importantly NEVER, and I mean NEVER touch a child!

Contour Line Drawings

Contour Line Drawings

Today's topic is contour line drawings. There a couple different ways to do contour line drawings: blind contour drawings, and modified contour drawings. The first one is blind contour drawings. You'll need a sharpie or a marker or pen, not a pencil, because it's too easy to cover up mistakes, and lastly you’ll need paper. First you'll find a hand position and make sure your hand is not visible at the same time your paper is, in other words look away from your paper. Without looking at the paper draw a line on the paper that corresponds to where your eyes look at your hand position. Don't pick up the marker from the paper. Follow the lines on your hands to create the drawing. This may feel difficult because you are not able to look at your paper, it’s okay, but don’t look at the page.

The second type of contour drawing is the modified version. You can now look at the paper! This time really focus on the details and making sure you’re relying on your eyes not an idea of what you should be drawing. Keep your eyes on your hand the majority of the time. You can now not keep your pen to the paper all the time but try not to pick it up too much either.

A lesson plan that you can do with this is having students partner up they must do a blind contour portrait of their partner and a modified one. This is great the first week of classes for students to be silly and get to know someone they might not otherwise have met. The students will do the modified version and their partner can call them out for looking at their paper too much. This way they are aware of the amount of time they spend looking at the paper versus looking at the subject. At the end of the project you will have an interesting piece to keep.

Advice to Self

When your students walk in on the first day they are going to need to know what to expect. High school is the time of changes and uncertainties and insecurities. What you need to provide for your students is consistent support. They need to know that you are invested in them and are willing to help them whenever they stumble. This seems like a big challenge when in actuality it really is not. The fact of the matter is that you really just need to take time to get to know your students and show your genuine appreciation for who they are. Be honest and open with your students, because nothing will win them back if they smell a facade meant to woo them. You really do not have to force them to answer those long questionnaires that a lot of teachers give out on the first day. But be prepared instead to notice their general behavior their conversations, where they sit, who they talk to. These small cues will give you a larger picture over time of when they are not at their best.
Also paying attention to your students will help you make sure that the generational gap does not come between you and your students. If you pay attention you can not only get to know your students but understand the language they use in context and understand what is important or valid to them.
The things you teach should be exciting and motivating and yes, challenging. High school students need to be challenged, not enough so that they want to stop trying but this class should engage their critical thinking and enable them to problem solve. Your responsibility as a teacher is to step in and guide them through the process to culture an environment where students feel safe to take risks and sometimes fail because the best discoveries often times come from failures.