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Position:Home>Visual Arts> I'm a volunteer art tutor. What do I teach these girls to draw?Question: I'm a volunteer art tutor!. What do I teach these girls to draw!? I am volunteering to teach drawing to these two 4th grade girls!. They are are at a pretty beginning level though!. I'm supposed to teach them the basics, but I'm not sure how to start!. Or what exactly the basics are!. Can somebody make some suggestions of what and how I should teach them!?
I am 14 by the way!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Start simple, such as pencil or charcoal sticks!. Adding color, too soon will be complicating things when all you are trying to do is cover drawing skills!. Start with some basic shapes you can bring in to the class such as boxes, balls, cones and cylindars!. Teach them to find the outlines of the various surfaces, a little perspective and then, some shading techniques!. Have them draw and shade these basic shapes illuminated by a strong light!. Then, have them repeat the exercise by changing the direction of the light!. Don't let them spend more than a minute or two on each shape!. Keep their brains moving to keep them interested!. Once they've had a chance to develop even a LITTLE skill by this practice, move on to more complex shapes, such as a piece of furniture, a doll, or some other toys!. The techniqes for shading these objects is EXACTLY the same as that of shading the simple shapes!. The idea is that they can visualize the different, basic components of the complex shapes, breaking them down, mentally, and drawing and shading them the way they did in the first exercise!. For a third step, perhaps you can take them outside to find the "basic shapes" in everyday objects, such as the "boxy" shape of buildings, the "ball" shape in a dome or cloud, the cone shape of a church steeple and the cylindar shape in a telephone pole or tree trunk!. Some practice sketching from real life objects is the BEST way to develop drawing skills!. At some future point, you may have then try drawing somthing from memory!. Once someone has some basic drawing skills, then you can cover concepts such as composition, contrast, flow, visual centers and other, more advanced ideas!. It wouldn't hurt to find a "how to draw" book in the library to give you more ideas!. Your students don't have to read the book!. Just you, to keep your lessons going!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Start working with vine charcoal or pencil on cheap, plain paper!. The goal is to gain accuracy and learn how to view objects, not make beautiful drawings the first day!. Make a collection of plain cubes, cones, cylinders and spheres!. (boxes, balls, coffee cans, cardbard tubes, whatever you can find!. paint them all solid white!.) Have the girls arrange them in an interesting way on a table and then draw them from all different angles, really concentrating on accuracy!. Forget about shadows, shading, texture, etc at this point!. You want to see objects in proper perspective, ratios and placement to each other!. Next, after significant work on the basics, take a bright light and make shadows on the objects!. Have the girls concentrate not just on the solid shapes, but now also on the light and dark and the shadows thrown!. Introduce concepts like line quality and variation as well as different styles of shading, such as cross hatching!. Work your way up to showing textures on the objects!. You may need to add some heavily textured, simple objects at this point!. Next progress to more complex objects, still focusing on simple shapes!. Drawing houses you see from the front doorstep is great!. Houses and the interior shapes of rooms, including the doors, windows, and simple lined furniture is perfect!. Stairways are also a terrific thing to draw!. Have the girls keep sketch books so they can flip through their work and watch their own progress!. Now you're ready to tackle more complex objects!. Go back to the table with your basic objects but add in a couple flowers or dolls and study the luight and shadow!. Go out in the garden and draw flowers, trees, and then progress finally to people!. Lastly, start to add a bit of color with conte or colored pencils!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Talk to a professional art teacher!. Teach about perspective - how scale changes with distance!. How to add depth with shading, about light effects highlights and shadows!. One of my favorite exercises as a beginner was staring at a person's profile and drawing it by feel by placing the pen on the paper and not being able to look at the paper after the student placed the pen on it - teaches a person to actually "look" at a subject and concentrate on the lines of the profile!. You can look again to move the pen to draw the eyes, eyebrows and such, but once you have positioned the pen no looking! Give a sample sheet of eyes, ears, noses, etc and have them practice drawing them!. Draw a tree for them, explain that they don't really look like a fat lollipop!. Introduce them to different mediums - water colors, pastels, etc!. Teach them how to use and clean a paint brush!. Fourth grade boys like to draw super hero comics and airplanes, girls like horses, fashion designs, etc!. Every experience begins with small steps and will probably end up on mom's refrigerator - good luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com Teach them the colour wheel, and how to mix paint!. Ask them how much they know, and what interests them!. Try teaching them to draw each other, or a detailed picture of what they enjoy doing!. Or maybe take them on a walk and ask them to take photos!. When you get back, let them draw the photos, but with a twist!.!.!. Hope this helps!Www@QuestionHome@Com Teach them to paint flowers and girly stuff!. Ask them what they would like to paint!. Kids are really smart and will tell you!. Teach them basic color combinations and how to balance color!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Teach them to draw girls!. As they progress, bring in the basics as they are needed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com ummmmmmm!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |