Drawing real objects is an important learning technique for budding artists. My daughter typically draws from her imagination and while that is okay, drawing imaginary subjects does not add to her skill as much as the painful experience of drawing from life. This year many of her art lessons are drawing from life. This has refined her ability to actually see and faithfully reproduce 3-d objects on a piece of paper. At some point over the next year, I hope to find time to share her art lessons so others can follow in our footsteps. For now, I will briefly discuss her quarterly assessment assignment – the test that counts as a large part of her grade for this past quarter. Note: Her assignments up to this point have led to this particular assignment.
The subject for the assignment is a small decaying branch that I found in our backyard. It has the features that I wanted her to draw – contour, texture, shading, to name three, and of course, it is a real object. The branch was set in front of her and she was instructed to draw it. She took several hours spread over 3 days to complete the drawing. She complained a lot at first, but as the hours passed and the drawing started to look like the subject, she stopped complaining and worked with improved concentration. Below are two images, one of the branch and one of her drawing. Click on the image for a larger version.
Now I must go back to work.
Happy Homeschooling!
Donna Young
Related at DonnaYoung.org: A High School Drawing Class
Sheri says
WOW ❗
Melanie says
That is a wonderful drawing! Very well executed!
Donna, you’re such a good mom to challenge your daughter in this way. Great assignment! 🙂
appliejuice says
That is wonderful! I can draw a stick figure! Does that count?
Elaine says
I’m like Applie, stick figures is where my ability begins and end.
Donna Young says
Thank you Sheri and Melanie. Holly did a nice job. 🙂
Applie, it counts, in your case, because you can also go beyond stick figure.
Heather says
Very, very nice! How do you grade Holly’s drawings?
I guess I’ll join in the fun too 🙄 here you go that was fun! 😀
Donna Young says
Heather asked the grading question! 😮
Grading the work is a matter of past lessons and effort. She’s been drawing several items from life over the past few weeks, each week or two had a separate element of drawing attached to the lesson. This drawing brings the elements together. She was evaluated on how well she applied the lessons to this drawing and how much effort she put into the drawing. I hope that made sense. If I do put the lessons online, I will also include evaluation guides.
appliejuice says
Sooo, what you are really saying is, if she does well you get three cups of coffee? Or do you drink three cups of coffee before you grade her paper? This is a huge problem. How am I going to grade art papers, I don’t drink coffee. :ooo: I do drink tea, but that might lower the grade or maybe make the grade higher. 😯 I know, I’ll drink six cups of tea before grading lab papers and see if the grades suffer. Yeah, that’ll work. I’ll probably have to grade them in the bathroom.
Gee, by the way I am typing, you’d think I already had those six cups of tea. Well…..I haven’t. So there.
Going now.
Donna Young says
😆 Are you sure the tea kettle hasn’t been your best buddy today?
😉 You are in luck, tea works just as well as coffee for grading papers. I can attest to that since becoming a tea drinker.
appliejuice says
That is a relief. 😀
I had hot chocolate today and all the papers look pretty good to me. 😆
Robin says
Wowzers that’s good. Awesome!
We are back from our month-long visit to NYC, so I wanted to come by and see your blog. You are such a good teacher!
Have a great Thursday, Robin