Contour Drawings

I remember doing contour drawings when I was 13 years old... my 8th grade art class made accordion books with all of our hands in them. We had to hold a ribbon in our hands and make sure it hit two certain points on our paper (so it connected with the hand next to ours in the book) and our hands were all drawn using contour line drawings. I remember being fascinated with following the lines around my hand with eyes and I couldn't believe how accurate the lines actually were. It was so much fun.

I feel like this is one of the easiest and one of the best introductory drawing projects that could be introduced to a beginning art class or it could be a daily exercise in an intermediate/advanced drawing class. I'd start out with hands and showing the class how to make their drawing by following every little angle with their eyes and translating that onto the paper. From there, I'd introduce them to the idea of doing this same process with portraits. I would then introduce them to Ian Sklarsky and his blind contour portrait drawings. I would use him as a reference for my students to show them that contour drawings, especially blind contour drawings are not meant to be perfect and, in fact, that is the beauty about them.  I'd then have them practice drawing a partner and then swap so that their partner could then practice their drawing skills with them. This would be a great warm up for more advanced classes. It would also be really interesting to try and introduce the students to using contour and blind contour drawings to create a still life where they then added watercolor or colored pencil accents into their final drawing.

Contour drawings are a great way for students to work on proportions and correct placements of features while still having fun and creating some interesting art work from them.

http://www.iansklarsky.com/work/

First Entry...Teaching Thoughts

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Soon, the moment will be here. I'll be in a school, teaching art to adolescent students and expecting them to like, respect, trust, and actually listen to me as their teacher and not their peer.  It's somewhat terrifying but at the same time, it's completely exhilarating and something I've been wanting for so long.

I often wonder if I'm going to be fully equipped to handle anything and everything that they're going to throw at me within my classroom... Will I be able to come up with relevant lesson plans that will continue to interest my students on a regular basis while still involving each and every student in an effective way? What if my lessons are found to be boring by my students? How do I keep them engaged everyday without losing my relevancy and respect as a teacher? So many questions...