another monday...

as i prepared monday's drop everything and draw lesson i was thinking about the inside/outside project we will be starting at the end of the week. this group has had a lot of trouble with seeing things as they actually are so i anticipate they will struggle with the perspective of the architectural element of that project.

i thought to myself...how can i teach them some of the rules of perspective without actually teaching them the rules of perspective. i have always felt dishonest when teaching students "rules" in art, like the rules of perspective in drawing, or the rule of 3rd's in composition. i prefer to have them observe closely, describe what they see or what they think is most interesting...figure out why, and work from there. they struggle more without the "rules" but in the end i think they retain the concept more by seeing and doing.

so i set out these two long tables and put on it scraps of foamcore and wooden blocks. it started to look like a city or a map so i continued to arrange it that way. i asked them to use only lines to draw what they saw. i did teach them to use their pencils as a measuring tool so they could get the proportions right.

doing lessons like this always makes me want to go back to school to study how the brain works. it amazes me how the brain tricks you into seeing things differently than they are. students will argue and argue with me about the angles of the lines or how long the table is. they kept saying but the table is a long rectangle, how could it be that my measurements tell me it's as wide as it is long. it's so hard to get them to see that we're creating an illusion, not a map.

then at some point they have this a-ha moment and then they get it from then on out. i see in their faces the sense of accomplishment. i didn't get it. now i do. you didn't tell me. i found it on my own. it was a huge struggle for all but two of my students.

you can see some of the struggles in the drawing on the right.