The St. Mary Art Club begins

Our Art Club is made up of students from Grades 5 to 11. We have 2 groups, the elementary kids and the high school/ junior high students. We will come up with nick names for each group this week.

So far we have had two classes and have been introduced to a few basics of drawing. We have also done a few drawing techniques to open up our drawing abilities, such as drawing with our non-dominate hand, drawing in pen (no erasing), or drawing without lifting our pencils (or pens). This helps us to think "get it on the paper" not that it has to be perfect. Basic sketches are a starting point not perfection.

We are finally working on our "first" project. I kind of jumped from testing the waters of drawing to a large piece of paper for a master piece. But it's more of an introduction to drawing techniques. I have asked the group as a whole to do the same project but have made it easier for the elementary kids and little harder for the others.

First of all, we handed out fruit pictures for the kids to be inspired from. There were choices from dragon fruit, star fruit, to apples and kiwis. There were 2 ways for the kids to tackle this project. Draw one large picture and divide it up for the techniques or divide the paper and draw individual pictures into each box. I have asked them to divide up there papers, minimum 4 for the elementary kids and 6 for the older kids. Plus they need to have 1 or 2 focal points that will be matted and popped up. I will show them that part this week, but it will look similar to this: 

Now for the techniques, they need to have 1 box for a basic sketch but the rest are up to them. Here are a few options that I gave them:

Pointilism

cartoon

geometric

watercolour

detail

swirl

or anything else they can find that interests them.

I have also let them know that not every box needs colour. Mix the boxes with black and white with a pop of colour. But they are to think this through, as see what works best with their designs. 

I look forward to seeing what they come up with. These project do not have to be finished for next class but a basic idea would be great. Anyone that is finished can move onto our next project....