What's the Value of a Pumpkin? It depends how dark it is LOL

This week in the Little Details Sketch Club we learned more about lines and how they are used differently by artists. We drew animals using only shapes. And, then we got dirty! We learned about our charcoal pencils and how they are used by artists. It was fun to draw pumpkins and use charcoal to block in light and shadows. The more we show the light and shadow, the more form the drawing appears to have. At the end, the Littles spent a few minutes planning the mask that they will create October 25 using the elements we are learning about in October.

The Big Picture Sketch Club was a one on one this week. We started with a doodle draw. The student chose one thing and drew it as many times as possible and in as many different orientations and positions as possible if 10 minutes. We'll save this for next week and have some more fun with it when there are others in the class. Next we used both pencils and charcoal to make value scales. After they were made, we blended the transitions between values with the charcoal to make it into one large graduated strip starting with white and becoming progressively black. Using what we learned about value and the transitions between them, we drew a variety of blocks using spotlights and focused on the different values on the blocks. After this practice, we used our lights and drew pumpkins. We will use our pumpkin drawings next week.

The Junior/Senior class started with a deconstructed object. They did an amazing job of drawing the components of the things they see, separate from the complete subject. They were all able to identify the object that their classmates had drawn. So fun! Next we moved onto the pumpkins, using charcoal and then upon the realization that we could all benefit from creating and using a value scale, we backed things up a little, made a scale, and then looked for the values in the pumpkins we had drawn. As we try to balance creativity with technical skill, we are doing lots of exercises to help reduce the pressure to draw/represent things realistically (although we want to have the skills necessary to do this if we need them) and increase the freedom to push creativity and self expression. So, our next step was to look at the pumpkins we'd drawn and consider them from an artistic point of view. We all agreed that our pumpkins when viewed creatively would be about a level 2 - technical and academic. We did a quick mini lesson on radial balance and then re-evaluated our pumpkins to see if some type of surface treatment might give them more interest or oomph. Finally, we worked on our month end projects. It is interesting to see how one theme can have so many interpretations. It's also very fun to see the students careful consideration of the skills and lessons we've had so far and how they can be applied to their individual projects.

All classes are encouraged to make artist trading cards when they are inspired. The last class of the month, I will collect any that they'd like to trade and the students will have the opportunity to collect a little piece of art from someone else. Some of the students are very enthusiastic about these little cards! They are keepers for sure and it will be amazing to see how they inspire others whether they are traded or, just shared for looking.

One final note from me :). I spent the past week looking into clay. I have a number of ideas and mediums for our sculpture unit but I really wanted to do clay as well. It was looking bleak as it is very difficult to find someone willing to fire clay. But, at the last minute, when I'd already settled on making wood clay, trying paper clay and epoxy clay, I heard back from the last person I contacted about firing and they will do it. Hooray! I'm so excited and happy for me and our young artists! It won't happen for a little while but, I'm very happy to say it will be happening.