We drew the animals by coloring in imaginary outlines. Simple forms are easier. Hence the origami looking figures. Some kids made outlines around their animals after they had 'colored' them in. It helps you to 'feel' a form by working this way. It can also be frustrating because it is hard to control, but it is not supposed to be neat & tidy, even though the kids may want it to be neat and tidy. Some kids just drew the outlines first anyway. We also have a few very young ones who work alongside drawing whatever and however they can.  Young ones allowed to make themselves happy drawing and making marks will naturally progress on their own. 

Here we started out using a Peace Treaty Wampum design to build figures with small block marks to imitate the beads. What else is this like? Mosaics, tiles, pixels, needlework are some we brainstormed.

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 12:43 AM EST

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Tiny Halloween drawings for you to color! Download this Halloween Coloring Booklet of my class demonstration drawings - ghosts, a skeleton, cats &  jack-o-lanterns, a haunted house, witches, owls & bats. Print it out, fold lengthwise in half, then z-fold in thirds, or leave it as a sheet.  Print them out and give them as Halloween treats! Have fun, and happy Halloween!

Halloween Coloring Booklet by Catinka Knoth, (192 kb pdf). 

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 8:26 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 28 October 2009 1:10 AM EDT

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We've been drawing on apple picking, pumpkin patch, and scarecrow themes the past few weeks in the kids drawing class at Rockland Library. In my apple bough drawing I wanted the kids to get an idea for using circles (the apples) to make patterns. There is a straight line, a curving 'S' line, a circle, and a spiral. Then I wanted them to see how the branch is also a curving line but it is broken up. I want the kids to make a flow, a connection, between the objects they put in their picture. There is also an apple pie and a blob of ice cream which they asked for!

For the pumpkins I wanted them to learn a bit about giving a circle some form. We tried observing how a roll of masking tape when viewed in one position looks like a circle but when viewed from other positions the circle becomes gradually a thinner oval (ellipse), until it disappears altogether into a straight line. This was a hard concept for a six year old. The literal mind cannot yet see a thick roll of tape as a straight line - afterall, it is thick! Too late I realized the trouble. It was a trauma. Such is the experience of verbal language and it's inevitable misunderstandings.

The kids learned that a scarecrow is meant to scare crows from eating the crops. Why would a scarecrow be able to scare crows? "Because he looks scary," said one child. (She may even have said ghoulish.) No, not because he's ugly. Why can he scare a crow? "Because crows are scared of people!" a child finally exclaimed. Yes! And sometimes tin pie plates or tin cans are tied to the scarecrow to blow around jangling and help with the scaring. In our scene the crows are not afraid of the scarecrow. The poor fellow's hat is on the ground and a crow sits on his bare burlap head.

The apple picking scene was inspired by a Carl Larson painting. Drawing the scene would have to be a stand in for apple picking this year. When I went to go for apples that past weekend, the orchard was all sold out. There had not been much of a crop this year because of all the bad weather we'd had.

Posted by Catinka Knoth at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Monday, 12 October 2009 11:15 PM EDT

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