My Students’ Artwork
Teddy Bear Watercolors
Still Life in Marker
Favorites
These are some favorite drawings among the kids ages 4 to 8 who I taught privately in a small group.
Marker drawing of an idealized place. The exercise guides students to think before drawing about the subject matter. What shall the drawing include (subject matter)? How will it be arranged? What colors will convey the feeling of the picture? Together we did some exploratory sketches to figure out the composition before it was carefully rendered in full color.
The basis of this bird image was copied by a student from a sample I provided. I broke down the shape of the bird into basic elements that the student would then draw. This gave the student an opportunity to carefully think about the structure of the image they were creating while also building technique and control over the marker. The background is imaginary. Each student was asked to think about where the bird would be and what would be in the environment. This produced beautifully drawn birds in a wide range of unique settings, each as unique as each child/artist!
This drawing shows the use of crayon with watercolor resist on construction paper. There is something magical about experiencing how materials interact. I remember this vividly from my own childhood.
I like this drawing because you see the sun in one corner and a rainbow in the other. It's symmetrical design shows the students forethought in the composition which is something I worked on with students during a multi-session art course. Notice the careful technique of filling in areas with straight lines that reflect the flow of the tree upwards and the flow of the ground horizontally.
