Basic Art Lessons
The foundation of an art education is drawing. Art instructors can help beginning artists increase their awareness and understanding of what they see when they look at something and reproduce it on paper. With practice, patience and perseverance, the amateur artist can become the accomplished artist.
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Materials
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Anyone new to art should experiment with the wide variety of materials available. Simply shopping for supplies can be overwhelming for a novice. Pencils alone come in several types, in a spectrum that ranges from very hard (typically labeled with "H") to very soft (typically labeled with "B"). Provide students who are new to art with multiple types of pencils so they can experiment with them. In addition, students will need plenty of sketch paper or newsprint and a variety of erasers.
Shapes
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One of the first exercises in many art classes is the drawing of shapes such as cubes, cones and spheres. Have your students draw these from imagination, or place an actual model of one of the shapes -- usually available in plastic or wood -- on a table in front of the class. Help your students focus on the object and capture its essence on paper. Gradually add other shapes and allow students to draw the multiple forms relative to each other.
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Shading
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As an additional component to the exercise on shapes, help your students work on shading. Assist the students in recognizing and re-creating both the shadows made on the surface of the table by the forms, as well as the shadows on the faces of the shapes. If possible, shine a spotlight on the shapes to create a more significant contrast between the light and shadow; this will help beginning students. As the students become more adept at rendering the gradations of shading, reduce the strength of the spotlight.
Perspective
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Drawing with perspective can give artwork a lifelike quality. Demonstrate the concept of perspective by drawing straight lines, such as train tracks, that converge at the point of horizon on your paper. Alternatively, draw a series of buildings starting towards the front of your paper. As you draw towards the back of the paper, make each building appear smaller to create a sense of distance. Experimenting with perspective will help students more accurately represent depth and distance.
Still Life
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The still life -- a staple of art lessons everywhere -- is an exercise in which students can apply what they have learned about materials, shapes, shading and perspective. Arrange a vase of flowers, a bowl of fruit, a stack of books, or any other objects of your choosing on a table in the center of the room. Position the students, with their materials, around this central point. Help them reproduce what they see. This open-ended activity allows for unlimited exploration of shapes, textures, colors and stylistic approaches.
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References
- Photo Credit Artist image by Efrain Diaz from Fotolia.com
