Creative Redo

This is the introductory project I use for some of my children's classes. I have paper and media for the kids. Usually I have a variety of media that they can choose from: Paints, colored pencils, crayons, etcetera. I tell them to create a picture of anything they want. It should have several different elements in it. But not too many. Don't make it too complicated. In case you're thinking I'm not a very creative teacher, there is a point to this exercise and it has two parts. So don't overdo it in this part because it continues and don't try to show off and do anything too difficult. But it can be anything you want. You'll have about fifteen minutes for this first part.

At this point, some of the students may have been in class before, and I've given them a different assignment. But they are making noises indicating that they know what the newcomers are getting into and it's going to be cool. And they won't tell.

After the students have their drawings or paintings done, I have them push the work to the center of the table and get another piece of paper. On this paper, I tell them to make all kinds of colors. Different colors with mixing and blending and crosshatching and stippling. Anything that makes a new color. You can name these colors if you want to. We discuss different kinds of colors and how to make them. We talk about visual and physical mixing.

Now push the papers to the center of the table and get another paper. On this paper, make all different kinds of lines. Make a whole menagerie of different kinds of lines. A whole zoo of lines. You can name these lines if you want to. You can get ideas from each other, but share, don't steal.

Now, circle your three favorite lines. And, now, circle your three favorite colors.

Now, get another piece of paper. You are going to redo your drawing/painting using only your three favorite colors and three favorite lines. The students will ask how to do this when the colors are different from reality. I tell them to make choices about what color goes where, even if that's not the color you usually see on that object.

This is a great project because it challenges the students to do something they normally would not do. And they are using constraints that they, themselves (albeit unwittingly), created. We put all of the work up on the wall to look at and discuss. Sometimes they like the new piece better and sometimes they like the first one better. But they take away from this exercise the knowledge that there are other ways we can draw and paint aside from the conventional and obvious.

And that's a very good introduction to what they will be getting in my class.

The two giraffes below aren't radically different, but notice how vastly improved the color is in the second piece. This student mixed her own colors and chose them without any input from me. All I did was get the students trying something new. Now she can see the difference, and it's something she did all by herself, with just a little prompting and permission from me. She's also learned to attempt a composition a second time with variation. It seems like she anticipated where I was going with the lesson, because she chose colors that are similar to her original idea. Kids are smart.

 Sometimes I do this project just with pencil lines and shading.