The lessons are fun and do a good job of introducing one tiny topic at a time, almost unobtrusively. But after the end of the document the lesson is never reinforced. It would be good to see some suggestions on what to do on your own to cement what you learned.

For instance (and these may be good or bad ideas, since I'm not an art teacher): After the Bitty drawing, there could be a suggestion to draw her again, this time without looking at the lesson. Or to change her so she's a boy. Some way to strike out on your own and leave the crutch of copying from the screen behind.

That's a wonderful suggestion duname! I suggested a while back that since we have a lesson comment section for all of them, that we should encourage every member that upon lesson completion, to post a thumbnail of their attempt at doing the lesson.

Your suggestion takes it a bit further, by actually challenging them to do something on thier own. I like that, but I also like my side to help with the encouragement to keep getting better. Lets see what develops from this discussion.

Eric

I assumed everyone was already posting the results of every lesson. I posted my Bitty (C02 or C03) last night and I'm going to be posting the koala, the lion and Kira, plus the rest of the lessons as I do them.

Good point Desiredusername. I wished I did know by name the point of the lessons and not just as you say an implied point. Like today we leard to map shading. Now here is the basic idea and here are several studies on how to apply this to any picture or image you come upon. I did the Hairy Harry on mapping the shading of his hair but I still don't get how to make the maps of other images. I just drew the ones that were predrawn in the less.

Oh, great ideas! I've always been able to copy just about anything but it's sometimes difficult to do my own thing.

I particularly like the idea about suggestions for applying the lesson to our own art. I don't think just telling members to draw the lesson a little differently goes quite far enough. I tend to get bogged down by how to start doing that. Some tips or suggestions in the basic lesson would be of great value to me even though I learn best by just doing.

In other words, I would like to be able to do the lessons differently or draw my own thing, but give me a few tips to get me going! lol

J

Replying to myself here: The Starr Fish lesson seemed kinda boring, so I decided to do it differently. I looked at the given pictures to understand how to do each step, but I did the actual drawing separately, not copying from the instructions. (Which may have been the intent from the start.)

Wow!

Great idea! All lessons I do from this point forward will include a closing paragraph on how to implement the skills into other drawings and/or use your creativity to modify the subject into your very own creation!

And, now you have me thinking! How about a closing section in each lesson that asks a few questions on the skills taught; sort of a self-evaluation or test (not really fond of the word “test”, but it seems to fit)! This concept allows students an opportunity to solidify their knowledge on the skills and vocabulary of the curriculum!

What do you think of this idea?

Thank you!!!!

Brenda

I like it. In fact, the questions section could have some other drawing examples that ask the student to identify where/how the technique or idea was used. Seems like a minor question, but probably helps to teach the "learning to see" thing as well as just general art appreciation.

This site is soooooo cool! Not only to we learn a lot to begin with, we also have an instructor who's willing to go even further to make sure we learn as much as possible!

Great idea, Brenda! Thank you!

J

I like the idea of using the knowledge gained from the lessons and incorperating them in a suggested way but not in a demonstrated way.
Therefore it will make us think about what we have learned and not just a case of copying what we can see.
This "add on" to the lesson is a real way of making sure the lesson has been digested.
Also there is a real sense of achievement knowing you can use what you have learned. All in all a great idea!!
RJS

I wouldn't mind a small test of my comprehension of the subject lesson either. Matter of fact, I kind of did that with the post of the deer I did in my gallery. Where from the lesson I applied the learned skill to another piece of reference outside of the lesson plan, then explained how I used that lesson to achieve my result.

Something along these lines would be ideal in challenging the student to actually attempt the drawing. I know I sometimes need a swift kick in the keester to get me moving on a new project. But it is hard for me to picture the thing from beginning to end, so I never attempt it, thinking I'll only get part way then get stuck and quit. I need something that will give me the aptitude to use the skills and become comfortable with them to see that they do help me and make the job easier.

People still scare me!
Eric

its brilliant i like it

Hello Brenda,
I think this is a great idea sorry its a late reply a test sounds good to me!!

Oh its me ukartist i forgot to sign in

I think some of these threads get lost lol

Very true kim they do i was bored and i was looking at the old threads

Excellent idea, I'm sincerely and positively eager to see it applied ! Too bad wasn't mine . Bullseye desiderius !

Fatcat

And to go further, here's an example from my experience (without checking all Drawspace lessons, of course ).

1. Teacher posts a composition of 3 (or 5) 3D simple objects: cube, pyramid, sphere (+ cylinder, cone), either drawn by hand (preferable !!!) or as a photograph, computer animation, etc, shadings and all, or even colors. Students can build the "hardware version" of the composition at home, from heavy paper (cardboard-not sure about the English word ).
2. Students draw the composition established by the teacher.
3. Students draw the same objects but in a different arrangement, using only their imagination (by putting a cloth on the objects, in the hardware version ).

This allows students to play with objects, space, light, imagination , etc.

Hope this is helpful.

Fatcat