Foundation Drawing Video Instruction

This was the 2012-13 Mentor-Mentee Project produced by Greta Songe, art instructor.

Final Product:

Proposed Project Description:

The first three weeks of the Drawing I course are the building blocks for understanding the entire term. We discuss drawing methods such as sighting and measuring, negative space observation, perspective, contour, and using volumes in space. The rest of the term is built upon these core concepts and depends on an understanding of them in order to move ahead.

It is inevitable that some students will miss at least one of those days. I’ve found it very difficult to catch them up without repeating the entire demonstration, which often takes most of the class period. Because of the high cost of art supplies for the course, we typically do not use a text for the course. So, I often refer those students to demos online or other resources to read about the concepts outside of class in order to gather some understanding of what they’ve missed. However, it seems that students that don’t grasp those fundamental lessons about drawing from observation from the beginning are severely hindered in their understanding and ultimate success in the course.

In order to remedy this, I would like to create an online repository of filmed demonstrations made by me that I could easily refer students to as a resource. It would be great for the students who miss the class—-and a fantastic resource for further understanding for those students enrolled in the class who just want to refer to it during the term or to further solidify the concepts covered in class.

In addition, these demonstrations could be an initial step in development of possible flipped classroom scenarios for Drawing I.

In our department, we are also working steadily to improve the transferability of our Drawing classes when students transfer to four year institutions. Along with this initiative is one to be sure that all instructors are teaching fundamental drawing skills necessary to build a solid foundation for an art curriculum. These videos could easily be accessible to adjuncts and other colleagues for reference.

Working with Bonnie Cackoski, in KCELT, I will reserve a room to film drawing demonstrations beginning in January. I will work with the team at KCELT to get the videos edited and formatted to be posted easily onto Angel. I plan to have at least one video up and running by the end of the Spring 2013 term, with several more to follow as the year progresses.

The initial approach will be to show simply the demonstration, but variations on this idea could also include the possibility of showing several students working on that particular lesson in order to account for variation and different approaches to problem solving.