Forgive me, but I must do a little self-promotion. I’m pleased to announce that two of my artworks have gotten published this year! The first is a children’s colouring book via Doodler’s Anonymous. It features 60 artists from around the world in a collection of drawings. Pre-ordering is available for 12USD making it just in time as a great Christmas gift. I entered 3 drawings and surprisingly, my first choice was not chosen. My selected entry is below. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.
The second is for a book/project entitled Keep/Delete. This book highlights ‘the transformation of digital text-message into physical artefact. Designers were invited to design an artifact of a message that was ‘wanting to be kept’, either from their own personal repository of messages or from their circle of friends and family.’ If you teach art, this would also make an interesting unit of study.
What is even more great is that May T., one of my grade 8 students, was also selected to be included in the book. Huge congrats to her for participating! It is a bit exciting having both of us selected. My piece, as well as hers are below respectively. May’s work roughly translates as “May the future be sunny.” Order the book via Amazon.com here.
Finally, the Art of Education blog has a post of “How to use Google Forms in the Art Room.” If you are new to this, you may find the post useful. I’ve added the video below.
Yet more ammunition on the power of doodling. From TED: “Studies show that sketching and doodling improve our comprehension — and our creative thinking. So why do we still feel embarrassed when we’re caught doodling in a meeting? Sunni Brown says: Doodlers, unite! She makes the case for unlocking your brain via pad and pen.” Watch the 6 minute presentation here. Did you know doodling assists all four modalities of learning?
Nancy Duarte just posted a blog entry on Sunni Brown showcasing her new book, Gamestorming. This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. I am writing this though for the five month old video she embedded. The video is described as: “Sunni Brown is the leader of The Doodle Revolution – a growing effort to debunk the myth that doodling is a distraction. Using common sense, experience, and neuroscience, Sunni proves that doodling is a way to ignite your whole mind.”
I’ve been really busy with work and taking an online class so this blog has taken a bit of a backseat for the time being. However, today I finally managed to squeeze some art into some free personal time. I’ve also included the time lapse video below. The piece took 55 minutes.
Recently I went to see an exhibit of Karl Hyde’s artwork (of Underworld fame) in Tokyo. His abstracts led me try it out as it simply involves balance, movement and colour. It’s actually more difficult than it sounds. Anyways, I thought I’d add it as adoodle activity and hopefully have students realise that you don’t have to be a super technical artist to have attractive work. Watch how it is poorly done in my video below and view the exhibition promo clip if interested.
I’m currently working on generating ideas for my doodle club here at school and remembered this fun activity by Carla Sonheim from her great book “Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun,” which I blogged on July 13th, 2010 (you can check the hyperlinks on that previous post). It’s a very fun activity suitable in the elementary classroom but could also fit in as a warm-up activity in Middle School. The steps are as follows:
1. Draw an eye anywhere on your paper. Turn your paper 90 degrees clockwise.
2. Draw a second different eye, several times larger than the first eye. Turn your paper 90 degrees clockwise.
3. Draw a nose or snout. Turn your paper 90 degrees clockwise.
4. Draw a leg or paw. Turn your paper 90 degrees clockwise.
5. Draw a tail. Turn your paper 90 degrees clockwise.
6. Connect the elements together with straight and curved lines.
7. Finish with markers or coloured pencils.
Here’s my digital example:
If you have any other fun ideas for doodling, feel free to let me know.
I think this would make a great elementary art lesson. Simply break apart a box and create an image. Here I have made “RoboMouse.” View other great examples at the Doodle Box Project site. I’m not sure where I heard about this but most likely it was either from The Carrot Revolution or The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet blogs (thanks guys). As you can see, the blank broken down box itself looks like an image already.
