School Art Show

This is the first year my school has had an Elementary art show, & tonight, we had a reception for the artists. Each young artist stood near one of his/her artworks, and was prepared to speak about the process & ideas in creating the work. 

This was a very proud moment for parents, grandparents, classroom teachers and me, their art teacher. For me, the art show, a pretty monumental presentation, was tangible and dramatic evidence of a year's worth of planning, teaching and connecting with wonderful young artists. Parents seemed to realize that although the show featured art, their children are learning so much beyond the paintings and sculptures; they're being gently pushed to take creative risks, and are learning new ways of thinking.

Art & Musical Instruments

I hung an exhibition of my students' wonderful drawings of an antique tuba today. It was important for the artists to concentrate & keep looking carefully at the tuba to make a convincing drawing of it. Since the tuba has about sixteen feet of bent tubing and three valves, it's a very challenging object to draw. I'm so proud of my students, from first grade through sixth who made excellent drawings.

If you play a musical instrument, or if your family has an old instrument, whether it's guitar, drums, violin or piano, you might be inspired to draw that instrument. It's really fun to draw something you're interested in. With parent's permission, place the instrument on the floor in front of you, and concentrate only on what you see, not what you KNOW is there.

Begin using a pencil and an eraser, and finish your drawing with markers, pastels, colored pencils, watercolors, or any combination of materials. Try looking for darker parts, where there are shadows, lighter parts, and details, such as valves, keys, and strings, which can be shown in your drawing. Are certain parts of the instrument in front of others? Can you draw the closest parts showing that they hide what's behind them?

Have fun enjoying your musical instrument, not only for the beautiful notes it can produce, but also as something great to draw.