Are Your School Supplies a Waste of Time?

To finish up my thoughts on school supplies, I offer some general thoughts for pondering.

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The items discussed before offer some specific challenges, but I would also like to speak to the challenge of cheapness. Like I said before, as a mom I am familiar with the need to budget, but as an art teacher I have discovered that cheap price usually goes along with cheap quality. Watching students try to make poor quality items work well for them, and growing frustrated in the process, makes me see the value in spending a bit mor (when I can) in order to facilitate my own children's learning experiences. Because once in the classroom, the real issues change. Can the student learn with the tools provided? Can the student do the work with the tools provided? Do the tools provided steal and waste student time? For example, one second grader complained that her pencil sharpener seemed to always be jammed because it never made her pencils any sharper. She brought it to me so I could clear it and we discovered that the reason it didn't sharpen was because there was no blade in it! It hadn't fallen out—there was no way it could have. It had never had a blade inside, ever. This particular sharpener still bore the logo of a large discount office supply store on the side and sells for quite cheap at the store. Sure, it's just a pencil sharpener, but the bigger problem is the amount of time wasted by the poor supplies. In this case, she had spent over half the year trying to sharpen pencils with something that NEVER would have done the job. After minutes spent fiddling with her sharpener, she would then ask another student to borrow one and now at least two students, but more likely three to five (because nothing ever happens that quietly), have now been disturbed by the problem sharpener. What seems like a bargain really isn't in the end.

I'm not trying to place an extra burden on parents or blame anyone for buying materials that turn out to be bad quality (I've done it too, and I'm not really sure how to recommend choosing something like a pencil sharpener!). I like to see good prices, just like everyone else. But until I started seeing these items in action I didn't realize the frustration some of them can cause. My goal is to educate, and in this letter I hope I have been able to give you some information to help you make choices. For younger students, who are more prone to losing things (most classrooms have a crayon/marker/pencil lost and found just for this reason!), the investment might not be wise, but they won't always be so young, either.

If you do decide to invest in better paints and colored pencils, etc., and want to re-use some of those supplies, remember to talk to your teacher and let it be known that you might want some of those items back at the end of the year. Some classrooms have community boxes for some supplies, but others keep individual items in their desks, so communication is important. Also, make sure to label anything you might want back. Finally, if you have extra supplies and you don't know what to do with them—ask me. Your art teacher can always use donations, or you can find a home for them elsewhere, such as VBS or summer camps. And if the items are still in good shape you can always use them again next year. Blessings to you for a great summer!

Glue and Watercolor Paints for Kids

Next we take a look at glue and watercolor paints.

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Glue is another item that parents should be wary of buying cheaply. Store brands seem to be the worst offenders, making claims to dry clearly, but then leaving blue, sticky patches in the middle of artwork. Or worse, the glue just does not hold fast, so art falls apart (I could say that's an application problem on the part of the user, but I find that most grade schoolers have the opposite problem and use too much). Gel glues, in my experience, are also not the best option for younger students. The ability to squeeze out only the amount needed isn't really developed yet. Even my eighth grade art students take some time learning how to put out the right amount of paint from the tube, and young children are just fascinated with squeezing things out—especially if there's any glitter involved. I would recommend that you stick with the stick (no pun intended!) when it comes to glue, and save the bling for folders.

The final item I want to make some recommendations about is watercolor paints. With paints you need to decide what quality is most important to you: washability, rich color or lightfastness. If all you are concerned with is washability, then Crayola is a great brand and probably the most economical. For rich color Prang is hard to beat. If lightfastness (which means the art will not fade when exposed to light, such as in a frame), you need to buy Sargent; they are pricier, but they are lightfast, and as far as I can discover, they are the only ones that are. I do not recommend other brands because many of them contain so much glycerin (to make them washable) that when water is added they become gel-like and are very difficult to paint with, besides giving weak, pale, unpleasant colors.

Next time we'll talk about the bottom line with school supplies. Photos courtesy of http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/32487 and http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/233995.

Some thoughts on colored pencils and crayons

To continue with my series on school supply tips, this time we look at colored pencils and crayons.

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Colored pencils have the same issues with gluing, but they also share a common problem with crayons: wax content. Cheap versions of these supplies are typically loaded with extra wax, and contain smaller amounts of pigment. Consequently they give weak, pale colors and sometimes don't even look like the colors they are supposed to be, which is frustrating to many students. For crayons, I usually stick with Crayola. With colored pencils there are several options. Faber-Castell makes a nice colored pencil that is glued all the way down (which solves the breakage issue talked about above) and has nice color. It's a little more expensive, but I would recommend it for older, more responsible students. Crayola colored pencils have nice color, but are very prone to breaking. A couple years ago I bought my daughter a set of colored pencils at Michaels. I'm not even sure of the brand, but I found them in the art supply section, not the kid arts and crafts section. I paid about six dollars for 24 colors, but she has used them for two years now and will be able to use them again next year, so we're now down to $2 a year. Of course, this investment only works when the student is old enough to not lose the items. I have seen some colored pencils put out by Crayola that are twistable and encased in plastic; what I have heard about them has been favorable, but I'm not very familiar with them.

Thank you to http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/12789 for the crayon photo.

School supplies already

Wow, I've been so involved in school that I haven't visited my own blog in a while. As our year winds down I've been thinking ahead to school supply lists for my art classes next year. This year I've paid attention to the tools all the students use, no matter what age, and have decided to write an informational article for our parents. Then I decided I'd share it here as well. So, if you're reading this and thinking I'm off my rocker already talking about supplies for next year, well just chalk it up to the fact that my students have driven me off the deep end--no wait, I'm just planning ahead. And rather than dump a massive article (in blog terms) here all at once, I think I'm going to serialize it, so tune in again for more schooooool supply tiiiiiips...

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Well it's almost here: the end of the school year. Which means summer break, sleeping in and fun at the beach? No, it means it's time to buy more school supplies! Am I the only parent amazed at how quickly the back-to-school sales fliers come out and sales begin? Before you start stocking up, though, I have a few suggestions I'd like to share after watching students use those supplies in art class.


The first warning I have is to watch out for some of those bargain supplies. Now I understand about budgets—I live on one, too, and I know many families are feeling the pinch right now. But one of the biggest difficulties I have found this year is that many of those supplies I remember seeing at such fantastic prices turned out to be big duds. Specifically, there are a handful of major offenders that I want to discuss and give some recommendations about: pencils and colored pencils, crayons, glue sticks, and watercolor paints.

Colored pencils seem to be a perpetual problem, but in the last couple years I've noticed that regular pencils also create unneeded difficulties. Cheaply made pencils, of both kinds, have fragile leads inside and are glued in only a couple places. When they are dropped—and sooner or later they will be!—the leads break down inside the pencil and fall out when the student tries to write. Then the student has to sharpen the pencil, but unless the sharpening process goes below the break or the next glue spot, the pencil lead will still continue to fall out when the student tries to write again. With regular pencils this problem is compounded by exteriors that are made of flimsy wood. Pencils covered with decorative plastic coatings seem to be especially bad about this. Manufacturers seem to think that the plastic will bind the wood tightly enough that the poor quality wood will be reinforced and hold fast. But manufacturers don't live in the world of grade schoolers, who peel the decorative coatings off and drop things all the time. I have watched students spend one third of their class time sharpening pencils until they have almost nothing left. My recommendation is to buy a little higher quality pencil, which of course aren't the ones on sale, but especially avoid the plastic coated ones.

Next time: More on colored pencils and crayons

Photo credit: http://photodaisy.blogspot.com/ through www.morguefile.com (Thank you!)

May the Drawing Force Be With You

I currently have two students who have a strong interest in creating graphic novels or pursuing similar work after graduation. Consequently I've been dipping into the world of comics, graphic novels and the creation of said materials. Since my household consists of several Star Wars fans who regularly look for online videos, I've spent some time on their site also and have discovered some fun and informative videos on the process of creating in this arena. If you're interested, check out the video on story boarding and then search for the other "You can draw Star Wars" videos. There is also a very good book of the same name. Yes, we have it, too, and it covers more than just Star Wars--including a lot of good solid basics.

Resources for beginning sketchers

It's spring break in my world, which means I have a few moments to myself. Right now that means answering a question someone posted about drawing books in a forum I occasionally visit. The post was a query for recommendations for books to help one learn to draw, which caught my eye because I'm always on the lookout for good resources. I was gratified to see that several of the ones offered where books I've already got. But I wanted to offer another title, which made me think, why don't I share this info on my blog, too. So, here is the text of my post (with slight revisions to stand alone), for anyone who is interested in learning to draw.

I teach K-12 art and have looked at hundreds of art books. The first book I would recommend is "Start to Draw" by Robert Capitolo and Ken Schwab. The first section covers some basic techniques that can be quite helpful: recognizing shapes and forms as understructure (something my students are currently struggling with), grid drawing, creating depth through shading techniques, proper lighting. The rest of the book gives various step-by-step projects to practice, but also covers such fundamentals as composition, using source material (see below for my thoughts on this topic) and basic proportions of the human face. "Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner", by Claire Watson Garcia, is another one that offers some of the same techniques, but she gives more explanations and goes a little more in-depth in places. She also discusses contour drawing, which has value as a practice exercise, but I think is more important in terms of teaching the eye to really observe what is being drawn. She also explains sighting and spends time teaching values, which are crucial to good art.

Also recommended by other people were Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing" and Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I have both, along with the workbook for the Edwards book. Dodson's book has good information, but I have to confess to not liking his drawing style very much. A couple things I do like are the summaries and checklists at the end of each chapter to help keep the things learned in mind. I also like how he points out what artists from the past have done. Since I incorporate art history into my classes, this is a big bonus for me. "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a standard for many people, but I find it to be very cerebral (while usually being on the lookout for witticisms, I have to say no pun intended here!). I rather felt like I was reading a psychology book, which must appeal to many people, but wasn't very helpful to me. The work book helped, because it's obviously designed with exercises to make one draw, which put into practice much of what she taught in the regular title.

Another standard is Mona Brooks' "Drawing with Children". This book gives some good step-by-step chapters and I found the breaking objects down into smaller parts advice very helpful. Children especially benefit from this concept, because it can be very overwhelming to look at a complete subject and try to draw it. By taking said subject as smaller, easy to draw bites, students have an easier time not becoming discouraged. Which reminds me that any youngster who likes to draw will enjoy the books by Ed Emberley, where he draws hundreds of people, animals, buildings, vehicles, etc. using a handful of basic shapes.

Someone on the forum suggested going to the library to check out some of the books before buying them and I would second their thought. I have saved myself tons of money by using my local library. Art instruction books (especially painting books) tend to fall into two basic categories: the ones that start from the most basic (pencils, paper, setting up a place to work, etc.) and the ones that take you from blank support to finished art in 3-5 steps. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. There are only so many times you need to read about paper surfaces, and going from beginning to end in three steps can be less than satisfactory. There are books that manage to avoid these two extremes and are extremely helpful--but the best way to discover what's what is to check them out at the library first. If you're not a regular library user, don't forget that most libraries can borrow from all around the country through their inter-library loan programs. Once you find something that is helpful you might try looking it up online and seeing if the author has published anything else or if the book site can recommend another similar book--I've found some great books that way.

Another comment on the forum was that the best way to learn is to do, and really that's the most important step. My seventh grade students focus on drawing and anytime a student has completed an assignment and is in need of something to do I give them another assignment to keep them drawing--practice, practice, practice. We work in the classical style, where we use old master drawings as our source material (copying), just like the art schools of old. I highly recommend this method to master the basics, then move on to being creative. Sometimes the biggest challenge in art is not knowing what to create and this method helps remove that obstacle, as well as helping you see things you might not have seen before: what is the angle on that roofline and how did the artist shade the wall to create the most depth? Copying from a painting or drawing also has the advantage that the artist has done some of the work for you already in terms of translating a dimensional subject to a flat surface and using methods of perspective and shading to create depth. These are techniques that you will want to learn, so copying an old master also gives the opportunity to study what they did to create the effect of the finished piece. Some of my favorite places to find art are Web Gallery of Art for Medieval to Romantic-age paintings and drawings (they also have sculpture, engravings, etc.), Art Renewal Center for 18th-20th century academic and classical art, Artcyclopedia for all ages and links to other places and The Athenaeum for many images not posted elsewhere. Copying has a long, respected history in the art world, but please be mindful of copyright issues.

Even if you are not interested in copying from an old painting, I would still encourage you to use some kind of source material to look at: find an object to draw or a photo to work from (preferably your own to avoid copyright issues). Having something to look at helps with proportions and lends a higher level of realism to the final result. You can also compare and find the places where you drawing goes wrong more easily when you actually have something you are looking at and comparing to. I know that most of my students, if given the assignment to just draw something, typically default to whatever they have always drawn, which doesn't help them improve.

A final reason to use source material is that most artists do, although many people don't realize this fact. There is a stereotype of the artist pulling a subject out of mind and putting it to canvas quickly and perfectly, and yes, this is done sometimes I'm sure (usually after a lifetime of looking at source materials!). However, most artists do quite a bit of research on a subject, including quick sketches, more in-depth studies and possibly several versions of the finished subject. Does every project need this much effort? Of course not, but the point is that artists do research and keep files of research. Even old masters had props and plaster casts to observe and work from. And don't forget the fine tradition of modeling for the artist. Source material is invaluable.

A couple last tips: if you are working on a picture and it just isn't going right for you there are a couple things you might try. One, try converting your source to black and white, which will help you see the values (this tip is especially helpful in painting). Two, turn it upside down and look at it from a new angle. Sometimes wrong proportions or off angles are more obvious upside down because we're not so focused on what the elements are: rather than seeing the town, we see a collection of lines. Look for relationships, line things up using your pencil and then compare it to your drawing. Are the relationships the same? Looking upside down will make these things easier to see.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. I would say best of luck, but it would probably be more fruitful to say, practice, practice, practice!

St. Jerome in His Study

St. Jerome in His Study by Antonello da Messina. I like the stillness of this painting. It has immense depth and makes me wonder what's around the other side of this unusual space within a space that comprises his study. What do you think?