Artist

What or who is an artist or artistic?

So this post is a reflection of my training today.
At the start of the training I had a very negative view of my ability to be artistic, but the more I participated in the training I realized that I truly can express myself in this medium, not only that but my friends also encouraged me that I am artistic in many other manners as well. So overall this training was not only a tool to take back into my classroom, but I true learning experience of who I was.

Today I went to a training as part of a buy back day for work. It was actually a lot of fun, as it was a hands on training and not a lecture. Anyway, the training was about teaching art to students. Today's focus was on lines and colors. The first project was an introductory lesson on the five different types of lines (straight, curvy, circle, diagonal, and do). She then gave us directions to draw each of the different types of lines that had to teach a corner. Of course everyone pictures cam out differently. It was a simple activity that I'll try to adapt to my class this week. The second was a teacher directed lesson of drawing a lion. ( I am actually quite proud of this lesson because this is the first picture I drew that was not simply stick figures). The third lesson was an introductory lesson into all the different mediums of painting (pen, pencil, crayon, markers, charcoal, India ink, watercolors, tempera paint, chalk, and grease pencils). Then we used line and line only to depict feeling. The last activity and the most intriguing for me was to create Kandinsky inspired abstract paintings using different line types.
The lesson on colors started off with simple activities to teach what is color (Check out Rainbow Sympathy.com for rainbow glasses), and primary, secondary and complementary colors. We then created a fish (I had to redo this activity as I did not like my first drawing. We then picked two primary colors and created a secondary color in the middle of the fish.
This activity really gave me the self confidence that I needed to realize that I truly have artistic abilities. I am now intrigued by the ability to create fun and meaningful pieces using the elements that I learned in this lesson (The best part is that there are 2 more trainings). So on Thursday when we return to the library I am thinking that I might check out a few art books just for mommy! LOL Until then I'll continue my artful abilities in the kitchen lol! (Thanks Cornia).

BTW There was another great activity that was introduced that was to use and combine primary colors to create a background for an animal cut out from a magazine.


Wishing that you all find your inner artist, as it was truly a GREAT experience for me!

Let me know if you would like more information on these activities.