MORE ART BASICS - YES, BUT CAN YOU DRAW?

asked to put together a series of classes for small children to learn how to draw. She came up with a method of observation, and several familiar shapes that help a student to see how objects are formed visually: the Dot Family, the Circle family, the Straight Line family, the Curved line family and the Angle line family. When these are explained by example even to little pre-schoolers, it helps them greatly in their ability to see, analyze, and record what they are looking at. This book is another excellent source for anyone, any age, to learn how to see, which is really the first and most important step in learning to draw.

· ”Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing, Meditation in Action” by Frederick Franck
· ”The Zen of Seeing, Seeing & Drawing as Mediation” also by Frederick Franck
These are books I bought for myself, not to help others learn to draw, but to remember the meditative and pleasurable state of mind that focussing on a drawing gives to me. In the hustle and hassle, I forget to give myself the time and space to indulge in this wonderful endeavor, and these books help me to get back to it.

This is a pastel drawing of one of my (now deceased) kitties, Calico Cookie, from life, as fast as I could do it. Of course, I had to stop after just a few minutes, since she got up, stretched, and jumped down to get away from my intensity.

I am of the school of thought that drawing is a fundamental skill that not only supports all other visual art endeavors, but also develops that hemisphere of the human brain that leads to problem solving, thinking more expansively, coming up with new ideas, and just having a better and more complete life overall.

I am glad that Mr. and Mrs. Gates are building their technology centers, but I wish they would be a little better in balance, by building creativity centers with just as much money and fanfare. Who will dream up the next imaginative solutions to problems? Those who know how to think creatively, outside the box, that’s who - the imaginers, the dreamers, the visualizers.

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