Arlington Art - Lighthouse
A year doesn’t go by without a student asking, “how do you get good at drawing?”
It’s a big question, and one that I usually answer with more questions: “What is a good drawing?” and “Who gets to decide what is a good drawing and what isn’t?”
Like anything, the more you practise, the better and more confident you will get. If you enjoy the process of drawing, you are likely to draw more often and therefore have more skills and sureness in your ability.
As much as possible, I try to encourage students to trust their own feelings around whether an artwork is ‘good’. The more they can trust in their own abilities rather than seek teacher or parent approval, the more they can explore their creativity freely and develop their own style. I could create an endless list of master artists who led major art movements yet, whose work was rejected at the time they made it. Many (particularly female and POC) artists are still, only now, being recognised for their avant garde and groundbreaking contributions to the art world.
Art can be an incredible way to view the world through someone else's eyes, gain insight, tolerance, and understanding.
In this theme, the Lighthouse keepers have been continuing their inquiry into what it means to be an artist, exploring inspiration and artistic processes. They questioned “do we all see the same?”
“You have different colours in your eyes but you still see the same colours. You can see the same thing but someone else, like the grown up can know what they are looking at.” - Noa
“We cannot see the same stuff because we are on different angles” - Daiynan
If people don't wear their glasses, they might see smushy” - Oskar
“You don’t see the same because your eyes are bigger than mine. You see things bigger” - Harriet
They experimented with creating from their imagination, from a personal memory and then from observations they made in the world around them. Tying into their classroom unit of inquiry, we have now begun to look at how artists experiment. In the coming weeks we will experiment with different materials to naturally dye fabric and observe how the colours and patterns transform and change.
Claire Robertson
Art Teacher