Reading #5

Teaching Conversations, Contemporary Art, and Figure Drawing:

Regardless of the modern mediums and art forms out there, figure drawing still has a valid place in art education because of the human figure's ability to be expressive, the hand-eye training, and opening up conversations about beauty and ideals. Drawing the human body is challenging and takes patience, and students need to have a willingness to make mistakes and learn. Students can become frustrated, but it is important to remember that one of the goals in teaching figure drawing is to experiment with mark making and to not be paralyzed by perfection. Figure drawing can still to this day teach some very valuable lessons to students as well as spark meaningful conversations.

My experience drawing the human figure in school is non-existant. I have never had teachers go over that in art classes and therefore am not interested in it solely due to limited to none experiences drawing the human form. Outside of school, I always draw people in church. The bishop, the choir, the hair style of the girl in front of me, etc. It is never a full body though, always waist up with an emphasis on the face. And these tend to go more characature-like anyways. I would approach teaching this topic in a very accepting way. What I mean by that is by teaching and re-teaching that practice is needed to make figure drawings look good and that students shouldn't be afraid to mess up. I might tell them to fill an entire sketchbook (depending on how many pages it is...) of figure drawings. I think this is one art form that really does require diligence in observation and in execution, and so practicing is so important. I would tell them up front they wouldn't be graded on a perfect photo-like image of the human form, but rather on their process.