My art lesson today...

Today I woke up feeling that I actually don't want to work. at all.
I'm so glad I did though. My English class was a nightmare...too many chatterboxes (even during a test day -_-) so let's skip that part.

My art classes were fabulous. The excitement in the kids voices as they realized they were going to be drawing Angry Birds based on the Pop Art style was priceless. There were chatty moments when kids connected to each other as they told each other about their favourite game and then there were the quiet moments of pouring their creative minds onto paper.

I was also quite happy to give the kids endless possibilities with suggestions that the Angry Birds meet other favourite characters; Mario, Pac Man, Pokemon, being in Toronto, shopping, The Lorax (that brought up quite a few smiles too). It's definitely interesting to juxtapose popular icons.

Also, one boy asked, "Can I colour the angry bird purple?"
I said, "Of course. You're the artist."
The boy said, "Yayy!"

I was quite happy to let the kids realize that art is about being creative. You don't have to draw anything like the handout. It's just a stepping stone for your creativity to soar.

I hope I can continue to do this for their future lessons but this school seems to put much more emphasis on technique which can dwindle some of the kid's interests. However, technique is still important as children around the age of 12 wants to create realistic drawings. If they can't achieve that, then they lose interest in art due to frustration. You can read about the drawing development here. I found it quite fascinating as it relates to my young daughter too. Will blog about it in a later post. Also, hoping to blog some of my art lesson ideas to share in the future.