Day 9

Colton working hard and dividing the canvas.

Today I realized how little time we really have left... the thought of leaving Proctor and this community really makes me sad so to keep my mind off of that, I spent the day with my favorite kids ever. I went to Mr. Hubbard's class and was greeted with a warm welcome and excitement from the students asking what they were going to be painting today. When I told them they were painting the beach a buzz of excitement ran through the classroom. The fact that I gave these guys this big task just shows how much faith I have in them. A seascape is really hard for a new artist to do but they adapted so well to the field of red flowers, I knew they could do it. I told them how they should have a sky, water and land. The colors they use are up to them, that there are some tropical waters that are greenish blue, and there are deep blue waters so it was up to them and what they imagined when they thought of the beach. Today's main job was to put a base coat down so they could add details tomorrow. It was awesome because all of the kids had a different style of how they were going to start. I recommended that they start in the sky and work down to the sand so that the brown did not dirty their waters (literally). When I finally was finished with the lesson, I was so excited to see what they were going to do. As I walked around they started mixing colors and working with their pallets. That is one of the biggest things that I taught them.. and they remembered! That you should mix your own colors instead of using them straight from the tube. I walked over to one of the boys working and he had divided his canvas into 3 sections and was putting the brown into the canvas, I was a little taken back because he decided not to take my advice of starting in the sky but I realized that as an art teacher, I needed to let him take his own path and I was actually more impressed with how he used the pencil to make an outline because that is what worked best for his brain. I told him that I liked the color he decided to make the sand and he replied with "well, thanks but I just followed your directions by mixing the brown, yellow and white together to make this color." That really impressed me because even though he followed his own ideas for starting with the ground, I still got through to him somehow.

Jason killin' it!

Look at Delaney's waves!

Damion working really lightly and making some waves. 

I think it is so interesting to see how some of the students like really dark colors on one had and on the other hand some of them are so gentle and light with the brush and their colors. Both end up looking really good but I think that the students that use the lighter colors are generally more excited about how it looks which is interesting. Maybe on Monday when I go back and help them finish these paintings I will remind them that using dark colors is always dangerous and it is always better to use light colors and then get darker. I have told them this but it is a hard concept to grasp that all artists can be guilty of doing this many times in their artistic careers. I will not be going back to AEMS tomorrow because it is S.H.A.R.E. Day which is a day in which it is not a normal school day and they participate in different activities, so I think I will take this opportunity to work on my own artwork because I am already prepared for next week's sessions and I have really been missing the studio!