I observed our son learning to process what he sees rather than what he thinks he sees. A bit of explanation on perspective was thrown in for good measure.
Gregory came home from school shortly after they left to drop him off at 7am this morning. Turns out no school today as his teacher was ill. I decided to provide Gregory with his first formal art lesson. We had been informed before we arrived here that schooling was only 1/2 days and it was not always consistent – teachers having other things to take care of.
Walter and I agreed to homeschool Gregory during our time here – providing additional depth to whatever they offer. Our formal schedule does not start until September, but hey, art is fun right?
Other than colouring with Gregory when he was little, and my most recent foray into learning to paint, I have not done any type of art using pencil crayons in maybe 30 years. Today was a bit of a test of the technique I had decided to go with in my head.
We started out with an apple and a banana on a plate. We sat at 90 degrees to each other so his perspective was different than mine. When he first drew the 3 objects it was a circle for the plate, a circle for the apple and a banana – all not touching. I asked him whether what he drew was what he saw. Once he recognized that it was not the objects he was drawing but the objects as he saw them, he erased and redrew his perspective.
We then took turns sitting at my side and his, walking through the shadows, different colours on the apple, the colours of the plate because of the light from the window. I explained he should draw the general shape and then draw the areas where the different colours go.
Similar to what you may find on a paint-by-numbers art piece, Gregory was tasked with creating those areas. We then walked through the colours and away he went. We worked together and once we had both the drawings done, we moved onto layering of the colours to deepen and define the areas. Gregory did a great job!
When we were almost done, he asked whether we could eat the apple. Of course! One always has the option of consuming their still life. The apple was eaten with peanut butter and the artwork is hung on the fridge. I look forward to the next session.
