Teaching Children

Drawing

2020 | Teaching | Vindell & Lucas Studio Sessions

Teaching Children

This page highlights some recent accomplishments by my sons, 7 and 10, as I taught them to draw last summer during COVID. Conceptual drawings of birdhouses and biomorphic forms coincided with the student mastering circles in perspective while employing rules for constructing armatures using basic geometric forms. For boys this age the content was challenging; however, they adapted well through the rigor of repetition. I merged this learning path with their studies in 3D modeling (Cinema4D & Blender). In one project shown in the expanded gallery, the boys prototyped birdhouses from imagination by constructing them in Blender. Subsequently, their resultant 3D models assist in executing a conceptual birdhouse drawing.

Because the boys can construct their birdhouses and biomorphic forms using the conceptual methods taught in the studio, Blender takes on a unique role in their process. Rather than using the 3D model as an observational reference, the software acts as a light simulator—illuminating their idea to assist them in executing the chiaroscuro phase of the conceptual drawing. Thus, their digital and physical interests collide—fusing into a vacillating learning experience that wields the expressive potential of our emergent metaverse.

The boys have become adept at employing the intuitive gesture, while also relying on various other traditional methods used in drawing from observation. This first gallery includes a selection from the larger gallery and were taken over the past six months during the COVID-19 pandemic.