The Aesthetic Window

The entry point through which learners respond to formal and sensory qualities of a subject of work of art. For example: the colour, line, expression, and composition of a painting. Questions: How would you describe the lines that you see? What colours do you see in this work of art? Does what you see seem balanced or off-balance? What emotions appear to be expressed in this work of art? Describe this object in detail.


Targeted questions assignment – third year life drawing

First step – what do I want them to know?? I.e. the Learning Outcomes

The Learning Outcomes (at the end of this lesson the student should…)

- Understand how tone creates depth (B)

- Have developed his/her observational skills (size-relationship of parts

  to the whole) (B)

- Understand the importance of good composition in completed work (A)

- Understand the difference between drawing what you see and what

  you think is there ( e.g. a hand holding a glass has to be drawn as it

  appears, no matter how ‘unlike’ a hand it may seem to you in your

  drawing) (A)

- Be able to reasonably evaluate his/her own drawing-in-progress, (and

  his/her classmates’) and attempt to make changes along the way. (A)

(“A” standing for advanced level, “B” standing for basic level of

understanding. Of course there is some overlap)

The Questions

These should be divided accordingly and asked before (to focus the looking), during (to

evaluate how things are going) and after (as a critique/review).

Tone:

- Why not simply do a line drawing?

- Why do we use tone?

- How do we create tone? (Point out a good example from their work)

- Why did (Mary) use a lot of tone on this particular area of her life drawing?

Size relationships/ Observation:

- How wide do you think our shoulders are in relation to the size of our head on

  average?

- How many ‘head-sizes’ does it take to get from the top of the head to the floor

  when standing?

- How long are our arms actually? (Everyone stand up and realise that they are

  quite long!)

Composition:

- How much space on the sheet (A2) should we use up?

- Why is it important to use up the space well?

- What would the outcome be if we drew too small on the sheet?

- Looking around the room point out a piece of art where there is good

  composition.

Drawing what you see and not what….

- Describe the model’s hands as we see them in the pose, through words.

- Did you manage to draw them reasonably accurately?

- Look at (Tom’s) drawing; is his drawing of the model’s hands and the book/glass

  well done? Why?

- The model was looking down in the pose, what does this mean when we have to

  draw her eyes?

Evaluating your work

- (Everyone look away for a few seconds then focus on their own drawing again)

- How is the drawing going? What areas look good? What areas appear out-of-

  proportion?

- Where will you take the drawing from here?

- (Mary,) pick a drawing that is of a good quality and tell us why you picked it.

- What could the student improve on?