Inside the Spin-Mosaic Studio

As a teacher and a movie-watcher, my philosophy has always been to NOT be that person who blares the spoiler alert.

I will not do for a student what they can do for themselves. I will not announce a development milestone before they are ready to see it for themselves. Plant the seeds and arrange scenarios for discovery. Help them see. Encourage introspection; not an educational download. Motive must be organic.

An apple is not perfectly round. An eye is an almond, not a circle...

Yesterday's Creativity IQ and Kids Activity Challenge involved a look at children's portrait drawing. Two of my son's drawings shine as examples. One was the CUTEST ever simplistic stick-figure-type that I found in his room 48 hours ago...

The other below, he created last summer, 10-months ago...

Based on my face, his mama-artist-teacher...

I found the all-positive comparison of these two portraits a fascinating study, because the portrait that resembles more realistic features was created 10-months of growth development "ago", while the stick figure super-cute one was created super-recently. What is going on with the progression of skill development? Everything good.

One was created while I was sitting pretty still giving private art lessons to another student. Brandon was watching, drawing and studying my features from a nearby chair. The other was created while he was drawing in his free-time in his bedroom "studio" space. What was his brain doing?--reverting to known associations. And I LOVE that drawing like few things in my life that have ever made me smile genuinely. But, if ever any two very different drawings were a testament to the power of drawing from live-subjects, these are!

*One of the BEST ways you can help improve your young artist's skills is to encourage drawing from sight. Observe features and details, then recreate on paper.

What happens when young artists grow up? What happens when young artists shift from drawing stick-figure representations of hand, head and body shapes, and begin to notice that an eye is an almond and a face is elongated?

What happens when a young artist discovers that an apple is not round and that most are not red? What happens when a young artist looks in the mirror instead of in their memory?

I would like to introduce you to one of my TOP #3 Student Artists of 20-years teaching. Jenna has been emancipated from art teachers now, intrinsically motivated as always, poetically introspective, sojourning her own creative investments, and a coniferous kindred soul who will thrive in all seasons. She graciously shared her words with me and with you about the introspective journey of portraiture. She says it better than I. 

"In making a self-portrait, whether it be a realistic representation of physical  features or an abstract interpretation of the self, the greatest hurdle is not one in skill or in technique. In my personal experience of making self-portraits, the challenge is in assessing the self.

Making a representation of yourself is learning how to see your own face; something so familiar and personal, and to move beyond any self-judgement or premonitions of what you have been told or thought your self-image to be.

In one of my early art classes in elementary school, my class was set on the task of drawing an apple. When I got to my workstation, laid out before me was a variety of colored pencils-- but no red. I was confused on how I was supposed to draw an apple without drawing a red circle.

The teacher explained to us that drawing is not about drawing what you know the object is. She explained drawing is about learning to see what is really there. The apple we were about to draw was not truly red, nor was the apple a perfect circle.

The challenge and beauty of a self-portrait is the process of confronting existing premonitions and assumptions connected to the concept of the self. This confrontation is heavy but valuable inner work: the artist making a self-portrait learns to move beyond their flaws to a place of greater self-awareness and self-acceptance. 

Therefore, the challenge of making a self-portrait is all about being able to see your self as it truly is- seeing the apple as more than a red sphere."

       ---Jenna

Hold those good feelings, but let me correct any assumptions. I was not Jenna's elementary teacher that she speaks of. Her name may have been counted on my class roster at the high school level, but I cannot and will not claim credit for her skill.

Jenna knew an apple was not round or red long before she entered my art classroom. Jenna had already gathered truckloads of apples in her own orchard of intrinsic observation long before she glided through the threshold of my four-walled-room with her dark curls, as sweet as Snow White. My room may have provided her space to breathe and room to move, but her motivation is very much her own. Her skill is God-given.

By the way, Jenna, the fingernails tell it all in this recent portrait. Mastery achieved here! 

Jenna, and the other two Top 3 I can only claim likewise. They owned the skill; I provided the space and kept a steady stream of encouragement.

Parents, teachers, if you are reading these posts grasping to know how to empower and enable your creative child, "...when I can't even draw a stick figure", as I have literally heard through tears over the years, know that the #1 thing you can do is simply provide physical space, a space in time, and support to fill this space as they wish. They will thrive organically: space, time, and support.

Set up a studio environment for your young artist that includes a propped up mirror--that can easily be glanced at without too much shifting of the body. Help your artist to be able to look into the mirror, and turn back to their drawing without shifting position or distracting focus. 

Provide a variety of necessary supplies. Encourage them to sketch from the neck up, like a yearbook photo. Trace lines with a dark fine-tip marker or colored pencil. Then fill with color as they wish.

*There are rules of perspective and "thirds" and quadrants and what-not involved in accurate face proportion, but we are not worried about that today. Observe them drawing if they will let you...while realizing that the creation of a portrait can be an intensely personal activity. We call this introspective.

Have Fun and Stay Creative! I would love to see your drawings!