celebrating a friend’s new book.
August 16, 2010
A friend’s book was released last month. Carla Sonheim‘s DRAWING LAB: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun. It is really fun, and I think it will inspire a lot of people! And I am honored to have contributed in a teeny way with an interview and art. In celebration for Carla, I am hosting a book-give-a-way. (Signed by the author, too!) But since I get to host the give-a-way, I’m gearing it to teachers K-12, because I think it would be such an inspiration for them and their students. Then, just one book can reach many.
SO…if you are a teacher, OR, if you are a parent of a student (or a student) who promises to gift it to a teacher, please leave a comment in this post and share your favorite drawing exercise of your own. I’ll choose a comment/receiver for the book in 2 weeks. Yay for Carla. I know how exciting it is to have your book out in the world!
10 Responses to “celebrating a friend’s new book.”
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© 2012 jenny sue kostecki-shaw · coloredsock@mac.com · 575 586 1726
August 17th, 2010 at 4:25 am
oh, Jenny Sue, before I even READ this post, I was thinking, “I gotta get me over to AMAZON and find me this book!”……I go back to school next week and am ALWAYS looking for more ways to teach drawing to my kids ( grades 3,4,5) as I never have felt too confident….I am a 3-d person….so I shined in those classes in art school, but had to work soooooo hard in my drawing classes, and still to this day am not very confident…
my favorite lesson to teach my students ( and I do this 2x a year as a way for them to see how much they have grown!) is to hand out toddler shoes…I have a huge crate of all styles) and teach them to do very slooooow observational contour line drawings of the shoe…I tell them to make believe they are an ant, crawling along every line and edge of that shoe, dragging a marker….after we work on that I ask them to visualize in their heads turning that shoe into something, for example, water transportation, or a car, or a space object ( I switch it up) and set that observational drawing into an imaginal setting….and ask them to draw with as much care and detail from their heads as they did with the drawing from their eyes.
I tell them artists work 3 ways…from observation, from imagination, and sometimes they put the 2 together….
they love this and I have to say, my little ones draw as well as the middle school teachers’ kids, if not better IMHO cause I think I am successful at teaching them the merits of sloooooowing down and really looking….
sorry this post is long….but I could not think of any other way to explain! :)….I would love to win this book!
August 17th, 2010 at 6:29 am
oh how lovely! i am a K-8 teacher – what a wonderful looking book. :)
August 17th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Always looking for new ways to get creative with my kindergarteners. Looks like a fun book!
August 20th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I teach 6-8 grades and special needs kids. I am always looking for drawing prompts to get the creativity flowing!
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 am
I’m a homeschooling mom, does that count? I saw this at the local book store and it was just a bit over my price range at the time, but I definitely have it on my wishlist. I think it would be an awesome project book for our homeschool group. Thanks for the chance!
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Wow Jenny!! This is just the book I would have been searching for.
I am an illustrator/teacher in Connecticut. I work with children in grades 1st-6th in a Montessori school just down the road from me. We often use children’s books to teach the elements of art and each of them have their very own sketch book. I am often amazed at their various approaces and subject matter.
I feel this book would make an incredible impact on their work and would allow them to explore endless possibilities. I would be happy to post their work as well upon completing certain exercises.
Thanks so much Jenny. I have always been inspired by your work!
Chris
August 29th, 2010 at 6:51 am
ps, I forgot…you can see more of my work w/ my students at:
http://www.vermontartfarm.blogspot.com
am pretty proud of what they can do , and i love to share!
August 31st, 2010 at 7:59 pm
hi Kerin! thanks for sharing about your students and their art. the blog and their art is SUPER inspiring!!! and what a small world!! our good friend Lisa Klakulak was at your school! i was so surprised to see her picture working with the kids with felt! she is such a cool person and inspiring artist! so happy you’ve connected with her. i’ll be checkin into your blog here onward! yay. jenny
August 31st, 2010 at 8:16 pm
OK, so i’ve been elbow deep in the garden and my baby chicks and thus overdue with keeping up with my blog — but alas, Chris, i am passing on Carla’s book to you. Kerin, Angelique, CHeryl, Amanda and Sperlygirl, i must share it was too much pressure to ‘choose’ a recipient, because i wanted to give one to ALL of you. and yes, Angelique! Homeschooling counts! I think that is awesome of you and would love to hear more from you on that — do you blog about it? (We plan on homeschooling Tulsi!)
Chris, i’m sure your students will love Carla’s book and exercises! Please do share some of their art from it (on line somewhere?) and post a link on this post so other teachers can enjoy the inspiration. OH! and everybody check out Kerin’s link with her students’ work! it’s all so great. http://www.vermontartfarm.blogspot.com
you all inspire me, too. thanks! and hopefully you’ll all stumble upon a copy of Carla’s book at some point.
Chris, can you email me your address at coloredsock@mac.com? thanks!
September 6th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Thank you so much Jenny. This will be a wonderful addition to my classroom and sure to inspire all kinds of art. We will post pictures as soon as we dive in!
Thanks again and keep up with your beautiful posts and inspiration.