More Automatic Drawings during "Creativity Stretcher" week

I love seeing the variety of interesting images, creatures, and monsters produced during our scribble line drawings, also known as Automatism. My students absolutely love when we do this drawing and although some struggle the first time completing this activity, by the second or third time these students are lost in finding the hidden images within their scribbles. If you are curious about this activity and missed my last post, check out Creativity Stretcher: Automatic Drawing (Scribble Line Drawing) or my YouTube channel for a video with detailed directions on how I facilitate this activity in my classroom.

1st grader creating mouse and cheese from scribbles

2nd grade students starting to add details with permanent marker

1st grade student making an imaginary creature

Aliens and Spaceships and footballs, oh my!

2nd grade students

Creativity Stretcher: Automatic Drawing (Scribble Line Drawing)

This week's focus in art is Creativity Stretchers. After returning from a long weekend, it is sometimes difficult to get back on track to routines, procedures, and projects in the art room, so creativity stretchers are a great way to refocus creative energy into productive quick drawings.

Automatic drawing was developed by the surrealists as a means of expressing the subconscious. In automatic drawing, the hand is allowed to move randomly across the paper.  The drawing produced may be attributed to the subconscious. Artists who practiced automatic drawing include Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Jean Arp and Andre Breton. The technique was transferred to painting as seen in Miró's paintings which often started out as automatic drawings.

Nocturne by Joan Miro

To start this activity, doodle or scribble with your eyes closed or open.  The objective is to keep a loose hand and “feel” your way through the scribble.  There is something to be said about happy accidents and unplanned ideas! Stop whenever it feels right or as a teacher, set a time for students.  My students are shown how to scribble first by drawing various lines covering the paper completely. I tell them to imagine they are toddlers again. I think my elementary students find great joy with this part of the activity. It may seem messy, but after one minute, I ask students to stop and use their creative eye to transfer scribbles into an interesting design or image using only the scribble lines at first to create a representational image or object.

Some rules that I establish with my students:

• avoid slow methodical planned scribbles (there is no spontaneity with a planned scribble)
• scribble fast and scribble the entire one minute
• when searching for an image, avoid numbers and letters (too easy)
• use the scribble lines as the original form, but add details to help evolve the found image (for example, if an animal shape is found, add texture or face details if not readily found in the available scribble lines)
• No Erasing! 

Once students start the search for an object, animal, creature or whatever pops out from the scribbles, we trace the necessary scribble lines with black permanent marker to make our found object or creature stand out from the rest of the scribbles. This activity is very similar to the hidden picture image in the comic section of the newspaper. I encourage students having a difficult time finding an image to turn their paper and view the scribbles from a different perspective. I even encourage students to hold the scribbles close to their face and pull away to see if anything "pops" for them.

I must admit that this activity is difficult for any concrete "left brain" thinkers and less challenging for those who are easily abstract "right brain" thinkers.  Although incredibly difficult for some the first time, after several attempts, this activity will become easier.

I think the quote below is very applicable to any of the creativity stretchers completed this week...

“Don’t underestimate this idea of mine, which calls to mind that it would not be too much of an effort to pause sometimes to look into these stains on walls,  the ashes from the fire,  the clouds,  the mud, or other similar places.  If these are well contemplated, you will find fantastic inventions that awaken the genius of the painter to new inventions, such as composition of battles, animals and men, as well as diverse composition of landscapes, and monstrous things, as devils and the like.”

Leonardo da Vinci

Creativity Stretcher: "Pick a Shape" Activity

In 2012, IBM conducted interviews with 1,700 CEOs around the world and published the results in a paper titled “Leading through Connections”. Instead of looking for particular skills, most CEOs interviewed by IBM realized that they need employees who are able to thrive in change, by constantly learning and reinventing themselves. The four specific traits most desired are:

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Creativity
• Flexibility

Most people believe that creativity and imagination only belong to special gifted individuals, when in reality, we are all born creative and imaginative. As young children, we play and pretend using our imaginations all the time, but somewhere along the way we loose the confidence to call ourselves creative and assume we never were at any point in our lives. My hope is that my students never loose the confidence to be creative, because they will need this confidence to be critical and flexible thinkers. Creativity is a valuable 21st century skill. The arts encourage and develop creativity in all people. Sir Ken Robinson, writer, researcher, adviser, teacher and speaker, makes a great case for creativity and is the author of many books about creativity and education. Here are a two of his books on my reading list:

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. (Capstone Publishing Limited, 2001)
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. (Viking Adult, 2009)

This particular activity is a great way to challenge anyone's imagination at any age. I have even used this activity with adults as well as kindergarten students. As a matter of fact, this is the activity we are focusing on in art for the next couple of days grades kindergarten through second. Here are a list of supplies you will need for this particular "Pick a Shape" Creativity Stretcher.

Glue, Crayons, Writing Pencils, Drawing Paper, assorted precut geometric shapes (1-2 inches wide)

For the younger elementary students, I demonstrate the following steps before assigning to students. The whole class helps collaboratively brainstorm ideas for the shape I have chosen and any details I could add to make the object more recognizable. Here are some results from previous year's artists.

My kindergarteners practiced this activity on Wednesday and Thursday and will start a new "Pick a Shape" activity next week. My first and second grade students have tried this activity in the previous school year, so are familiar with my creativity stretchers.

1. Teacher hands out 9x12 inch drawing paper, one per student. Students write their FIRST NAME, LAST NAME and GRADE (2D) on back. Remind students to do a thumbs up high in the air to show they have completed this step. Teacher checks papers. Kindergarten students are only required to write their first name and grade, while first and second grade students are required to write their first name, last name, and grade.
2. Once completed with name and grade (while you are checking papers), allow students to choose one geometric shape from a ziplock gallon bag of pre-cut construction paper shapes. Students then glue the shape to the 9x12 inch drawing paper. Remind students one to two dots of glue; Dot, Dot, not a lot.
3. Using their imagination, students must turn that shape into an object, creature or animal of some sort. Encourage individuality and diversity. Encourage them NOT to copy their neighbors, but to be unique. Encourage students to add details. Details are extras such as where the object is located; inside or outside. What other things might we see with the object? Is it a sunny day or cloudy day? etc. Students may add color with crayons. Art supply inspectors (ASI) will grab these supplies from the art supply shelf and bring to their table sections.
4. Five minutes before end of class, clean up begins. Art Supply Inspector makes sure pencils, glue bottles, and crayons are back on supply shelf. At the end of class, call quiet table sections to place their papers in the drying rack to prevent papers from sticking together.

Quote of the Day

During my kindergarten class, I overheard one of my students tell his table mates while painting

"Hey, we are artists like Wayne Thiebaud is an artist!

I love the confidence, so cute!