First Friday Art Class for March 2013 - Bunnies, Bunnies and More Bunnies

I was running a bit behind and scattered this week and didn't get to create a handout for class today...so I decided to have the girls create their own handout. It ended up being VERY effective. (Note to self: DO THIS AGAIN!) :)

I drew the information on the white board and they drew it on a page in their sketchbook.

We approached out task today - drawing bunnies - the same way we approached drawing people in our  October Class. We started with some mix and match parts, talked about how placement and size of these parts can change the entire drawing. I challenged the girls to try all kinds of bunnies - big head/small body, small head/big body, big ear, small ears, etc., etc., etc.

We got some wonderful bunny drawings that I unfortunately was so busy admiring I forgot to take pictures of. But trust me, these girls produced some amazing, fun, creative and sweet drawings!

We also used this page from Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals by Sachiko Umoto. (I adore this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in drawing. Sachiko's books are beautiful and lyrical and simple, yet also elegant. I have all three of her drawing books. I'm a huge fan!)

Next we moved onto drawing a more realistic bunny. I used THIS excellent step by step tutorial from idrawgirls (I've included a picture of it below because parents be warned that the idrawgirls site has some mature content. This bunny page is rated G, but the rest of the site may not be!).

For this bunny, we drew together in steps. I didn't give the girls the full handout until the end. I think I have mentioned this before that I find that kids can get discouraged or distracted if they see the end from the beginning. I like to draw with them, doing each step slowly, making sure they are getting it. Then they were given the handout to take home and practice with after we had completed one bunny together.

I drew with them on the whiteboard. Before we even drew one line for this bunny, though, we reviewed drawing lightly. I had the girls draw a circle at the top of their page. And then a lighter one. And then an even lighter one. This way they were reminded about a soft touch and a light pencil mark as some of the lines would be erased at the end. We struggled to find a good description of the head shape and came up with "slightly smashed gumdrop". This seemed to help them make that first mark on the page.

And wow did we get some amazing drawings! The girls found that if you made the ears even smaller, your drawing would look like a guinea pig and if the ears were even bigger and the body a little leaner, you'd get a more mature looking rabbit as opposed to a bunny.

I had some other activities on deck (specifically THESE chicks) but as they sometimes will, these bunnies just kept multiplying and multiplying until our time was suddenly up. This was a great way to hop into spring!

See you next month!