This week in art club we decided to develop students' graphite skills. While a very basic part of art, it is nonetheless a very important one. We let everybody pick their own subject matter, although we did provide them with initial inspiration in the form of a composition we set up.
I was hoping that this laissez-faire leadership style will stimulate creativity and, as it has in the past, but I think that for this particular medium, a more specific exercise in tone or form should have been set because although pencils are a very interesting medium for exploring these aspects, their lack of colour does not lend itself well to particularly striking improvisation pieces which can be produced by younger students in a short time span, unlike bright paint which can create startling effects quickly.
Nonetheless, the work produced was wonderful, with themes varying from cats to skulls to landscapes to bells. Although I had wanted every piece to be unique, several people decided to work in pairs and pick the same object to draw. As much as I was initially opposed to this, we couldn't tell them not to after we told them they can draw anything they like, but I was pleasantly surprised at the interesting juxtaposition of perspective of the same object.
Allowing people to nurture their own ideas rather than force mine upon them is proving to be, unsurprisingly, very important, especially in such a creative environement.
The only real issue was attendance, although to be fair it wasn't too bad. We had seven people in all, which may be dissapointing after the previous boom but was a fair number of people nonetheless.
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