Drawing Tutorial: Chalk

Another 'unit' we had at the Waldorf Teacher Seminar was chalk drawing.

You may ask why that would be important, but at Waldorf schools we don't have smartboards or whiteboards, we still use chalkboards -- and we also like things to be aesthetically pleasing.

It also demonstrates another level to our understanding of/connection with the material as teachers, when we have understood it enough to draw it (have we seen/grasped the essentials of what makes a dandilion a dandilion, for example?). Perhaps a bit strange, but I definitely enjoy it!

Learning the technique with two colors

1. As with the black and white drawings, first the surface needs to be prepared/fully seen/grasped (thus the blue and yellow strokes everywhere). 
2. Sometimes the yellow of the dandilion (or form being drawn) 'pushes' outward + sometimes the blue of the surrounding area (or background) 'pushes' back inward. They stand in relationship to one another, one does not just sit independently in front of the other.

We had an interesting time trying to remember what dandilion leaves looked like :)*

3 colors

1. Tried a new background technique -- swirls! :)
2. Yes, this was only my second attempt, so it wasn't yet stunning ;), but maybe it is still partly recognizable? No? Oh well, I was trying to draw a periwinkle flower. 
1. What is the essence (at least according to me)? 5 petals, often all slightly rotated, like fan blades, with an offset star in the middle

Setting accents

1. As you can hopefully see, it is less about drawing outlines but rather showing where the object is and where it is not. This can be done with accents. Sometimes the accents show the edge of the mass and sometimes the accents show the light/background behind said mass.

Fairy Tales (for 1st grade)

I wanted to try out 2 very different things -- the Gingerbread man and a simple drawing of the Holy Family -- the justaposition is merely coincidental

Faces (these were actually from our second year) -- One is more like a woodsman and the other a Roman...(drawing people is hard! But luckily chalk is forgiving and I learned more about proportions in profile...)
Here's the woodsman at an earlier stage:

The accents add a certain light, a magic about him :)

Landscapes

This is a scene from my memory, when we 'kidnapped' one of my best friends for her birthday and took her to the beach. There we picnicked, played selkie, took photos + videos, had a dance party, etc. 

This scene from my memory was much fresher, only a few months old -- from the top of a mountain in Switzerland, looking down at the lakes + seeing the sky 'burn' with the setting sun.

Not half bad! A few minutes later the sun was even more red-hot, but you can't see the lakes as well in those photos :)

Maps (I drew this map of Schleswig-Holstein showing the geographic regions for the 5th grade where I did my practicum)

Here I did in fact work more with lines and outlines, however, even here, I also tried to work with planes, surfaces to achieve the geographical shape, so that I didn't end up with many misplaced lines :)

Architecture

Mine is the one in the upper left

Etc. -- a hippo

And, what my arm almost always looked like while drawing with chalk -- how else am I going to clean the chalk?

*Speaking of the form of dandilion leaves, we did an exercise in observation and description where each one of us chose a fruit (in the more botanical sense of the word -- therefore nuts were included) and were asked to describe it in detail (ideally using multiple senses--I would say all 5, but Waldorf people talk about having 12...anyway, that's another story :) ) without revealing the name. The others could then guess, based on our description.

In order to draw something it is important to have noticed, observed what makes a dandilion a dandilion, for example. It isn't necessarily the number of petals -- they can have more or less, but rather the form of the petals (fairly rectangular), how they sit in relation to the center (they jutt out perpendicularly), how the leaves are shaped (arrow-shaped, sometimes more or fewer lobes), etc.

Similarly with the lion, what makes a lion a lion? One thing I'd say is the set of his eyes along the lines leading down to his nose (my lion's eyes are a bit close-set, but still recognizable :) )

Some talk of the 'essence' or 'essential features'. It reminds me of line drawings -- how some people can, with a few strokes, evoke a person, a facial expression, an animal. What is it that they portray?

--
And here are some impressive pieces from some of my fellow students -- wow!
Dandilions

Foxes (have you ever tried drawing one? Not easy! I tried above and here are two attempts as well:

Or was this a wolf? I can't remember...

Part 2 to follow, with more pieces from me and my fellow students