

Guest post by Pat Knepley
This month, we have been learning about Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE), and how it can help you incorporate art into your overall curriculum, rather than just having it as an add-on or recreational time.
DBAE is a means of teaching art by using art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and art production as the foundational elements of your art program.
This week, we’re focusing on the part of art instruction that often strikes fear into the hearts of parents: art production. For those who don’t have much talent or experience with art, trying to teach art production can be daunting. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be.
The biggest impediment to successful experiences in making art is a lack of confidence. But I believe home educators can have an enormous influence if students focus on the process of being creative rather than focusing only on the product.
As with the previous weeks, let’s consider art production by looking one more time at Leonardo da Vinci’s beautiful work, The Last Supper.
A great lesson to tie in to The Last Supper would be to ask your student to remember a favorite meal experience, for example, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or perhaps a favorite birthday, and make a drawing using colored pencils of the place and the people there. Show different facial expressions that portray the emotions displayed during the meal.
Provide a focal point: Who was the center of attention? Why were all eyes on this person at this meal? And what is the exact moment being described with the picture?
Perhaps when Grandpa carved the turkey? Or when big sister blew out her birthday candles? Or maybe when your friend laughed so hard at your joke that milk came out of his nose.
Re-creating special moments through art can be a very powerful vehicle for communicating what resonates with the artist and consequently with the viewer. The best part about incorporating art instruction, and specifically MAKING art, into the core curriculum is that your creativity knows no bounds.
Decorate a cake in the splatter and drip style after studying a Jackson Pollock.
Try your hand at growing sunflowers after discovering all of the many sunflower paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.
Break out the Play-Doh® to channel your inner August Rodin once you’ve explored his unique, rugged sculpture style.
The results are never wrong. The process of exploration is where the learning takes place.
So, my advice to the home educator is to consider art instruction not be a “nice-to-have,” or an extra (if we can find time), but an integral part of any well-rounded classical education. The benefits to students have been well documented, and the opportunities for your left-brained as well as right-brained child to think about God’s world in creative terms is invaluable.
The inclusion of art can be so much more than hoping kids learn to draw. Art history cannot be separated from history in general, and the cognitive twins of art criticism and aesthetics provide deeper levels of thinking. Therefore, I encourage you to dive into the messy, wonderful, crazy and fun universe that is art, with all of its components. You and your children don’t want to miss out on all that our creative God can reveal.
In the following video, you can learn about 1-point perspective by observing how it works in da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” Watch the video, then try it for yourself.

Author’s Note: The area of art education that makes people, if not nervous, perhaps hesitant . . . is the art-making process: art production. But drawing is a skill like any other skill. I believe it can be taught (like how to swing a tennis racquet can be taught) with age-appropriate instruction. I recommend the DVD-based drawing instruction that I host: Art Class from See the Light for ages 6 to 10. With this fun, foundational, skill-building series, kids of all ages will feel successful when learning to draw.
Take your art to the next level with See the Light videos:

Art Class Volume 7 – Lessons 25-28: Perspective for the Landscape
A mastery of perspective will help you to create stunning landscapes. In Art Class Volume 7, Pat Knepley will walk you through key concepts in landscape drawing. Lessons include: One-Point Perspective, Two-Point Perspective, The Landscape, and The Landscape (Pt. 2).

God’s Special Surprise: Bible Story with Art Lessons (Download)
Watch the dramatic story of baby Moses, God’s Special Surprise to the Israelites, brought to life through art and drama. This story builds the faith of children and encourages obedience to the Word of God.
(Note: The downloadable version does not contain some of the bonus features found on the DVD.)

Art Projects: Pointillism Fruit (Georges Seurat) Download
Create a fruit still-life in the style of French artist, Georges Seurat. Pointillism Fruit is the fourth in See the Light’s Art Projects video series. Each lesson helps advance skills and learning as students complete wonderful works of art in the styles of famous artists. Start creating now with these downloadable video art lessons!
And don’t miss these free resources from our blog:

How to Draw Cars
It seems that boys and cars go together like fish and water. If you have a boy that likes to draw, chances are he’s drawing
More than Words: Illustrating Great Stories (Pt. 2)
Guest post by Pat Knepley – In part one of this post, we looked at three great illustrators. This week we’ll consider four more: N. C.
What is a Pieta?
Guest post by Pat Knepley Pieta (pronounced Pee-yeh-ta) is the word for the theme in Christian art of the mourning Virgin Mary cradling the dead

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