This is a schedule for a creative mind. This is a simple schedule of ideas. Graduate through a progression of lessons for art & drawing with a little bit of guidance.
Learn drawing basics, 3D forms, shading, color theory, portraits, and more one lesson at a time.
I might suggest to study one section a week: drawing basics, portraits the next, shading…on down the list.
AGE- I think that it is all determined by interest and how much you make of it. I don’t see any reason a 3rd grader and a high school junior couldn’t do the same assignment. It depends on the child which one has more trouble with it or how much time they spend on it. 😉
Here is a list of lessons… well maybe ideas, pictures and prompts to spark imagination- just starters I’ve collected on my own Pinterest boards here, here and here. I’ve selected these to be drawing lessons that should require only a pencil and paper and tried to assemble them into some kind of order (I hope 😉 ) Follow rabbit holes, find inspiration. Enjoy!
Tutorials and Books on drawing:
Inspire My Artist guest post on drawing for Starts at Eight
the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
the book Line Upon Line by Janice Arduini
Drawing exercises and prompts:
upside down drawing upside down drawing allow your right brain to work without your left brain trying to take over. (read about it in either of the above blog posts)
using a grid to recreate a picture- more on this in Art! drawing part 1
Organic Shapes
draw a bowl of eggs. draw an apple. draw a vase of flowers. draw bones- particularly cattle bones if you can come up with them.
it may help to draw the negative space only
Portraits– portraits become a lot easier when you understand the proportions are not what you think you see. If you drew an oval for a head, where do you think the eyes would be? At the top? Try putting the eyes in the middle! I’ll be you find you are much happier with your portrait when you are done. Try these tutorials to improve your portrait drawing. Draw a friend, look in the mirror.
tutorial at Inspire My Artist
portrait proportions on one sheet girl , boy
portraits in different view boxes
an eye – eyes have a very specific shape. learn the to draw them!
how to draw lips- lips have a very specific shape. learn to draw them!
Perspective– if you have the opportunity to watch “Brain Games” Particularly Season 1 Episode 1 it is all about how your eyes and your brain make assumptions, and how it sees things so when it doesn’t look quite right on paper it is because it isn’t the way your brain thinks it should be. Things closer to you look bigger and things farther away look smaller. If you drawing is the opposite of that you will create optical illusions- even if you didn’t mean to. Learn to draw in perspective and you will be able to convince your brain that it is looking at something in 3D!
good tuturioal here draw a train in perspective– this has instructions for 1 point perspective
perspective tutorial this site also has a great worksheet on basic 3D shapes (basic shapes later)
basic shapes project in perspective
lots of examples of perspective
Life drawing – with any life drawing please preview as human bodies are often drawn nude- because truly drawing clothing and fabric is a whole other matter to study. I believe I have chosen tutorials that do this without genitalia, and are not obscene- but you should check to be sure! Some do show drawn nude behinds. Tutorials can range from drawings of ears and hands to full body torso. Life drawing is generally considered drawing human life.
life drawing examples and lessons here , here , here
proportions of hands, feet, head
a few more here on my life drawing pinterest board.
Shapes & Shading- there are a few basic shapes that help us understand all others for drawing and particularly for shading. The sphere, cylinder, cube, cone and pyramid. Understanding how light plays on these can help draw all things in 3D accurately. A leg for instance is a cylinder.
this is and elementary worksheet to identify 3D basic shapes, in art we need to learn to draw these shapes and shade them to so use this to practice drawing basic shapes.
Shade techniques- mimic these lessons to learn how to shade in different ways
stippling (a way of shading) examples
how to shade a cylinder (with links to other 3d shapes!)
basic shapes project in perspective
shading and drawing things of one color- here I suggest we recreate some of the organic shapes section. Organic shapes are unpredictable. Your left brain doesn’t already know it’s shape exactly. Solid colors similarly show only the shades changing in the light so that you are not so concerned about what color but what value.
draw a bowl of eggs. draw an apple. draw bones- particularly cattle bones if you can come up with them.
shading fabrics
shading folds and fabric – these examples could keep you busy for a week 😉 the book Line Upon Line by Janice Arduini has tutorials in fabric and glass.
try drawing textures
Abstract drawings and doodles- it’s all about the creativity!
Graphic design (part of graphic design is learning to see pieces, symbols, icons, simple shapes…) try some of these exercises.
doodle fish or what do you see in this
portraits in different view boxes
Elements of design
trees (or something else) from another perspective
Try math art projects from What Do We Do All Day
Word Art
website to help you put words into a shape. Create your own word art. Inspire 😉
scripture art- inspiration
Calligraphy (this involves specific tools. I plan to do more with this in a later post, but I leave the idea here if you are so inclined as to tackle it yourself.)
3D words
farmschooliowa 
Pingback: Art! Color – farmschooliowa
Pingback: living books curricula – farmschooliowa