BrushLearn - School on Wheels
This session was with high school students so I knew that I wanted to accomplish a few things:
Go over some core color theory techniques.
Choose a prompt that would get them thinking but was not too complicated.
For the prompt I went on a long walk and thought what would be both fun and enlightening. I started thinking about “favorite” things like food, books, characters and then I paused. Something stuck about characters and then that slowly transformed into superheroes. Do I want them painting their favorite superhero? What about superpower? That could be broader and highlights one of my core themes with creativity and that is curiosity.
After showing them how to lighten and darker a color value with white and black I explained the prompt…”paint what superpower you would it?” Immediately there was quiet. Some faces in deep thought and others needing a little more clarification. Compared to the younger students who typically hear a prompt and start painting a bunch of the high school students requesting pencil and paper so they could practice.
I found that to be very interesting. Compared to younger students you can sense their self-judgment and comparison to others. OR they want to create something that looks “good” and prefer to not make mistakes. Either way I am going to pay attention to those moments for all age. groups and see what I can learn from it.
Once they started adding to the canvas the variety was incredible. Some chose to paint actual superheroes while others had a wide range of choices. One in particular I found very interesting…ability to make things grow. The student painted multiple cacti of different sizes. That validated my choice of the prompt…something that is fun but enlightening. Lets invite the students to reflect and let them decide how deep to go.
Overall this was a really successful and great experience with the students. And if you were thinking I would have chosen the ability to teleport!
