Switch off the screen: at home sketching support for Little Art School Students
From the very beginning of the Little Art School course we encourage our students to practise at home. At the Little Art School we believe that the key to improving drawing is PRACTISE. The comparison is with the learning of a musical instrument. How do musicians improve their skills with an instrument? They practise! Drawing is exactly the same.
This gentle encouragement is formalised once our students reach Levels 1 to Levels 6. The first 10 minutes of each Levels class are devoted to developing drawing skills. Our key tool for this is the Little Art School Sketching Companion. Each artist is given a Sketching Companion at the start of the term which complements the learning objectives of the term. The aim of the Sketching Companion is very simple: to help Little Art School artists to constantly improve their drawing through practise at home
Each Sketching Companion has a challenge for every week of the term. Each week the class teacher will talk students through their weekly challenge. The aim for our young students is that this can be a time when they switch off their digital world and simply immerse themselves in the life-enhancing, meditative world of drawing.
At the start of each Level the Little Art School gifts every student with a new sketchbook and a variety of drawing equipment (pencil, pens, coloured pencils). As we reach the later stages of the course, we give our students watercolour sketchbooks. By this stage all our past students have become confident about using a sketchbook as their key tool in developing drawing skills.