The Handwork teacher

I am a mother to two beautiful girls and I teach Handwork and Fine Arts in our local waldorf charter school in Arizona.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

7th grade block crayon drawing




So after having Eugene Schwartz in town and hearing how he thought that not only the lower grades should use Block crayons but also the upper grades. He then showed us main lesson drawings from 8th graders done all in block crayon...totally amazing!!! I decided that for the next Fine arts class on Wednesday, we would do Block crayon drawings. These pictures were ideas that I was going to do in charcoal and then water color but we will see how the 7th grade does in crayon. I will have to go to the first grade teacher and ask to use their blocks. We will be painting the apples next week but this week we will start with drawing them

what do you think? its so fun playing with crayons again. !

12 comments:

dawn klinge said...

Those are beautiful pictures. I've been learning to use block crayons myself lately. I've been trying to teach myself using a book called Coloring with Block Crayons. My pictures don't look nearly as good as those ones though ;)

thegoodwitch said...

That makes me chuckle as I spend most of my "art" time with Block Crayons in my hands, and I am 33! In fact, just today did i receive my copy of Sigi de Francesca's block crayon book....Aaah, I don't think I'll ever really be able to give them up, even when my kids have moved on.

Lizz said...

Very nice, inspiring and informative.

Maymomvt said...

I love block crayon drawings and wish my girls would go back to using them. They abandoned the crayons as soon as they were given their colored pencils.

Hi! said...

Wow, I didn't realize there were 'block crayons'! Nice drawings.

Thanks for your nice comment on my blog. I'd love it if you listed it, that'd be great. I've posted a link to your blog as well and am having fun reading through it.

Cadi said...

Thank you for the inspiration. Just when I thought I wouldn't order crayons for my rising 6th graders... :-) HmmmmmmmmmmmMmMmmmmmmmmm

World Wide Alternative said...

I love "our" block crayons.
We gave a tin to the girls for Christmas but we can't resist them either. They smell so good! Xxx

denise said...

Nice! I have done exercises with the boys block crayons to help my hand with the thicker application of texture and color...but usually use oil pastels for my sketches. I always love drawing or painting while the boys do - it is about my only "art" time anymore! :) Nice shading and texture. (Hi Karen!)

Lisa Anne said...

Is there a resource for working with block crayons with older children? What is the pedagogical significance of block crayons for older children? I had never heard of this before, but would really like to know more. Still have lots of block crayons from earlier days, would love to find a use for them!

Teaching Handwork said...

Lisa Anne-
I know of no resource to send you to. I am just speaking of what Eugene talked about with us. I do think you can see some of the Block crayon pictures when looking on his u tube. The point he made was the children should know how to use all types of tools in art. Not just the fountain pen, lead pencil and colored pencils

anyway I am bring it to the children tomorrow and I will let you know about the experience.

Tara said...

Wow! These are amazing. I, too, would love an instructional resource for this. Tess still loves her block crayons but doesn't know how to use them to create anything like these.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I can't belive those pictures were all done with block crayons. They're so lovely.

I'd love to hear more of what Eugene Schwartz said if you feel you have more to share.

BTW thanks for linking to my blog.
love
Simmy