Ask Jackson: 5 Things To Do if You Don't Like Your Drawing

ASK JACKSON is an art advice column run by my best friend's dog (that's him, peering at you at the top of the page). Besides being good at eating pine cones, Jackson is also great at answering kids' questions about art. I (Betsy) might also kind of help him sometimes since he has a hard time with the keyboard. You can send your own Ask Jackson questions to: mail@betsystreeter.com.

It happens to everybody - you start a drawing, and then for some reason it gets messed up. Maybe you goof up a line, or it just doesn't look the way you meant it to.

Here are a couple of things NOT to do in this situation:

1. Don't take the eraser on your pencil and attempt to erase the entire drawing. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people try this! It's really boring to do that.

2. Don't crumple up your paper unless you decide it's best to take the advice below.

Okay, here are 5 things you CAN do if you don't like your drawing:

1. Make it worse. Make it as terribly ugly as you can. This can be a lot of fun and you can laugh about your mistake. And you may get something really cool!

2. Turn it upside down and transform it into something else. Does it look like an alien creature? What if you add a new nose and some antennae?

3. Take another piece of paper, put it on top of your drawing and trace just the parts you like. Then, go from there on the new drawing.

4. Make an outline around the outside of your drawing, or around the various shapes. Then, color in your outlines with bright colors and make pop art out of it.

5. And last, if you have someone nearby who needs to be hit in the head with a crumpled up piece of paper, you can use your drawing for that. But only as a last resort.

Okay? Now get out there and mess up some drawings!

- Jackson

Make a Popup Room!

This is a really cool project that came out of nowhere while we were messing with folding and cutting paper.
This is just a piece of thick paper, folded in half. Then we put two cuts in the middle there, and popped that piece out in the opposite direction.
Then, we took pens and decorated the folded part like a chair. The chair's back goes on the background, the seat goes on the top folded part and the legs go down the front of the folded part. Then we added a little rug, a bed and a window.
This one is a work in progress. You could certainly add more, like a popup table, or a cutout window. You could make a copy of your own room, or a room that you make up. Put posters on the walls. Add wallpaper or an electric guitar or stuffed animals or monsters.
But there's something about just the little chair that is also very neat to look at.

More on drawing to music...

As I mentioned in my last post, here are some drawings I made this morning while listening to some choral music - I'm not sure what piece it was - it was on the local classical station. I started out with the flowing shape at the top, then did the bubbly thing on the left, and then the sharper shape on the right. The cathedral-like structure came last. I'm not sure about the potted plant. I don't think that's related - just happens to be on the same page in the sketchbook.

When I listen to music, I often draw shapes that don't look like anything in particular. You might do the same, or maybe music inspires you to draw people or places. Give it a try and find out! It's also fun to contrast classical music with, say, Weezer or Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Beethoven

Okay, what does this guy have to do with art?

Well as it turns out, a lot.

Ludwig van Beethoven is considered by many to be the greatest music composer we've ever had. Even if you don't think you've heard his music, you probably have. And to top it off, for most of the later part of his life, he was deaf. Stone. Deaf. And he wrote his 9th Symphony, while stone deaf. When they premiered it, someone had to turn him around on the conductor's podium to see that the crowd was going wild. That's how deaf he was.

Anyway, what does this have to do with art? Well, the arts are connected to each other and to the world. Paintings and symphonies. Dance and writing. Beethoven often said that he got his inspiration from nature. He would take long walks outdoors.

So, here's a cool site by the SF Symphony that has a "radio," that lets you play bits from all kinds of pieces of music, including Beethoven's. Poke around. And while you're listening, close your eyes and imagine what the music looks like. Does it look like warriors riding huge horses? Or hippos doing the ballet? Or just colors and shapes? Then draw what you see.

Frida Kahlo

There's a Frida Kahlo exhibit in San Francisco right now at the SF Museum of Modern Art. Kahlo was a Mexican painter, who had quite a colorful life to go with her colorful paintings.

If you aren't sure who she is, the easiest way to tell you is, "She's the painter with the big ol' unibrow on her forehead in all her self-portraits." Ring a bell?

Kahlo was married to another famous artist, Diego Rivera.

Frida Kahlo had a lot of physical problems. She was in a bus accident when she was young, in which much of her body was damaged. She ended up having something like 35 operations. She also had polio as a child. So she was in pain a lot, but lived a vibrant and interesting life.

Take a look at her paintings and see what you think. I don't know what to tell you about the unibrow - she didn't really look like that in real life, as you can tell in photographs. And she gave herself a moustache too! But her art sure does stick in your mind, and it was clearly done by a vivacious person with her very own way of seeing the world.

Ask Jackson: What should I draw?

ASK JACKSON is a new art advice column run by my best friend's dog (that's him, peering at you at the top of the page). Besides being good at eating pine cones, Jackson is also great at answering kids' questions about art. I (Betsy) might also kind of help him sometimes since he has a hard time with the keyboard. You can send your own Ask Jackson questions to: mail@betsystreeter.com.

QUESTION: I am bored and I can't think of anything to draw. How can I come up with a good idea?

JACKSON: You, my friend, need to jump-start your pencil! Here's what you do: first, write down every kind of creature that you can think of. You can make a list, or put each word on an index card. Octopus, fireman, worm, moth, etc. etc. Get a nice long list going.
Now, close your eyes and pick two of the words. Like, alligator-panda. Or, Bug-policeman. Now draw what you got. Before long, you'll be creating characters and stories. Maybe add some scenery. Do a couple of combinations and have your characters talk to each other about how weird-looking they are. Figure out where they live, what they eat, where they go on vacation. Maybe make them into a monster movie.
This is a great way to get things going. To use your words again later, keep the list or index cards. You can make a game out of this with your friends too. Enjoy!

Ask Jackson: What do I do when they laugh?

ASK JACKSON is a new art advice column run by my best friend's dog (that's him, peering at you at the top of the page). Besides being good at eating pine cones, Jackson is also great at answering kids' questions about art. I (Betsy) might also kind of help him sometimes since he has a hard time with the keyboard. You can send your own Ask Jackson questions to: mail@betsystreeter.com. Here we go!

QUESTION: The other day, I drew a picture at school and a couple other kids looked at it and laughed. It made me feel really bad. What should I do?

JACKSON: There are lots of reasons people laugh, and they are not all bad. But it can feel bad if you think someone is laughing AT you. First of all, when people see something that makes them feel good, they might laugh. This is good. You made them feel happy. Often grownups will do this when you show them art. They are not laughing at you, so don't take it that way.
On the other hand, sometimes other kids laugh in a mean way. This is because they are not as brave as you are, putting your ideas out there on paper like you did. These people would probably be mean no matter what you were doing, and are not worth bothering with. If they are a good friend, you can say, "Hey, that hurts my feelings. I didn't mean for this to be funny." If they are a real friend, they will listen to you and apologize. If they are not, they should go fall on their head on the playground and leave you alone so you can draw.

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG

... For some change.

You'll have to excuse me, you grownups out there, but I need to talk to the kids.

About Important Art Stuff.

It's been nice being all big and wordy and all that, making various graphs and things.... but frankly, I do better when I talk to my kids. Not so much the big diagrams and squishy words and all of that. Too mooshy! Too boring!

So, here goes. You grownups are more than welcome to listen in. And, share this with your kids. We'll have advice, stories, project ideas, and experiments. Shoot, grownups can use some of that stuff too. We can all use more reasons to get out the crayons, frankly.

And it's all about being the Best Artist in The World. So there!!

Who are You?

Many of the most successful drawing projects have to do with telling something about yourself. Yesterday we did coats of arms. We drew shields, and then divided them up into fourths. You could put your favorite animal or pet, food, superhero, plant, whatever in the spaces.

All I can say is, if we were back in medieval times right now, there would be a lot of knights riding around with pictures of ice cream on their shields.

I've mentioned before - when I draw with kids a whole lot of it is me seeing and hearing them, and making a safe environment to be seen and heard. Putting your thoughts in visual form is a risk - you are externalizing your ideas, and you are trying to make a drawing that shows what you mean. Both of those things are risks. You risk being misunderstood, you risk being made fun of, you risk messing it up, you risk having people think your unicorn is a turtle. So it's vitally important to pay attention, watch, ask questions, and acknowledge the artist's effort. It's all about acknowledgement and feeling safe.

Superheroes Rule.

The first part of summer has been mainly about superheroes. Pictured here are Pice Man, who shoots jelly out of his eyes, and who is apparently battling Captain Planet. The line through the middle is a zip line that Captain Planet uses to get around.

We've also had Doctor Spleen, and heroes based on a squirrel, a hedgehog, and a dragon. I generally help the kids come up with a "recipe" for a superhero -- things like a cool name, a logo, a costume, a sidekick, an arch enemy, and of course powers and weaknesses. Then I work on one along with them. They can do a trading card-like format where they draw their character and list important facts, or a movie poster, or maybe the cover of a comic book.

I had the kids help me create Ultra Kitty, who can shoot hairballs and whose weakness is anything shiny. Her enemy is Dogzilla, a chihuahua with an attitude and a scaly tail. Dogzilla's sidekick is Gadget the Robo Bird.

Oh, and then there are secret identities. Dogzilla spends the days as a celebrity purse-dog. We also had a mild-mannered toaster, and a hippo who lives at the zoo when not fighting crime.

Each kid will focus in on what is most interesting to him or her. Some are really into listing lots of important data. Others are into the relationships among a vast array of characters. Still others just want to show stuff blowing up. It's all good. Again, it's creating a safe place to generate lots and lots of idea and mess with them. And, the sound effects they make while demonstrating their characters' powers are pretty fun, too.

Brainstorm!

Wow, it's been hard to post lately between all the teaching -- but it's yielding some great insights!

For example:

Brainstorming. I know, it's a word we're used to hearing in Corporate America - but it's a wonderful thing to do with kids. I use brainstorming to create lots of ideas that kids can then use, steal from, borrow, or ignore.

Today we brainstormed a bunch of adjectives, then a bunch of nouns. Then we picked from the lists to create things to draw. Weird things. Like, a gigantic metal banana.

Then, we brainstormed lists of superpowers, types of sidekicks, parts of a superhero costume, and other stuff. I left it on the board for people to use -- if they wanted to. A lot of them did something totally different, but having lots of ideas flying around really got the pencils going.

I did this in a room of 18 kids... so it was loud, and funny, and chaotic. I happen to think these are signs of success in a class. I always figure I'm doing things right if I'm having to calm the kids down periodically.

Anyway, you can brainstorm with just a couple of people, or by yourself, or in a big group. Just please don't break into discussion groups or do a mission statement or anything like that. For kids, it's a terrific way to get them talking, yelling, and getting ideas.