What does it mean to teach Creativity?

The world is asking for a different kind of worker or citizen in the increasingly changing world of technology we live in. The first attribute every business says that they need from their employees is someone who is creative. Like when the workforce needed a new type of employee during the industrial revolution art educators are stepping in and saying "Hey we DO that, we teach students to be CREATIVE! We are important!" but are you doing that in your art room? Are you teaching them what it means to be creative, not only in a visual art context, but in a way that can be utilized in other disciplines? 

Let's look at the definitions of creativity. 

Creativity definition by Merrian Webster:

: having or showing an ability to make new things or think of new ideas

: using the ability to make or think of new things : involving the process by which new ideas, stories, etc., are created

: done in an unusual and often dishonest way

What businesses are talking about when they talk about a creative work force? I think they are talking more about the second definition: using the ability to make or think of new things: involving the process by which new ideas, stories, etc., are created. 

Creativity has a magical following. Most people think that people like Picasso, and Einstein must just have an amazing brain that pops out creative ideas. Put an artist in an environment that is open and they can have choices and they will be creative. It is something we have and it will just come out if we give the opportunity.  & that is how I've seen it in the art room. Art teachers ask students to come up with ideas and even grade them on their "creativity" without actually teaching them methods to hone their creativity and come up with new ideas. Ideas are not created in a vacuum. What is the problem needing to be solved, what are some solutions others have come up with, what are the limitations, what are the skills that we can exploit? Then the brainstorming can begin (that we also need to teach students how to do), art production, and reflection. 

Every Creative Solution Starts With a Problem to Solve

Students need to be confronted with a problem to be able to create a solution. If you just tell them to make something new and be creative without parameters they will create substandard work. Not because they are lazy, but because they don't know where to start. Coming up with something creative and new requires having the context and knowledge of what has been done before and what questions need to be solved. That is what projects are for. To create a question for the student to answer using the abilities they have and can put their creative efforts towards. Limitations help drive the creative process, not stunt it. Limitations are similar to situations in the real world. Scientists have to create new ways to acquire energy with the limited resources and the limited technology we have. The real creativity is being able to combine the things we can do despite the limitations and to eventually overcome them through knowledge and experimentation. The question of how to create cheap sustainable energy has created huge strides in wind and solar power in the last decade. Without the question needing to be answered these technologies wouldn't have advanced.

For an art education example in this post, the problem to be solved will be creating a poster that creates an awareness for an animal that is in danger of extinction. 

Research

After confronting students with a problem the creative journey requires some context and research. If the problem you have asked your students to solve is creating an artwork to bring an awareness of an animal that is on the near extinction list, then you need to start with research to define the problem better. You need to give them the context of how an artist or two solved a similar problem. Show them two examples by two different artists. Make a list of what things are present in both posters. Add to the list things that are different in the two posters. This further defines the problem and will give students a direction to create something new. 

Teaching them Brainstorming

Don't just ask the kids to come up with ideas or to make 4 possible sketches. Teach them how to brainstorm! Choose either one method like mindmapping and always use that or teach them other methods as well. Create lists or play a game with the kids around the table. Make them aware that this is something that they can use elsewhere not just a fun game they did in art class. Brainstorming is a learned skill, not an inherent ability. This is how we teach creativity. We give them methods to do it. After they brainstormed ideas and things related to their animal and the the knowledge of other artist's solution to the problem (the examples they looked at) then they can make their thumbnail sketches. 

Limitations & Skills

The limitations in the art room would be what skills the students come to the table with and what supplies can be used as well as the initial problem to be solved. This is where teaching media skills comes in. Teach them a skill you want to be seen in the final poster. Maybe you showed them examples of two posters made in watercolor and then you teach them skills needed to do their own in watercolor: masking, washes, color mixing. This is not limiting their creativity. This is focusing their creativity by using the skills they learned to solve a problem. 

Art Production 

Finally time to get out the art supplies! They have their idea plotted out that is as new to the world as they could get with the research they have done and their brainstorming method. Now they can use the art technique skills of watercolor you taught them in your demo to create an original artwork. Often kids will ask if they can use techniques not learned as well and my answer is almost always yes as long as they display the ones they learned too. If I taught them how to make a wash there should be a wash in there somewhere to be the assessment for the skill learned. This will not limit their creativity, but actually push it because they will have to come up with a solution that takes into account that limitation. Working for companies on creative projects has taught me that there will always be limitations artists have to work inside. When I was hired to create an image for a colored pencil tin I was told it needed to use their colored pencils as the medium, had to show the vibrance of the colored pencils, and had to have fruit and fabric in the design. I had to use my creativity in those confines to make the best image I could. 

Reflection

Either in the middle of the production,  or at the end,  have the students reflect on the how effective their solution was. Not on how well they could use watercolor or stay inside the lines. It will take years of practice in art to perfect techniques. They should reflect on how well their image gets across the point they were trying to make.  If you do this before the project has to be finished it will still give them time to make changes before being graded. What you really want is for them to put into words their process and their understanding of their creative process. 

I've heard people say you can't teach kids creativity and I completely disagree. Teaching them tools and techniques to focus their brains on creating new ideas is teachable and should be part of their art education.

Styles of Drawing

I was thinking the other day about all the different drawing aides we teach kids in art class: drawing with shapes, negative shapes, turning your paper upside down, measuring with your pencil extended, knowing average proportions, the grid method etc. etc.  Why do we have so many tricks for drawing? Shouldn't there be just one way that is the best way to draw? Of course not. Some of these methods work really well for some people and others don't. Or one trick works really well for certain jobs. I think identifying the type of drawer you are naturally could help when choosing which tricks work best for you. & of course noticing a child's tendencies when drawing could help you pinpoint the method that would help them make a better drawing.

So what type of drawer are you?



The No Consequences drawer - This drawer does NO preliminaries and starts right with a contour line. They work fast, but love detailed wavy lines, and get surprised when the contour line doesn't meet up in the right place when they go back around. I think this type of drawer would benefit from learning to draw a general shape first to get proportions right. Then they can do what they like, detailed contour lines, but following the shape that they have already worked out is the right size for the job. Looking for axes would also help the no consequence drawer. Every once in a while looking to see where a contour feature should line up with something else previously drawn. Maybe even adding some of those measuring axes first would be helpful. Actually anything that makes them pause and see the whole system of what they are drawing would be helpful. I would also like to teach them how to use their pencil to find angles.

The Measurer - The Measurer likes to get everything set out before they start the drawing. They look at all the objects no matter the subject and they plot out where everything lines up, how close they are, then they set off to draw. They may even pull out a ruler as they like straight lines. When they learn how to use their pencil to measure and find angles they were in love. The measurer would benefit from learning to look at the negative shapes and the forms of the objects. After plotting things out like they like I would ask them to swith and look at the negative shapes and see if the they are as perfect as they appear in their drawing. I think they would also benefit from doing some exercises in only form using charcoal. If this is you and you want to try that exercise:  Tint your whole page grey by smearing in the charcoal. Erase out your highlights and add in the shadows with dark black charcoal. It is okay to do this on top of a detailed, measured

The Adjuster - The Adjuster draws by getting something down quickly and easily without distractions then uses their tools to fix it. They tend to use up a lot of erasers and draws with a sketchy broken line. Sketchy lines is just a way to alter the direction of the line as you go. So the adjuster draws slow and is watching the object as they go, continually adjusting the line. After the object is drawn then they adjust more when looking at it as whole and erases and changes things. When a new object is put in, they may even further adjust that first object if it doesn't work with the second object. The Adjusters would benefit greatly by doing some preliminary work like the No Consequences drawer. Creating plumb lines, working out proportions first, etc. The hardest thing for an Adjuster is helping them find a time when to stop adjusting and to like their drawing.

The Shape Shifter - The Shape Shifters love the drawing with shapes method. When exposed to charcoal instead of pencils they were in their glory, and fell in love with pulling out highlights and rubbing in shadows. Shape shifters would benefit from learning where and when to use sharp or soft lines as their work could end up with only soft edges. Also they would benefit greatly from switching their mode of thinking every once in a while to negative shapes to see if they have things lining up right.

Like any list of "types" noone fits into only one of these categories. Knowing that everyone does not struggle in the same way could really help you help your kids draw better as well as yourself!

Reflections from the art room - Templates & Stencils for Elementary Art

On some projects and in some cases I allow kids to use templates or stencils for certain shapes. I know that using templates in the art room is not a popular thing to do (or even the dirty little secret of some art teachers); here are some reasons to keep them around the primary art room.

If you didn't teach how to do it right or well...

If I am teaching a lesson to young kids on say, where to place the features on the head, I don't have time to also teach them how to draw a good oval or egg shape. My class is only 45 minutes plus for elementary you have to limit the amount of instructions to what they can hold in their head. If you have them freehand the oval, inevitably someone or a table full in the class will spend their whole 25 minutes trying to make that initial shape PERFECT. If the lesson is not on how to draw face shapes, then we shouldn't hold them accountable for drawing it freehand if it gives them stress. I mean it is stressing them out because they were not taught how to draw an oval easily and correctly.
Which brings me to...

What you might like aesthetically may not be what the kids like: Alice Neel vs. Vermeer

Robbie Tillotson, 1973 by Alice Neel

You might like that misshapen asymmetrical look of an oval drawn by a child, but the kids see it as a flaw. In their heads they want things precise around the time of 2nd grade up (some of them). You can try and talk them into embracing the beautiful wonkiness of their line (like Picasso loves) but they will leave feeling like they just can't draw and you, the teacher, dooesn't get it. In your head you want the playfulness of an Alice Neel portrait and they want the precision of Vermeer! If the lesson is on creating fluid, freeform lines, don't use one, if the lesson is on something else, then why does it have to conform to your aesthetics instead of theirs?

Straight Edges or Templates - what's the difference

Have you let kids use rulers to create a straight line when needed? What is the difference between that and an ellipse template?

Guaranteeing a size or position

 Sometimes you need a young child to draw the FIRST shape a certain size. You explain how to do it and 90% make it the right size but 10% will always need to restart from the beginning. If you don't catch it right away that can really upset a young artist.

Professionals use them

I am also a still-life artist and my work is  realistic. If I am doing a still-life and the ellipse on a cup is off, it will throw the whole aspect of realism off. So if I have redone one several times and it still feels wrong I will get out an ellipse template. I learned about ellipse templates in art school and later in a workshop with another professional artist.

Still-life with elipses by Nicole Caulfield (me)

It is really just Scaffolding

For more information on scaffolding see Wikipedia Instructional Scaffolding

If you want to teach how to draw a good ellipse or oval - here is a great tutorial I found by Mike Sibley. http://www.sibleyfineart.com/tutorial--draw-ellipses.htm

or buy some of these from Dick Blick for your classroom for when you don't have time to teach everything.