Apple-Pine: project based learning

Showing posts with label project based learning. Show all posts

Figuring Out the Figs

A conversation about different pollinators turned into a conversation about figs, I found some holes in my understanding of the whole flower vs fruit situation and tried to draw through my learning process. The result is a page with notes that has a semi-transparent (tracing paper) overleaf with some figs on it. I have no idea what is that cat doing on the page - probably I met it on the same day when I was reading up on Figs. Or it is a pollinator too. Or it is also interested in figs.

People Sketching: what to do with all these sketches of strangers?

During many years of on and off people sketching I got into a nice rhythm of drawing and then throwing my sketches away and then drawing again. I often keep even the most random sketches if they tell a story about my life. But these outings to just work on anatomy or movement are usually in a recycling bin by the end of the week. This works in general as the idea is to do an exercise to get the eye-hand coordination and noticing muscles stronger, yet sometimes some sketches have something in them that makes me want to go back and look at them, sometimes long after. I am also working on pointing out things that I like in my works - in writing - so that I can see the thought process and work on those ideas and techniques that keep popping up more.

So when I participate in an online drawing event - like pencils4tea (join from anywhere in the world via Zoom and people draw each other and each portrait is timed with a piece of music) I go over the results and save some of the sketches - with notes. You can see some below - click on the image to see it larger.

What do you do with all the sketches of strangers?

p.s. now that I am participating in these events more regularly some of these strangers are becoming not so strangers :) I am starting to think that it would be fun to learn more about them! Many are on instagram - we all draw each other :) (last week I was posing - if I find my portraits I will share them here soon :)

A Story of a my Big Sketchbook Painting Disaster

I tried to paint in my A3 sketchbook while standing up. It was a disaster - here is how:

First I decided that I would hold both my sketchbook and a jar with water with one hand. This meant that after the first few minutes, my hand was so tired that I lost control of the jar with water and it flipped and drenched the whole spread with slightly green water. Like this:

After this I decided to not show my frustration to my companions and see if I can save this sketch by throwing everything at it at the same time and limiting the time that I would give it. I declared that I'll be done in 5 minutes and I used my fingers and whole palm to paint quickly. Like this:

Here are some process photos and results:

Project Based Learning: Spanish Language

When the new school year started last fall my kid began to learn Spanish - and I decided to learn with him.
I am interested in how people learn in general - so whenever someone is ready to talk about it I jump on that topic - and if you have good recommendations for books and sites - please send me links!
One of the things I've been trying with my learning is try a project based learning process (I loved this book and follow it's author - Lori Pickert- on Twitter for inspiration). The idea is that you don't follow curriculum that someone created but rather you find a real world project and make it happen with whatever means that are available to you and while you are doing that you are bound to learn a variety of things.
So I decided that I will pursue my study of Spanish utilizing what I enjoy - drawing in my sketchbook. And that is how I've been making slow but steady progress on my vocabulary.
I've created a little character and it's adventured paired with my knowledge of other languages help me remember. I am also doing some Duolingo time and getting briefs on different subjects (grammar and such) from my kid. So far I've drawn over 50 pages and enjoy the process a lot!
Like with every project (and learning in particular) there are ups and downs and after whole 30 days of doing Inktober with these I took a little break and had hard time restarting the practice - but like with everything - by starting small and JUST STARTING - I got back on my horse - or should I say caballo?
Here is a screenshot of a whole bunch of the images and link to a Flickr folder where you can see all of them.

I've made a whole bunch of new friends on social media while posting these on Instagram and in general try to keep a two-a week pace now - feel free to follow along #learningspanishwithsketchook