When I teach I also learn. I probably learn more than the students do in class. Why? Because I have to teach myself (or learn from others) whatever process or technique I am going to share. I need to have experienced it for myself and know how it feels, looks, tastes (maybe not), smells, and sounds. When I can do all that I think that I might have enough knowledge to actual impart the technique to others. Even with all that preparation I often am still learning as I share the technique with others. My students teach me too! This wonderful process of learning, sharing and learning more is what I love, love, love about teaching.
This fall I have been focusing on shading Zentangle because I want to improve my skill AND because I was scheduled to teach a 4-week class at North Island College to a group of eager and attentive seniors. I have already shared with this audience some of my samples, but today I would like to share those of the students.
First we learned to draw freehand a pumpkin string and then fill it with tangles. Next we shaded the tangles and the pumpkin roundness.
Another lesson was about light source and we focused on adding great shadows.
Another lesson included adding dimension by the shape and direction of our line before adding shading.
and finally, we explored shading with coloured pencil using three shades of the same colour.
I had a wonderful time and while I was learning more about shading I was also learning more about teaching.
Any comments you make about this post will be shared with my students. Thanks for stopping by and as always have a great day!
NancyD
