Strawberry Drawings

Late last summer, I did a sequence drawing project with a marshmallow that was a huge hit with the kids. The idea of eating something while drawing it just really tickled and excited them.

As I was brainstorming projects for the "I Love Vancouver" art camp through North Vancouver Community Arts Council, it seemed imperative that one project should be inspired by Granville Island.

And when you think of Granville Island, you immediately think of the market.

And when you think of the market, you (or maybe it's just me) think about the beautiful fruit on display.

The fruit that in the summertime I constantly have to dodge tourist to get near because they are all photographing them!

And when I think of all those beautiful fruits, my mind drifts specifically to the huge strawberries. Strawberries that seem larger than life in size!

And so I created a Strawberry drawing project for the last day of camp.

I had planned on doing this project with some nice graphite but could not find any in the supply cupboard so on the fly decided to use the fine point ink pens.

Then for fun, I pushed the pens through some small styrofoam plates and quickly turned the drawing project into a blind contour and continuous line study.

I had each student quickly rinse off a strawberry of their choosing while I put out the drawing paper.

Of course they immediately started asking, "Can we eat it?"

I teased them a bit, asking them how we would be able to draw it if we ate it?!

And so we sat down and did a blind contour drawing of our strawberry.

I stressed, "Don't lift the pen"

And I also told them that the more they concentrated on what they were seeing and the placement of their pen, the happier they would be when they finally looked at the paper.

You could of heard a pin drop they were so quiet as they drew.

And when they were done, they looked at their paper and giggled but were also happy with the interesting drawings created.

AND THEN, I told them to take one big bite of their strawberry.

It was like Christmas morning.

They were so excited. Their eyes got wide in anticipation of what came next.

And I told them to now draw the strawberry again with a bite taken out of it.

Off they went and the room once again went quiet.

And then I told them to take one final bite of the strawberry.

One child remarked, "But I don't have anything left to draw but the leaves now."

"Great", I said, "then draw just the leaves."

They had so much fun and I had just enough strawberries for the students to do the whole project one more time and not one child wasn't eager to do it all again.

While they were doing a second sequence drawing, I went back to the art cupboard and pulled out the colored pencils so that they could add a bit of color to their drawings.

Below are the final results.  I truly love the quirky nature that comes from blind contour drawing. I love that it helps focus the students on concentrating on what they see instead of what they think they see and I love seeing them giggle at the silliness they discover on their paper.

I know this will not be the last time I do a sequence drawing project with food. It is just too much fun for the kids.