For my first mini-project in my Free Inquiry of ARTS, I have chosen to do a new activity that I learned in my Link2Practice classroom. This activity is called “Perspective Drawings,” and it is very simple to set up and run, but the impact and potential for cross-curricular usage is vast.
The first step of this activity is to find a class of willing students, or in my case, a group of minorly coerced friends to participate. Next, you hand out the supplies, which are a piece of paper and any writing/drawing/colouring utensils that each person wants. You then explain the rules (or lack thereof) for the activity. Once everyone has their supplies, the instructor will read out the first prompt and each person is given time to draw a picture corresponding to the prompt. There are no guidelines for how it has to look, what sizing, the use of colour, or any context clues. It is simply whatever the person thinks of when they hear the prompt. After everyone is finished drawing, the group takes turns showing their drawings and looking at each other’s. This can be repeated for as many prompts you want to use. If you are not so great at thinking of prompts on your own you can google ‘one word drawing prompts and many websites will come up (like the one I have linked) that can give you inspo.
100 One-Word Drawing Prompts • Art Makes People
I ran this with a group of my friends as well as watched and participated in it being run in a classroom. The first prompt was the word “SUN”, the second prompt was “CONNECTING CIRCLES”, and the third prompt was “OBJECTS IN A LINE”. As you can tell, the descriptions are very vague in design, and the results are always super fascinating and somewhat unexpected.
I have attached 4 of my friend’s perspective drawings as well as my own from when I participated in it as a learner to demonstrate how unique they can turn out.
The “CONNECTING CIRCLES” prompt produced some of my favourite differences with my friends’ drawings: two that looked kind of biology-esc, one who turned the circles into flower petals, a large abstract and colourful depiction, and mine that were the Olympic rings and a solar system.
This is a great activity to use to merge subjects and use a simple idea to broach a more complex topic. My classroom teacher used this activity to introduce a discussion about politics and the different parties in the government during a Social Studies unit. For example, the first two drawings that look sciency are similar but still unique from each other, just like those who all support the Green Party (random choice of political party) are going to have similar ideals, but people will still differ from each other slightly. It makes kids understand how each person is different while respecting and celebrating the unique designs. Rather than compare whose was better, they were excited to see how each person’s mind worked differently and elevate it. If there is ever a lesson that the students are not understanding or are getting mixed up and frustrated, you could easily pull this out for a 5-minute activity to change up the parts of your brain that are being used and use it as a reminder that everyone’s brains work differently. Just pick a word that is somewhat connected to what you are learning and go from there!
I love this activity because it gets kids to come out of their shells a little more as well. Initially, they are assured that they have complete control and that nothing they can do would be incorrect/wrong. I witnessed the quiet, shy kids holding up their work and inspecting others. Kids who would not normally get along had nothing negative to throw at each other because there were no limitations, and their curiosity took over rather than fight or flight. For whatever reason people are super interested in both the results and the process of this art activity and seem to respond really well to it. I can’t wait to try this again in the future and see if my own curiosity and intrigue stay the same or if it diminishes over time.
I hope that, as a reader, you found this moderately interesting or were even potentially inspired to try it with friends or family. I thank you for reading and shall bid you adieu for now,
-Kristen