Shapes And Colours Art Series

Art Lesson: Composition Exercise

Here's a perfect activity to loosen your creativity and take you on a therapeutic, meditational escape.

Creating abstract compositions can send you to another place! There's nothing better than following easy instructions to pretty guaranteed an awesome artwork! 

There's no heavy thinking or endless drawing restarts with this one. Make artists outline the shapes in ink to really speed the process up and terminate indecision! The requirements are simple, you just can't go wrong with this exercise! And if you do make a mistake, no one will ever know!

Art Training Is Brain And Hand Gym

Trevor is blossoming with his routine.

He's been consistent with his arts training and is on a creative routine 5 days a week. If he wants to continue a particular arts project during a weekend, he's free to do so. However he's encouraged to explore other activities, especially enjoying outdoors and playing swingball! 

 Colour And Shapes Drawing Series

Turning a drawing into a series of artworks can be both fun and therapeutic. When you reproduce a drawing you're already familiar with, you're able to focus on how to improve it or push it further.

A series is a fun way to repeat something you enjoyed or did really well at. You can get into a creative zone faster as all you need to do is focus on the image you're redrawing and your materials. Your thinking slips into a highly focussed space. These experiences help Trevor to direct his thoughts and actions mindfully and constructively.

 

Collect Lids: Create Fun Abstract Art

Sometimes I teach Trevor a new composition technique just to help him change things up a bit and beat a dulling routine. If he enjoys the exercise, he's encouraged to do it again when he needs a fresh creative project.

How to do a simple composition with lids

Trevor had already learnt colour theory so I wanted him to combine simple shapes and colour to create interesting compositions.

1. Collect 1-5 lids
2. Grab a piece of paper
3. Place the lids on the piece of paper one at a time and outline them with a crayon, pen or whatever you're using. 
4. Let your shapes overlap.
5. Keep going till you're happy with the number of shapes and the composition. (The composition is the general layout. Make it exciting!)
6. Add colour once you have completed drawing the shapes.

Trevor's Colour And Shape Compositions

After the first exercise Trevor decided to explore the technique in between other experiments. It's a joy to see how open he is to learning.

Composition 1: Colour And Shapes Series

After showing Trevor how to use the shapes to create a composition, I asked him to try arranging warm and cool colours to make the colours interesting.

This instruction increased the complexity while at the same time reinforcing the colour principles he'd been experimenting with. Trevor could have been told just to add colour. But by subtly layering an instruction with a simple detail, you get to assess various other levels of capability, such as following and interpreting instructions.

Composition 2: Colour And Shapes Series

But just wait till you see how he started experimenting further! More to come in another post!

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