The Wisconsin School of the Air presents the second in a series
of Let's Draw on Television.
This fun and art time is an experiment in the teaching of
creative art through television.
Your TV art teacher is James A.
Schwalbach, extension specialist in rural art and design
in the University College of Agriculture.
And now here's Mr.
Schwalbach.
[Piano music]
Hello boys and girls.
Before we start today's lesson, I'd like to show you
some work that was sent in after last week's program.
It came from the Boys and Girls, the sunny side school,
right outside Madison.
I'd like to be able to tell you the names of the boys
and girls that did this work.
I think it's very nice.
But there are no names on the work, so I can't
do that.
Possibly they'll send them to us.
They're quite interesting.
You start out here with a very nice all over pattern,
where you can see the different things.
I can't even guess what's been used in them.
But it's completely all over pattern printed very nicely in
green and several other colors.
And we have one up here that's a little bit
different in that it's almost and all over patterned,
but you can see the border running around the edge with
a little bit of different design in the middle.
So here are three very fine examples of last week's
program. We know there's quite a good deal out as well.
And now we're ready to start on today's lesson.
Have you ever thought that people are different?
People are so very different that we probably draw
more pictures of people than anything else.
Why there are millions of people in the world and yet
just stop to think of it.
No two people are exactly alike.
In fact, twins even are a little bit different.
You know that.
Today we're going to draw some, just as you of
these millions of boys and girls and men and women.
And for these drawings we're going to use our wax
crayons, our old crayons.
For the radio series, let's draw in the teacher's
manual on pages 14 and 15.
You'll find many suggestions for the use of your crayons.
We're going to want to try out a few of those
different things today.
How about it?
You have already to use on the top of your desk right now a
sheet of 12 by 18 inch drawing paper and your box of crayons.
You have that ready?
I'm going to wait just a minute
and give you a chance to get that sheet of 12 by 18 inch
drawing paper out there on top of your desk ready to
use and your box of crayons.
Let's get them set right now.
Fine, I hope you're ready now because I want you to
experiment with me as we try some of these different
ways of using the crayons.
Everybody all set?
Fine, well you pick up one of your
crayons, let's say a blue or a black.
It doesn't really make too much difference.
And the first thing we want to know is that we have color mixed
with wax in our wax crayons.
And in order to get a variety of colors in our
picture, we've got to kind of vary the pressure.
We've got to press hard in some spots and lightly in others.
And so let's try this.
If you take your crayons, hold it loosely in your hands,
start up here at the top of your page and swing your
arm from side to side just barely touch the crayons.
I don't know whether you can see that or not, maybe
you can't.
I can see it.
Just barely touch it going from side to side.
And as you get down, go just
a little bit harder and just a little bit harder.
Are you doing that with me?
Go right ahead and go work right along with me.
Press just a little bit harder now.
Press a little harder.
See how dark it's getting?
Right in top of here.
Lean right on top of your crayon.
And even if the crayon breaks, as
mine did, just know it doesn't really make too much difference.
You might even grab a little bit right down here
at the bottom of the page.
Now if you've done that on your sheet of paper, you
have something that is very interesting because it shows
with one color how many different things you can get.
Up here at the top, you have a very, very light crayon.
It's so light you've almost tickled the page with
it. You can hardly see it.
And as you come down, it gets a little bit darker, a little
bit darker.
You can get way down here at the bottom where
you press very, very hard.
Just ground that crayon right into the page.
You have a very, very dark color.
You've been able to do that on your drawing.
I hope so because when you make
your picture, you may want to get all these darks in,
away from a way dark to light in your single picture,
unless you have some simple, some different ideas in mind.
But generally speaking, from a light to a middle value to a
dark, we want it in our picture.
But that's one of the most important things in trends,
but there's some other things we want to do too,
and that's mixing our colors.
For example, suppose I take one color crayon and put it
on the page in this manner, covering it fairly solidly.
This is just one way to mix your crayons.
Covering one pit crayon down first, then picking
up a second crayon and going on top of the first crayon.
You may not want to completely color it, leaving some of
the first crayon showing too.
You may even want to take your finger and rub it a
little bit, rubbing those two colors together, or a piece
of shiny paper works too.
Coming back on top of it, you may go back to your first
crayon and mix some in between.
So one way of mixing your crayons is to take the
two colors, put them right on top of each other, and
mix them in that manner.
But there's a second way of doing it that you may
want to use too, and there may be other ways as well.
Take your first crayon, as we did before, but this time when
putting the crayon on, don't completely cover the page.
Leave some parts of the crayon showing through,
as I'm doing there.
Then take your second crayon, go on top of it, in some
places, you'll go over that wax crayon, in others
you'll go over clear paper.
And that works a little bit different, and you
may want to use that in some parts you're drawing.
So two ways of mixing your crayon.
One crayon on top of another, one crayon on top
of another, but in this case some paper shown through.
Now there's another thing we can do with our crayons too,
that we may want to try out in our pictures.
You want to do all sorts of these things.
Most of us in drawing, when we draw, we take the crayon
in our hand and use the end of it as I've been doing most
of the time here, and you see it makes a sort of a line.
Now that's very useful for showing details on faces, and
texture and cloth, leaves and trees, and many things.
In fact, we'll probably use that more than anything else.
But there may be times in your drawing where you want to
just cover a large area.
In doing that, you just take your
crayons, hold it in your hand, and break it right in hand.
That's why I take the crayon busted right in hand.
You want to try doing that with
one of your crayons, or if you have one broken, then just
use the short piece of crayon.
After your crayon is broken, take your fingernail and run
it right down along the side of the crayon, and that manages
picking up that paper.
That will take that paper right
off the crayon very easily.
So you have nothing but a piece of white, colored white.
Now take it, hold it on its side, and push it down on, and
you see it covers a large area.
You can do this very lightly, or you can press very hard on it.
Now here we'll use that to cover large areas of color.
We may use that in combination
with a line right on top of it so that the detail will show.
Whatever you wish to use depends on yourself.
Now the last thing we're talking about in crayon
is just how you yourself act while you're using it.
And that's quite important.
We're not drawing a lot of fun.
We don't want to make too much work of it.
So when you work, don't get down here and grind and bite
your piece away and work and make these little detail
lines. That's not much fun in it, and you're drawing
what it looks like it to.
Instead, take it in your hand and freely swing the crayon and
just have a good time.
Smile while you're doing it, swing
that arm around, and things will go much faster if you won't
make any more mistakes either.
So freely, swing your arm, sit up straight and have a
good time.
Now, those are just a few ways of using crayon.
You can undoubtedly try them out and find out many new ways for
yourself. That's the important thing.
You try them out and use the way that's best for you.
Now what about people?
Let's just look and see how different people really are.
Have you ever really looked at people as they
walked down the street in front of a grocery store?
Where do you suppose this lady is going?
How about the man in white who is walking
with a king?
You'd have a slightly different drawing
for him, wouldn't you?
Yes, people are different.
This cameraman has a beard.
Looks odd to us, but not too many
years ago, most men had beards.
Today, most of them are clean-shaven.
Notice how tall and thin the cameraman
and this woman appear to be.
And then look at the jolly fatness of the big man
pointing. Some people are wider than other people, you know?
People look quite different when they grow old.
They get wiser and quieter.
Quite different from this baby who looks as if he were
up to something that is going to be fun.
Have you ever noticed how different
people of different ages look?
On our boys and girls, here's the terrifically
interesting face of a Negro.
We're all the same Americans, but some of us have different
racial backgrounds of which we're all very proud.
That makes us look different, too.
Notice this teenage girl.
Her face is different from the strong arresting face of
the woman wearing a headscarf.
A few wrinkles on her face and a simple bonnet make quite
a difference in appearance.
Wrinkles tell a wonderful story, a very personal story.
And just as personal, our glasses and freckles and pig
tails because they belong very specially to a person.
How about this?
People who strange and awful things so
don't be surprised at anything.
What a story this tells.
Now we're not only different from each other.
Each of us is different at different
times. That's right.
Sometimes we're hurt and angry and
crying, like this girl who's fallen down the cement steps.
And sometimes we're happy and gay like this girl who's
having such a wonderful time.
Have you ever felt like this?
Of course you have.
Not only do we reveal feelings and emotions, but most of the
time we're doing something.
And that makes a person look very different, too.
Just look at this man jumping high in the air, spreading
out his legs and arms.
Or this big husky athlete as he moves
across the shot foot ring.
This is a composite photograph to show the full movement as he
throws that big iron ball in the air.
Yes, action and movement changes.
And when we don't move, well that changes us too.
Look at this fellow, taking it easy on some feedbacks.
You draw him quite differently from the
shot footer or from a dancer.
And then there are clothes.
A girl as a bride may wear something like this.
And she looks very beautiful.
A groom may wear something like
this. At least this is what an English groom would wear.
How many different kinds of clothes do your friends
wear? Do you ever think of that?
And have you ever seen people like this?
Sure you have.
Just look closely.
We're looking right down on them from a third story
window. How you look at people and from where you
look at them is important.
From up high people look very different.
From say down here.
Looking up at these boys sitting on a fence changes things.
Even people walking away from us look different.
Have you ever paid any attention to
how people look from the back?
Well try it sometime boys and girls.
And another thing, now people can't be separated from
their surroundings.
Sometimes those surroundings add a great
deal to pictures of people.
Here the farmer looks much more interesting than
he would without the big wheel in front of him.
Not only people are different, but all artists are different
too. They each have an individual way of drawing.
And each one of you boys and girls would see the
same person differently.
And would draw that person in your own particular way.
Notice how different this cartoon like drawing of the
big man is from the crayon drawing of the girl carrying
a bucket.
Sometimes artists use many lines in their
drawings and great detail as the artist did in this picture.
Others may just use broad strokes of the crayon to
suggest large masses of color as in this drawing of two men.
At times the people in a picture are fitted together to form a
powerful movement of lines as the Mexican artist Jose Orozco
has done in this painting.
Now Fred Conway and his mural of Oklahoma Landrush
has almost lost his people because he was so much more
interested in the design the people made in the crowd.
A crowd of people often makes a big pattern or design and
it's very hard to find any one person in it.
And what about you boys and girls?
How do you draw people?
And that's a good question boys and girls.
How do you draw people?
Do you draw them like this?
There are many different ways for you
to do them.
And if you're in a different age level or a
different grade level, you'll do it in many different ways.
For example, we have three drawings up here on the board
made by boys and girls of many of your ages.
Let's look at them and see how different they are.
We have over here a drawing of a girl in the second grade.
You see the joyful, young people
learn how differently she's done it possibly than some of
you older boys and girls do it.
Let's step over here to this one over here of the
races. Here again, this one is a fifth grader, a little
bit older, a boy drawing a picture of the races.
Now I wanted to show you this particularly for the people in
the crowd.
You see they aren't really individual people,
they're just groups of people.
And the boy has made just sort of symbols of them.
That's another way of drawing people.
The boy did that himself.
Or you may come down here to the way this eighth
grader has drawn her people.
Skating on an ice rink in the winter.
She's filled the pages with them.
There are lots of fine action again.
They're not quite so much as symbols except her own
individual interpretation.
Yes, there's many different ways of looking at people,
there's many different people and there's many different
ways of drawing them.
And now boys and girls, let's look at live people.
People moving, people doing all sorts
of things.
We're going to show you a short and silent movie.
We aren't even going to say very much during it.
All we want you to do is watch this movie
and be on the lookout for people that would be fun to draw.
If you wish, you can jot down ideas for pictures on the back
of your drawing paper.
And now we're all set.
So let's look at people and people and
people and still more people.
Remember boys and girls, be on the alert for ideas that you'd
like to use for pictures of people.
How would you draw them?
[Pause]