Fifth grade students at Sylvan Avenue Elementary School learned from guest illustrator David O. Miller that art takes place in the brain and that they can train themselves to see and think an image while training their hand to draw. 

“You have to see something before you draw it,” Mr. Miller said. 

“The idea class,” as Mr. Miller called it, demonstrated how to draw their ideas on a blank page using art’s five shapes (sphere, cone, cube, pyramid and cylinder) and to blend the shapes to make a cartoon character. Mr. Miller explained that the students had to think in 3D instead, to rid themselves of flat images and that constant erasing of their mistakes does not let the flow of art happen on a page. 

While drawing with Mr. Miller, the students successfully created their own alien characters and took away a wealth of information they can use forever. 

Date Added: 1/20/2023