Form Drawing With Rick and Jennifer Tan
Form Drawing With Rick and Jennifer Tan
Form Drawing With Rick and Jennifer Tan
Were all very excited about it, and a lot of my mind, a lot of my energy has really
been geared towards helping the students really produce a beautiful show. Pretty
much looking forward to that, definitely.
Donna: Great. Good luck on that.
Rick: Yes. Thank you!
Well, form drawing lets dive right into it I would say, in thinking back to
when I was a kid in the lower grades, I remembered during time when my teachers
would be teaching a lesson, whether language, arts or whatever. I would be sitting
at my desk, and I have my spiral notebook out, and I would be doodling at the
sides of the pages when I was supposed to be taking notes. (Donna agrees)
The teacher would sometimes notice what I was doing and they would
say, Rick, what are you doing? You need to stop that and pay attention. So I
would say, Im so sorry about that, I'm just doodling away. Once the lesson
begins again, I find myself just gravitating towards producing these repeating
forms of spirals and circles and leaf shapes.
First I thought, Okay. I'm being a really bad student, not paying attention to my
teachers. But then, by seventh and eighth grade, I was winning awards for best
penmanship in school. I realized that perhaps they had something to do with all
that doodling that I was doing. I realized that it must have been to my benefit, in
one way or another. It turns out that doodling is very much very similar to form
drawing.
Now, form drawing is a more disciplined version of doodling, but the benefits, at
least it was for me, I would say, would be the same. And the benefit is what we are
striving towards for the children as well, and that is producing something beautiful
and also helping them with their handwriting.
I would say, if I were asked what form drawing is, I would describe it as a bridge
a bridge between the written and language and arts. Lets go to our first slide here.
three: the will, the feeling life and the thoughts of the child and helps the child
really develop all three.
Now, who needs to learn form drawing? Form drawing generally begins in grade
one in Waldorf Schools. Straight line and curved line are the first ones introduced,
and then standing forms, spirals and some running forms. All ages will see benefits
from form drawing, although it is done regularly in grades one through five.
Progressing through the years, mirrored running forms, circular forms on an axis,
crossing the midline, and more advanced forms.
Then children with fine motor, gross motor, midline and other developmental
issues. In pulling a little bit from my experience in medical school, wed spend a
lot of time with neurology. Really examining the human brain, and how the
nervous system is so key to our beings; our spiritual development, our physical
development.
If you examine form drawing as a form of art, as a wait for it person, to really be
able to control the movements of their arm. It creates a feedback loop, this
biofeedback loop, this circuit between the muscles of the hands and fingers with
what the eye sees and the brain processes.
It creates this loop, this circuit, that if its not fostered, you can imagine how
difficult it must be for a child to produce beautiful work, whether its art or
handwriting. If that is not encouraged beginning early on in the lower grades, it
would be very difficult for anyone, a child or adult, to produce refined work, to
have that willfulness and mindfulness and precision in the written language.
Who needs to learn form drawing? I would say, everyone, I think can benefit really
from form drawing. Because it creates that it exercises that circuit, that loop, that
allows all parts of the nervous system, and the muscle system, to produce this
amazing, amazing, beautiful work.
The next slide: When do we teach form drawing? In grade one, start with a two-
week block, half hours, three to four times per week. Children will draw on small
chalkboards with block crayons and with their fingers, in sand trays. Forms may
also be walked or traced in the air before drawn.
Forms are always top to bottom, left to right. Weekly form drawing grades is
beneficial. As children progress with their writing and drawing ability, forms may
be done in conjunction with other lessons. Running forms may be done with stick
crayons, colored pencil and chalk in grades two and above.
For children with developmental issues, form drawing may be done on a more
regular basis. If a child gets frustrated or tired, take a break from form drawing.
Check the position of the body and the pencil or crayon grip to see if either is
causing fatigue.
We teach form drawing pretty early on in the Waldorf system, starting with grade
one. Jennifer will talk more as well in homeschooling on how she has produced
this progression of forms for our children.
We have in block lettering here, forms are always drawn top to bottom, left to
right; its a general rule of thumb. If you could imagine that these form drawings
will eventually segway into the written language, that is just how we, in our
culture, produce our lettering.
Its just one good way to be able to make that connection between form drawing
and the written language. Its not a (crosstalk)
Donna: You get started with the way that the words will flow, even though
you're using it for the forms.
Rick: Exactly. Its not a hard and fast rule, because if we talk about the
forms in progressing complexity. If you could imagine for instance, starting with
that straight line, and then the curved line.
And that curved line forming essentially what looks like a C, and that C can be
oriented differently in space. The C facing up like a cup, or facing down like a hill,
or left and right. Thats how we progress the complexity of forms; they become
standing forms, like spirals, or shapes, like squares and triangles. Or they might be
way for this child to look at this and go, Ah, Ive just felt this balance of this
outward spikes now with these softer curves thats formed around it.
Theres so much creativity in the use of form drawings. I would say
there arent any hard and fast rules. It really is up to the teacher; what the teachers
capable of, what the parents enjoy doing with their child. Its meant to be fun, its
meant to be creative, and at the same time, just really knowing that underneath all
of that, you're helping the child grow and develop in their spirit and in their
abilities and their technical skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.
Donna: I got just one question. When you were going through that, so are you
saying we could make up our own form drawings? I thought it was something you
had to follow; I guess I've seen several things and maybe Jennifer will get into that
more where you (Rick affirms) suggested forms drawings for second grade, third
grade or whatever. But I didnt know, I didnt know if that was something that you
should really follow (crosstalk) or can you do variations of those?
Rick: I would say, that might be the answer there: variations on the forms. I
would say, primarily you want to have a sense of progression, of form. You can
picture a straight line, then the curve, then the curve oriented differently in space,
then closed forms like a simple circle. Then progress from there where you can be
a, concentric circles, or figure eights where it crosses the midline, figure eights that
can actually start expanding out, forms from that figure eight that can be oriented
horizontally and then superimposed on that, another figure eight vertically. So it
resembles almost like a four-petalled flower.
I believe Jennifer in her portion will probably touch on some of the
books shes used. There are books written by Waldorf teachers, even drawn from
master Waldorf teachers who have used these forms for a long time. It has
provided a basis I think for much of form drawing in schools and used by
homeschooling parents.
But honestly, as a homeschooling parent and as a teacher, I never want to make a
potential teacher feel like they need to stick to something so rigid and strict,
because that for me, it takes the spirit out of the creativity, of that process of the
spirit and the will, that theres freedom, and if theres anything that Steiner has
been saying all along, that you have to have this freedom.
What Steiner had done was give us these tools; but take the tool and create
something beautiful out of it.
Donna: All right. Thank you for that info.
Rick: Well, thank you Donna. Ill hand over the phone
Donna: Okay. Are we done with your portion? (laughs)
Rick: Yes. Thank you so much. (crosstalk) I hope that was helpful for your
listeners.
Donna: All right great.
Rick: Thank you Donna. Heres Jennifer.
Jennifer: Hi Donna.
Donna: Hey. How are you Jen?
Jennifer: I'm doing great. Thanks. Now were going to talk a little bit about
form drawing and how you use it in the homeschooling environment. The first
thing I wanted to bring out is that you can always incorporate stories when you're
doing your form drawing. You dont have to do it every single time, but I have
found its such a rich way to start the forms and to keep the attention of the
children.
Some children will love to do the forms, and other children will go, Oh, its form
drawing time. But if you start off with a story and engage them immediately, then
it makes all the difference.
I recommend telling the story aloud, and I'm not even necessarily saying hold up a
book or read out of a book. Just tell a story; as you tell the story, you're going to
draw the forms and as you draw the forms, it might be on a chalkboard or could be
on a piece of paper with crayons, then the children will watch you and they will
mimic you. They may be sequential forms for younger children like Rick talked
about: straight line, curved line to develop handwriting. They might be forms that
relate to an artistic project thats going to be featured in a main lesson book, lets
say for science or math or another subject.
Heres a quick little demonstration. (clears throat) Once upon a time, there was a
little gnome. He lived in a cave that was very cold. He decided to look for a new
home. At this point, I will show running form that probably has some horizontal
lines and curves to show that hes walking.
He walked and he walked until he came to the mountains. Now I would show a
running form of jagged triangles. He went up the mountains, he went down the
mountains, but it was still very cold.
Then he walked to the ocean and watched the waves. Now you can show a running
form that look like curved wave. But it was still cold near the water.
Then the little gnome walked into a beautiful garden. And under the gorgeous
flowers and the sweet-smelling fruit trees, he saw a village of little mushrooms.
And at this point, you can show the form that you can see on this slide, which
looks like a series of mushrooms. (Donna agrees)
Their wide heads gave him shelter and kept him warm. From then on, the gnome
made his home under the mushrooms in the garden.
So theres a quick little story. And thats the mushroom
Donna: Can I ask you one quick question? So youve really combined several
different forms into the story? Or
Jennifer: Right. So that was one, two (crosstalk)
Donna: Okay. I never thought of that. I always think, Gosh. How much can I
make out of this line and this sea? (laughs) I didnt know you could go into so
would they be drawing all of that as you go through your story, so maybe you're
doing three different ones during that one story, and that would be fine?
Jennifer: Correct. Obviously, if I were drawing with the children for the sake
of time right now, I did a very quick story but with the children, we would really
take our time. (Donna agrees) Id probably tell a lot more details about what was
happening to the little gnome as hes walking and really watch and see how long
the children are spending on the forms because you dont want to rush them.
You always want to make sure that they're really striving for accuracy. The best
way for them to do that is for us to model that. You want to take it slowly and do it
as accurately as possible, and then have the children do it as well.
Some people really like having children go back over their forms especially if
you're using chalkboard crayons. Its fun to go over and over until you feel like its
just a little bit nicer and neater. Thats especially helpful for children who have
issues with handwriting.
In the case of this story, if it was a young child, you might just do one running
form. But for an older child, incorporating three or four running forms could be a
lot of fun. Then for an upper-grades child, that would then work into a block on
mycology.
In our own home, we did a whole week or so where we studied mushrooms
outside. We dissected mushrooms, we drew them. We read stories about
mushrooms and looked at pictures, and yet we started off with the form drawing;
that was the very beginning. Form drawing and telling a story is a nice way to
begin a block.
Now I have some other examples; on the next slide some examples for math,
science, social studies and art. On the left side, on the top, those forms we did
when we were studying South America. It was great because we were looking at
ancient ruins and designs and it was so easy to just find different forms and say,
Oh! Lets draw them, and lets draw them over and over again, which is form
drawing.
But it wasnt like I said to the kids, Okay, were going to do from drawing right
now. It was more like, Were doing social studies or learning about South
America. Lets draw these, and that can lead into art lessons and weaving or all
sorts of other types of projects.
On the top right, youll see a math board, which is really easy to make by the way,
with a piece of wood, some little nails and a piece of yarn. Its a nice way to teach
kids counting or the times tables. This is an example of counting by twos. If you
take the yarn and you wrap it around every second nail: two, four, six, eight, ten,
then you end up making a shape, which is a five-pointed star.
As you teach math and you find the forms that come up, those forms not only are
you creating them in a very way from drawing, but later on you could sit down and
practice drawing a five-pointed star over and over. Maybe a five-pointed star with
a circle around it, five-pointed and then one thats upside down underneath it,
depending on how old the child is. You can get quite complex and really intricate
geometry with form drawing.
In the middle there, youll see our oldest son Ricky. He is doing some Chinese
characters; that was for Chinese New Years. Chinese characters are a completely
different system of writing from what we are used to. The way we did it was, we
took different characters and we practiced them, top to bottom, left to right for the
most part, on the chalk. Then when the children felt comfortable, they would take
paint and the painting brush, and actually paint them on the paper.
Again, it wasnt like I sat down and said, Were doing the form drawing right
now. It was more like, Hey, celebrating Chinese New Year. Lets learn some
Chinese characters. But in a sense, they really were creating forms in a very
different way.
On the left-hand bottom, youll see a more traditional-looking form, which are
concentric circles. Those are thats a very easy example to do with younger
children. You would go make the small circle in the middle, like the next one
around it, and keep going until you use up your whole paper or your whole
chalkboard. You can change colors; you can also go in the opposite direction.
Start with a large circle, make a concentric circle inside of that, a little
smaller one inside of that, and all the way until you get to the center. You can also
go in the opposite direction with your hand. You can switch hands; theres a lot
you can do when you're getting form drawing to really work on the child and
balancing their right hand and left-handedness.
Donna: Hold on. I think I'm losing you there. You still there?
Jennifer: Yes. I'm here.
Donna: The phone went out just for a second. (laughs) But its okay right
now.
Jennifer: Did you hear me say, its just the younger children
Donna: I missed the last sentence you said. (laughs)
Jennifer: Okay. I think I just said, with the younger children you're just
basically practicing circles, and thats all it is. With an older child, you could then
take that, and you can see the picture to the right, where we actually made
concentric circles after we drew them with pieces of yarn, which is a little bit
trickier (laughs) to make because yarn doesnt stay.
Then the kids made a yellow ball that was the sun, and other colors for planets, and
we were studying astronomy. We were talking about Galileo, and Copernicus, we
were talking about geocentrism versus heliocentrism, and the kids were able to
show their understanding of the astronomy concepts using their concentric circles
after we did the form drawing.
In the middle bottom there, youll see a beautiful drawing that we did on the
chalkboard that shows the circulatory system. Thats a really good example of, in
upper grades, children who have done forms repeatedly will take a look at that and
will be able to duplicate on their own chalkboard, on a piece of paper, with fairly
good ease, because theyre used to making those curved lines, they're used to going
in the different directions.
For me, honestly, because I didnt grow up with that, I would look at that drawing
and Id get a little intimidated. (laughs)
Donna: Right. Me too (laughs)
Jennifer: Oh my gosh! I have to create that?! (Laughs) But the seventh-graders
that I taught last year, they did beautiful, beautiful job of being able to recreate
what he did. As of course hes describing what the circulatory system is, they're
talking about human anatomy; so its really a science lesson. This is an example of
how if you expose your children to forms early on, as they get older, the form
drawing will not only help increase their handwriting ability but also their ability to
draw. Not just for an artistic point of view but also for science and other areas.
Donna: Yes. And I like how you show how it can be brought in to the upper
grades, because I was wondering, how long does this go on? Are they want to keep
drawing these things? But I see as they, they do get more intricate, and I love the
diagram here, youve got the example of how it could really turn into something
amazing. (laughs)
Jennifer: Yes. In fact, I walked into a seventh-grade Waldorf classroom
yesterday, and because it was Valentines Day, shed done these beautiful
drawings, form drawings of hearts and then extrapolating from the heart, some
curly kisses and some different, more spiral forms.
I could tell that the kids probably just worked on those over and over again. Again,
a nice way to incorporate anatomy: Valentines Day with form drawing. (Donna
agrees) Yes. I thought it was pretty clever.
Then on the right side, youll see a drawing: thats my daughters drawing,
something that we did last year. We were studying botany as it was spring time, so
its kind of fun. You go outside and, What flowers are blooming? Oh, look at the
daffodils. Then well say, Oh! Do you notice that all the daffodils have six
petals? They pretty much are all always the same. Kind of three leaf clovers. They
always have these three leaves.
Then, Lets take apart a rose. Oh my gosh. Look at how there are always five little
petals in the very center that come out. So we started studying the plants, looked
at numbers, looked at the shapes, drew them, figured out what geometric shapes
went with them, and from that really created these beautiful forms.
And the clover, the three and the four-leaf clover patterns are actually pretty
common forms to do in form drawing. You could do this over and over again, in
lots of different ways while at the same time, you are incorporating numbers:
geometry; spring time: botany.
Theres a lot of ways that you can incorporate form drawing with children of all
ages. With a very young child, you probably would not go quite that advanced.
You would probably just stick with maybe, lets just do the clover pattern over and
over again. The older children of course can do quite a bit more.
Those are just a few examples that weve done in homeschooling. Sometimes I
start with a form drawing, and then work its way into whatever the lesson is.
Sometimes the form drawing is actually part of the lesson somewhere within it.
Now the big question is, I love all of this, I want to incorporate this with my
children, but how? Where do I start, (Donna agrees) what if I want a program, what
books are there? There are a fair amount; we have listed here resources that we
recommend because either weve used them, weve seen them, theyve been highly
recommended.
But thats really up to you. I think Rick said that so beautifully earlier that we
would never be ones that say, You must buy this book, you must follow those
program, because thats taking away from that freedom element and it is such an
important part of what we do with homeschoolers is really having the freedom to
do what is best for our child.
But I also know that some people really like to have something to start with and to
follow. The first book, Form Drawing Grades One Through Four, by Laura
Embrey-Stine, is a really wonderful book. Its one that is actually shown when
teachers go to Steiner College or [unclear] (0:34:38) College and learn about form
drawing.
Form Drawing For Beginners by Donna Simmons. Shes at Christopherus. Its
great because she really focuses at the homeschooling curriculum and talks about
stories.
You can incorporate Painting with Form Drawing for the Homeschooling Parent
by Barbara Dewey. Shes with Waldorf Without Walls. I have to admit that was
the first one that I bought.
Donna: Me too. (laughs)
Jennifer: Was it? (Donna affirms) It wasnt very expensive; it was just perfect.
It was like, Oh! The light bulb went on like, Okay, so I can really start with the
stories, and its not that hard. It was a nice little progression, without getting too
advanced and too theoretical.
Kristie Burns from EarthSchooling has some really wonderful books. She has
Form Drawing Basics for Grades One and Two. If you happen to have her lifetime
membership, then you have access to those at all times. I highly recommend those.
Then theres this great book called The Write Approach and write is
W-R-I-T-E. I want to say there are three levels Ive only done the first two levels
with my own children. These books some of these books, Ill admit, are not easy
to find; we cant always get them on Amazon.com. But you can almost always find
them through Steiner College Bookstore. Sometimes some of these websites
themselves, like Waldorf Without Walls or Christopherus will sell them
themselves.
But The Write Approach, I know for sure you can get through Steiner College
Bookstore. And whats great about it is really, form drawing can improve your
handwriting. I'm sure a lot of you out there are like me, you might have one or
more children who just struggle a little bit with handwriting, (laughs) for whatever
reason, even if theyve been doing form drawing all along.
Whats great about The Write Approach is you can follow it sequentially. It has
these dotted and not dotted lines that you follow, and eventually they take the
dotted lines out, then eventually they take the complete lines out, and eventually
you're doing these running forms that turn into cursive letters, without any lines.
Its really quite wonderful; I have to say that by the time my son finished the
second book, I definitely saw some significant improvement in his handwriting.
Melissa Nielsen from A Little Garden Flower, she has some DVDs
on form drawing. If you're the type of person doesnt want to read it but wants to
see someone do it, thats a great resource.
Then if you want to get into more forms, I get this but I really want some
comprehensive books with lots of form. The Creative Form Drawing Books One,
Two and Three by Kutzli are fantastic. They go very, very advanced. In fact, I
highly recommend as parents at home, do these forms not only to model for your
children; do them for yourself too. Do the advanced ones; they can get really
complex and they actually can be a lot of fun.
If you want to see more examples online, millenialchild.com, waldorfteachers.com,
and of course, the wonderful youtube.com (laughs), have some great examples.
Just to conclude, I just want to thank you Donna, for having us, and to let everyone
know that you all are please feel free to email either Rick or myself at any time.
We love creating workshops and also do lessons, chalkboard drawing, form
drawing, whatever you need. We are in California but we also travel upon request.
Come and follow our blogs, if you can; our blogs are there on the
slides: syrendell.blogspot.com and thewaldorfway.blogspot.com . Were also in
Facebook, and were finding that Facebook is a really easy way to keep up to date
on what were doing, what you're doing. If you have a Facebook account, just type
in syrendell, youll find us. Click on Like and you will automatically be able
to see our updates whenever we update. We try to get on there at least once a day.
If you are looking for books on Waldorf Education, we have an
Amazon shop, and the link is there. We have all sorts of different books for you,
including some books on form drawing when they're available.
If you want more information on our workshops, please go to
syrendellacademy.com. If youre interested in consultations, which we do in
person, we do them online also. A lot of the people who want more help with how
to homeschool and how to incorporate Waldorf in the home, we are more than
happy to work with you online, no matter where you live on the world. Thats on
our new website, which I have to forewarn you, is still kind of under work (laughs)
but its there under syrendell.com.
Then we also have an Etsy shop, syrendell.etsy.com, which has some of our fiber
arts supplies and other homeschooling supplies.
We are offering, for all of you who came today, thank you so much for listening. If
you would like any of our eBooks or our patterns, we are offering up to two of
them to you for half price. If youre interested in consultations, forty dollars off of
a consultation that is three hours or more. All you need to do is just send us an
email, [email protected], tell us what you want, tell us that you listened to the
teleseminar, give us feedback, wed appreciate it, and then well work with you on
that special.
Donna: Great. You guys always bring so much to our presentations here and
its so nice to follow along, especially in this particular subject; you actually have
visual to look. You guys, take advantage of working with Rick and Jennifer
because they have so much knowledge and so much to offer.
So check it out; and I cant wait to check out your new website as well. (laughs)
Great. Congratulations on that.
Jennifer: Thank you. Its still in progress, but (laughs)
Donna: Oh is it? (laughs)
Jennifer: Yes. (laughs)
Donna: Great. Again, thank you both. And you can thank Rick again for me; I
know hes there. Thanks for (crosstalk) to talk to us about form drawing.
Jennifer: Thank you so much Donna.
Donna: All right. Good night.
Jennifer: Okay. Good night.
- End of Call -