Embedded Files
Written by Ren Brammer
March 2023
“It’s not about the grades,” Springfield High School art teacher Meredith Pelton said as she discussed a new SHS art class, Sketchbook Techniques. “It's about the experiences.”
She hopes the course will allow students to experiment with materials and techniques. “If they try out many things, hopefully one will stick with them and they grow further,” Pelton added.
SHS counselors and administrators asked Pelton to create this art elective with no prerequisites. “We wanted a class where anyone could grow in their art,” she said. “When I thought of what that would look like, the first thing that came to mind was sketchbook techniques.”
For many, Sketchbook Techniques is a saving grace, providing an immersive experience for students at any stage of their art journey. Chances to work with a variety of materials and to experiment–which students are encouraged to do in Sketchbook Techniques–are luxuries available only to students in advanced art classes.
“I wanted to focus not only on drawing, but also the other aspects of art, those not usually touched upon,” Pelton added.
One resource the class uses
These art aspects include color theory, especially in relation to mood, art style, and compositional organization. Pelton feels that all of these, but especially compositional organization, can help students understand and approach art in new ways. With this in mind, Sketchbook Techniques’ goal has been to “help each kid grow artistically in any way they wish to.”
Not only does Sketchbook Techniques seek to help students new to art with understanding the foundations, but also helps more advanced students, students with already established art styles, to grow from there.
“I want to help students with their own art styles, since many students improve to the point of having their own way of creating art, but do not know where to go from there,” Peloton said. “I want to get the students to expand into new styles, refine their own, or be able to think about their individual style in new ways.”
Besides helping students with their drawing, Pelton has another reason for offering the class. “I want to get students into journaling through art. My hope is that after this course, students will continue using art as an outlet.”
“Art as an outlet is invaluable,” Pelton added. “It was something I used a lot as a teenager.”
It was Pelton’s experiences as a child that led to journaling being incorporated into the lesson plans of Sketchbook Techniques.
She notes that she hopes the course will “get students to reflect on themselves, their thoughts, their feelings, their emotions, and their experiences.”
The course’s flexibility to cover a wide range of aspects of art and to be so personalized is, in part, due to the unique nature of this course. Sketchbook Techniques doesn’t have benchmark proficiencies that other art courses do. No longer do students need to submit essays on the Principles of Design or complete quizzes on Plutchik’s color wheel. Instead, the students taking this course are free to dive into different materials and make art.
Peloton said the class has “a lot less pressure, both for me with assessing, but also for the students.” The loosened criteria allows the class to focus on creating and developing one’s own art, rather than meeting certain requirements.
“It’s very freeing,” Pelton said.
The lack of benchmarks also helps in another area. “As the course goes on, it will become more personalized,” she said. “I hope to be able to work with the students and help them with their individual needs.”
When asked about how she hopes the course will develop in years to come, Pelton expressed joy about the enrollment in Sketchbook Techniques. “I’d love to see the class as full as it is this year,” she concluded.
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