Visiting Artist Natalie Jacobsen: Drawing and Replication

Post contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

On Wednesday, Feb. 27th, we welcomed visiting Artist Natalie Jacobson. Through drawing and the process of replication, Natalie is interested in how slow and imperceptible changes occur over time. To introduce this concept to the students, Natalie shared examples of her own artwork and the work of 20th century artists such as Duchamp, Lewitt & Warhol, who explored this very process.

Natalie, sharing her art work and process

Natalie & her artwork (look closely to identify cow legs/hooves)

 

Natalie's illustration, closely resembling a woven fabric

Natalie discussing how small changes occurred in her work, during the process of replication

To help the children make a connection between her drawing activity and how change occurs, Natalie first engaged the students in a familiar game of telephone. There were lots of giggles and of course the sentence we started with was quite different from what we ended with. 

playing the classic "telephone game" as an introduction to the drawing activity

telephone continued

a comedic ending to Natalie's telephone game

To begin the project, Natalie asked the children to draw either a portrait or a full body sketch of themselves on a piece of 8.5 x 11" paper. Students then passed their drawing to their neighbor who drew a copy of the original portrait, on the same sized paper, replicating as closely as possible the shapes and dimensions they observed in the original. This copy (of the original portrait) was then passed on to another student to replicate. The process was repeated with additional students, so that each student had 4 to 7 copies of their original portrait.

Anika making a copy

Emory making a copy of Kiran's drawing

Ben making a copy of Andrew's drawing

Kiran copying Ben's copy of Andrew's original drawing

 

Xavier

Cassie

Laila

Andrew making a copy of Anika's Drawing

Passing drawings to be replicated

Some of the original drawings (far left of each row) with successive copies, in order of creation

As we would expect, everyone has an original/personal approach to drawing in general, whether it is drawing portraiture, abstraction, landscapes, etc. And we value such difference, otherwise art would cease to be exciting and engaging. However, what was revealed through Natalie's lesson with us, is that yes, there will be small changes that occur in one copy to the next, but also that young artists possess strong perception skills: when asked, they can produce a close copy of another young artist's drawing, through diligent observation of shapes and lines and their relationships to each other. With each copy the students drew, their skill of perception was clearly evident and further documented. And perception is a valuable skill that can be a benefit to us not only in art, but in many aspects of daily life, and a key to success in a number of careers. A big thank you to Natalie for such a thought provoking and revealing project!