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Blocking Tutorial

(If you are a tutor or a parent involved in Classical Conversation’s Foundation’s Program, you’ll find this tutorial dovetails with Week 1’s “Simple Shapes OiLS” week, but anyone can use it to learn or teach blocking to students.

I got into art teaching when my kids joined a homeschool co-op group that did a six-week drawing tutorial. While this is meant to work with that, you can also use this at home to learn drawing yourself, either on your own time or as part of a homeschool curriculum or for an enthusiastic student. Don’t be afraid you’re too old–my grandmother in law only picked up paintbrushes after her children were grown and gone, and ended up being really good!

Since the co-op in question covers ages 4 -12, and developmentally, these are HUGE age ranges, I’ve cut this tutorial into four sections. They are :

Abecedarian (roughly ages 4-6; these children are in the scribble and pre-schematic stages of drawing)

Apprentice (roughly ages 6-8; these children range from Pre-schematic to Schematic stages of drawing)

Journeyman (roughly 8-10; covering Schematic through Dawning Realism/Transitional Stages)

Master: (10-12; Dawning Realism/Transitional Stages through Pseudo-Naturalism to…well, then it’s up to them.

The links in those lists above link to a mini series I wrote about how drawing develops and more importantly, whether you are a parent or a teacher, or a frustrated artist, how you can encourage the children around you or inside you to practice more.

I hope some of you do check out the links above. It changed how I taught my 4-5 year olds last year, and this year, and understanding what we’re seeing with our kids as they develop is so helpful, at least, to me.

So here’s the first week. I found last Cycle 3, so updates shouldn’t take long. Thank you to the person to pinged me. I’ve been prepping for my child’s 7th grade year, and lost all track of the month. HOW is it August already?!?!?!?!

Abecedarian Blocking Script (Week 1,)

Apprentice Blocking Script (Week 1)

Journeyman Blocking Script (Week 1)

Master Blocking Script (Week 1) (This one has been tweaked from last year’s

Double Translation Drawing: Draw the Nina (A history based drawing lesson. More suited to Journeymen and Masters)