Light and Dark, Straight Line and Curve, Form Drawing

Light has something of a straight line about it.  On a given day I can see light and its reflections, but I don't see it curve or wrap around an object.  Sometimes in the evening sunset I can see rays of light break through the clouds as straight lines.

Darkness has something curved about it.  It envelops the space, curls and moves.  It is the opposite of the light.  Together, we have lines and curves.  Form and space.  On the first day of first grade in a Waldorf school the students are often introduced to the line and the curve in their form drawing class. The children notice in their environment where they see a line, as they also notice in the upright human being! They also discover where there are curves.  One begins to 'see' forms in a new way. These lines and curves mix and intermingle. Indeed, the whole world becomes an artistic adventure of perceiving lines and curves as objects and space....the world we live in!

Form drawing ... " is part of the evolution of art and, as such, develops an aesthetic sense and feeling for form. " (My emphasis added) (Form Drawing: Grades One through Four by Laura Embry-Stine and Ernst Schubert)

Betty Edwards in her book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain likens the left hemisphere of the brain to the more linear way of thinking and the right side of the brain to more spatial orientation.  I believe that a balance between light and dark, form and space, line and curve, left brain/right brain offers a picture of a very balanced human being living on a healthy, balanced planet where creativity arises between thinking and doing. Betty Edwards emphasizes that in the world of today, and in education, there is an overemphasis on intellectual thinking with left-hemishphere activity which deadens the creative potential of an individual!  Form drawing is just one artistic activity that can be explored to balance the polarities of light and dark, left and right...

"There are many sound reasons which support the feeling that form drawing is good for children (and adults...that's my addition).  The simplest and perhaps most straight-forward reason is that it develops the fine motor skills as a preparation, and later as a support, for writing.  It strengthens the eye-hand coordination, giving the eye practice at being coachman for the horses, the hands.  Form drawing also works in the other direction: The movement of the hand to the brain.  It also teaches thinking but in a non-intellectual way; it trains the intelligence to be flexible, able to follow and understand a complicated line of thought.  The more human beings are trained to think flexibly, the greater the world is strengthened in intelligence."  Form Drawing: Grades One Through Four by Laura Embry Stine and Ernst Schubert

The following three pictures are examples of form drawing from a 2nd grader.  The next three pictures are examples of precision drawing by a 6th grader.  Even though they are drawn in color, the feeling of light and darkness, line and curve, form and space are all there.