Tutorials: Drawing textbooks

A part-time art educator I talked to this summer said technical drawing books can be very helpful to teachers. “[A scholarly resource] that I use all the time is Will Eisner’s Expressive Anatomy. You know, Will Eisner is the major Disney darling of yore. It’s a great resource” 

However-- and I expressed this in our conversation-- those kinds of books can be hard to use, especially for students in art classrooms. Briefly scanning the Goodreads page for Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist reveal the numerous challenges that readers have had with the book. Bad reviews cite a lack of step-by-step instruction and call the book superficial. One review even says that readers might have more success with the book if they were led through it by a teacher. 

But that art educator understood how drawing books can be challenging for readers; “I use them mostly in cartooning because I think that takes some of the pressure off, and some of the scariness away, if you know how to use them in the right way”. 

She tried to build trust with her students, so they felt comfortable approaching these books and potentially even bringing them home. She's constantly replenishing her classroom library and she encourages students to take them, because ultimately, “They’re there as a resource that’s available to them.” 

Art teachers looking to pick up some books to add to their classroom library can consult this Indie Bookstore Finder to find bookstores near them, or they can use the Goodwill Locator to find a source for books that might be a little more affordable. 

Inspirations: Preservice teachers

 There aren’t that many open access articles on the Taylor and Francis Online’s Art Education webpage, but access to the journal’s contents is provided by Grand Valley State University. So, while the Instructional Resources of Art Education, published as part of every bi-monthly issue, might not be a good fit for in-service teachers who have left Grand Valley, or their respective institution. But they are worth exploring for a preservice art educator. 

Attending NAEA’s webinar, “Writing for Art Education”, on July 22, I learned a few interesting things about the official journal of the National Art Education Association (NAEA); what they prioritize, the kinds of articles they publish, etcetera. But what stood out among those things was their Instructional Resources. 

Art Education’s Instructional Resources are, explicitly, articles that are meant to inspire art educators by telling stories about personal experiences. There are a couple of interesting components of an Instructional Resource, as described by the hosts of the webinar, Asavari Thatte and Ashley Mask, the co-editors of the Instructional Resources section of the journal. 

Every Instructional Resource has a positionality statement, where the author lets the reader know about relevant facets of their identity and perspective. Instructional Resources are also not meant to be lesson plans or how-to guides; they connect to practices in art education, but the author of an Instructional Resource doesn’t tell the reader how they’re supposed to use what they’ve written. These resources are submitted by art teachers, but also museum educators and community educators, voices that are exciting to hear in an academic context in art education. 

Grand Valley's EBSCO results, after searching "art education."

The Instructional Resources from Art Education are something that I wished I had a chance to use in my curriculum development class; I highly recommend them to other preservice art teachers at Grand Valley or other schools that have also secured access to the journal. (For Grand Valley students, the journal should be the first result when you search “art education” on EBSCO, with the Resource Type “journals” selected.