Lead by Maria Terentieva at Cambridgeport School under Supervising Practitioner Larry Wynn

Powerful Fits is the second part in a unit inspired by a popular animated movie that students were really engaged in at the time of the lesson. In the first part of this unit, Magical Doors, students brainstormed magical powers that represented their own identities. They then designed a door and a room inspired by the powers they chose. Powerful Fits continues where Magical Doors leaves off. Students created symbols to represent their powers and experimented with surface design. They practiced designing outfits that featured patterns they created from those symbols. Then we spent two classes practicing figure drawing. We split the room into two or three groups and students would volunteer to model. I would set a timer and we would all draw the model's pose for 4-5 minutes. I was really pleased with how the figure drawing classes felt. They were super fun and everyone was excited to model. Even students who normally try to avoid making art seemed eager to participate and to draw despite it being a new skill for everyone. There was a great energy in the room and I heard a student remark that felt like every time they drew, they could tell they were improving.  During figure drawing, we pulled students aside to take a photo in a pose they liked so they could have a reference for the next part of this lesson. The final part of the lesson was for students to use their reference photo and the outfit they had designed earlier to draw themselves in their outfit. It was exciting to see student improvement in how they approached drawing people throughout this lesson!