I think a lot of learning can benefit from a Karate Kid and Mr Miyagi approach. Well, sort of.

Mr Miyagi was a cranky old man who taught Mr Daniel Karate to wash cars and paint fences in a very specific way to teach him Kung Fu. Those repetitive moves set themselves deep in Daniel’s brain, so that he knew how to move instinctively, thus giving him the raw materials and basic skills to practice karate.

I think if Mr Miyagi had let Daniel know what it was he was learning, Daniel may have been better at Karate. I wouldn’t want to purposefully create an educational environment in which the learner has no idea what they’re learning, or why they’re learning it. If that has ever (accidentally) happened in my classroom, I’ve seen glazed-over eyes, furrowed brows, and empty notebooks.

So let’s christen the Informed Karate Kid approach: going over a simple and basic action that you want to master, again and again, so that you’ve got those underlying skills locked down. But doing it because you know what you want to achieve.

In very related news: I’ve been drawing many small things. I’d like a toolkit of Small Objects (not really small, just small on paper) that I can bash out, at a quick pace, to fill a scene.

Here are some trees:

Here are some mushrooms:

There are a lot more, but scanning takes a long time, so these are the ones closest to my desk right now.

I used a few of these IKK sessions to practice mushrooms, trees, figures, and carrots. Here is a big page of progress demonstrations, which I think would make for some nice Fancy Bookmarks.

Hopefully, now I can put mushrooms, trees, carrots or people in umbrellas into a scene in my graphic novel with ease and comfort.

A list of future small objects to learn with the IKK method:

  • Clouds
  • Water elements
  • Mountains, hills
  • Flowers
  • Doors and windows
  • Street furniture
  • Tools
  • Facial expressions
  • Hands
  • Pets
  • Wild animals
  • Livestock
  • Wood grain
  • Stone and brick patterns
  • Fabric textures

Thank you for coming with me on this learning journey.