The Prelude to Sgraffito - Drawing

Although Dennis likes to draw triangles and squares and circles, I've been "pushing" (gently) Dennis to draw. I've asked him to focus on drawing from actual reference material, or what is considered observational drawing.
WHY?
As well as helping to establish motor skills and hand eye coordination, drawing helps you develop a strong understanding of fundamental artistic concepts like shape and form.

Drawing provides a space to experiment with different compositions and layouts before carving out the design, allowing you to make informed decisions about where to place elements.

By practicing drawing, you develop a greater sense of accuracy and precision, which helps you translate your creative ideas onto pottery using line and color.
At first, Dennis grumbled a bit. After all drawing is a little scary at first.
But this series of "Waves", are Dennis's own concepts. I did not interfere with his vision. He started with waves, then wanted to add the sun. 
We looked at reference material, and Dennis created his own look and design.
I like how he left the waves in the middle without any sgraffito lines. It adds a bit of "Dennis" to his sgraffito. It also adds some interest to the flow of this piece.

This photo shows the initial stages of my encouraging Dennis to draw.

I drew the top left concept, using Dennis's waves ideas. I then asked Dennis to draw (3 drawings) of his own waves concept. He liked his 3rd attempt the best. This is the drawing we transferred onto the shallow bowl for sgraffito. (bottom right drawing) Notice how Dennis's drawing does not have the lines on the second row of waves.
After drawing was transferred to the greenware (raw state), Dennis proceeded to apply three coats of Amaco Velvet underglazes to each individual shape, which he then, sgraffito'd (etched the surface to reveal the clay of the bowl).
This shallow bowl is in its greenware stage, and has not been fired yet. 
Will post photo after final glaze firing.

You might be asking "WHAT IS SGRAFFITO?"
Sgraffito is an Italian word meaning - to scratch.
It is one of our colored porcelain clay techniques.
Sgraffito, in my opinion, has a bit of a rustic feel, as sometimes little bits of color are left behind after scratching the clay surface.
So let's say our pottery bowl, that we just wheel-threw on the potter's wheel, was cream colored clay.
After this bowl has dried to leather hard stage (not wet clay, and not bone dry clay), a colored slip is applied to the surface of our cream colored bowl. The colored slip is medium blue. We need some contrast so our design pops.
Two or three coats of blue colored slip applied to the leather hard bowl.
Let this dry a little, but not bone dry.
A ball tool, or a tool designed especially for sgraffito is then used to "scratch" the colored slip surface, with just enough pressure to expose the cream clay beneath the blue slip. You can visibly see these lines in the main image of this blog, on both pieces of pottery.
After the pottery is fired to Cone 04 (bisque firing), the pieces of pottery are glazed with a clear glaze (2-3 coats). The piece(s) are then glaze fired to 2232º Fahrenheit, resulting in a nice shiny surface that will be ready to eat off of, or ready to hold your favorite piece of jewelry.

Finished piece fired to Cone 6 (2232º Fahrenheit):