Draw a pot. Now draw another one in behind it...

... and two more in behind those pots... and one more if you have time before the bell rings.

A few simple simple steps I added in the second week of my drawing classes this semester, which tuned out to be critical missing links in the teaching process that have improved my student art work by 300% over all my student work in semesters past. 

There were other elements in the process: crayons instead of pens (because my order of pens hadn't yet arrived), big news print paper form old sketchbooks (because my sketchbooks hadn't arrived either), and the following day having my students stand back 15 feet to draw still-life compositions, layering in the forms of the items in the arrangements (again with crayons and again on news print paper, stalling because my supplies hadn't yet arrived). 

When I have a few more minutes to write I'll add in the explanations of how all these little elements have had such magnificent ramifications, and how they have continued to escalate the success of my classes as the sophistication of their works have grown.  But for the moment I'm just relishing in the fact that my supplies were late and that I realized while it was happening that I was on to something.  And now there is the joy of watching it play out, and wondering while it does what other critical links I might be missing in my teaching.