A Look Back at
Draw With Me with Diana Tollefson

Draw With Me with Diana Tollefson was an educational instructional television series hosted by Diana Tollefson (born November 1, 1918-died September 28, 2009). In this series (a production of KUSD-TV), Diana Tollefson demonstrated drawing techniques to art students in grade school. She also showed old paintings to her viewers to illustrate her points. This was Diana Tollefson's first and only television series to be made in color.

The theme song to the series was the opening part of Percy Faith's version of the song, "Swedish Rhapsody (Midsummer Vigil)" from 1953. This was the first of three Swedish Rhapsodies which were written by Swedish composer, Hugo Emil Alfven. The first of these three rhapsodies was called "Midsommarvaka" or "Midsommer Vigil," and was written by Alfven in 1908.

Of Tollefson's educational/instructional shows, this was the series which ran for the longest and was the series for which Tollefson was best remembered. It was broadcast throughout the 1970s and 1980s; and, it also appeared during SDPTV's overnight service as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s. Of all of the hosts of educational television shows from South Dakota, Diana Tollefson was the one who was probably the most readily recognized.

Episodes

Draw With Me with Diana Tollefson consisted of a total of 96 episodes. There were 16 episodes each for grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

• Grade 1
  
  1. Form: Winnie, the Pooh
  2. Line: Toys Go For a Walk
  3. Music: March of the Toys
  4. Space: What is Big?
  5. People: Simple Figures
  6. Faces: Who Am I?
  7. Places: Where I Live
  8. Animals: Circle Animals
  9. Birds: An Ugly Bug and Strange Birds
  10. Colors: Fingerpaint
  11. Letters: Alphabet Fun
  12. Native American Art
  13. Crayons: Ways to Use Crayons
  14. Land: Storybook Land
  15. Flowers: Sunflowers and Daisies
  16. Review: What Did We Learn?
• Grade 2
  1. Form: Magic Circle
  2. Line: Living Lines
  3. Music: Nutcracker Suite
  4. Space: Near and Far
  5. People: 5-Dot Stick Men
  6. Faces: Happy and Sad Faces
  7. Places: Weather Fun
  8. Animals: Dinosaurs & Dragons
  9. Animals: Ducks and Geese
  10. Colors: Primary Colors
  11. Letters: Squared Name Designs
  12. Native American Art
  13. Crayons: New Ways to Use Crayons
  14. Land: Under the Big Top
  15. Flowers: Fun With Flowers
  16. Review: Magic Circle Round-Up
• Grade 3
  1. Form: Penny, the Poodle
  2. Line: Scribble Fish
  3. Music: Grand Canyon Suite
  4. Space: Perspective Concepts
  5. People: Ovals and Can Men
  6. Faces: Cartoons and Comics
  7. Places: Where Animals Live
  8. Animals: A Real Pussycat
  9. Birds: Pheasant
  10. Colors: Secondary Colors
  11. Letters: Folded Name Designs
  12. Native American Art
  13. Crayons: Ways to Use Crayons
  14. Land: Barnyards and Towns
  15. Flowers: Violets and Other Garden Flowers
  16. Review: What Did We Learn
• Grade 4
  1. Shapes From Squares
  2. Lots of Lines in Trees
  3. Teddy Bear's Picnic
  4. One Point Perspective
  5. Running Ovals
  6. Racial Proportions
  7. Scandinavia
  8. Squirrels and Chipmunks
  9. Owls
  10. Color Wheel
  11. Word Fun
  12. Pictographs
  13. Silhouettes
  14. Outdoor Sketching
  15. Jewelry
  16. Review of Year's Lessons
• Grade 5
  1. Free Form Shapes
  2. What Do You See When You Look?
  3. Night on Bare Mountain?
  4. Outer Space & Two Perspective Point
  5. 3D Block Men
  6. 3D Portraits
  7. Posters of Hawaii and Alaska
  8. Foxes
  9. Eagle
  10. Analogous, Triads and Color
  11. Letters 3x5 and 3D
  12. Legends of Creation of the Earth
  13. Watercolor
  14. Nature
  15. Nature
  16. Review
• Grade 6
  1. Radical Designs
  2. Descriptive Lines
  3. Clair de Lune
  4. Up and down and Distance
  5. Skeletons
  6. Ages and Expressions
  7. Orient
  8. The Cat Family
  9. Song Birds
  10. Values and Intensities
  11. Advertising Art
  12. Vertical Line Drawing
  13. Water Colors
  14. Outdoor Sketching
  15. Media for Tiger Lilies
  16. Review of Year's Lessons

Notes

Draw With Me with Diana Tollefson is the copyrighted property of South Dakota Public Broadcasting and KUSD-TV in Vermillion, South Dakota. Neither SDPB nor KUSD-TV are responsible for the contents of this article. No copyright infringements were intended in the writing of this article. This article was written as a tribute to the TV show.

An existing recording of an episode of Draw With Me with Diana Tollefson did not include a copyright date at the end of the episode. The lack of inclusion of copyright dates in the closing credits seemed to be a common practice with many educational/instructional shows which were recorded during the 1970s.

Videos

• "Draw with Me" (full episode)
• Percy Faith's version of "Swedish Rhapsody (Midsummer Vigil)"

Other Links

• "Habitation" by Diana Tollefson
• A 1977 photo of Cliff Jansen (director of ITV), Diana Tollefson, and Martin Busch (director of SD Public TV)
• Diana (Bowen) Tollefson Berman's obituary