Drawing Projects and Lessons

Blooming Amaryllis Drawings and Paintings

     I received two amaryllis bulbs in December, and after planting them in pots and watching them grow very quickly, I decided to bring them to the classroom in February to show the children. A teacher came up with the great idea of drawing the amaryllis before it bloomed on 1/2 paper, with the time & date written below it, and then coming back to the flower after it bloomed and drawing it again, with the date & time written on the other half.

Materials Needed:

• large thick white paper (approx.11x24")
• chalk pastels or water-based paints
• pencils
• water-color brushes (optional)
• water & containers (optional)

1  Fold the paper in half and draw a line down the middle. Be sure to do the first drawing on the left side of the paper.

2  Place the plant in the middle of the table and draw by sight with pencil, then go over with another medium in color.

3  Write the time, day, month, year and name at the bottom of the paper.

4  After the amaryllis has bloomed, place the plant in the exact location as before and do the second drawing with the information written at the bottom on the right side of the paper.

I encouraged everyone to fill in all of the paper with the chalk or the paint, and to use a different color in the backgrounds for the second drawing.

Lessons in Perspective Drawing

     This school year I decided to undertake the task of teaching the idea of perspective to all the grades, meaning kindergarten to sixth grade. Of course there were a lot of modifications, and varying degrees of understanding among all the grade levels, but overall it was quite successful and many students came away from the unit with a greater understanding of drawing principles and were very excited about this "new trick".

     I decided that I had to start with very basic concepts, because for many of them this was a totally new experience. I also wanted to keep the amount of fun in the room going strong so as not to scare anybody away from the art room. So I introduced the ideas of perspective as a magic show. I found two object of the exact size and shape (in this case I used two #2 pencils), and while standing in front of a group I used my magician/show person's voice: "Ladies and gentlemen! Here you see two objects that are exactly the same! But watch closely, for I will make one smaller then the other!" At this point I held one pencil close and the other pencil farther away. "Close one eye, put your thumb and index fingers in front of your open eye, and measure the size of the pencil in front with your fingers. Now, without moving your fingers, measure the pencil in the back. Is it bigger or smaller?" Invariably the children will say, "Smaller!" Of course, there are always those wise crackers, but they're in every audience. Anyway, whether they're in kindergarten or 6th grade, almost every one of them was "Wowed"!

     After this magic show I introduced some vocabulary terms for their perspective lessons: horizon line (the limit of a person's view in a location), foreshortening (when objects appear larger as they come closer to the viewer's eye), background (the distant part of a scene) and foreground (the nearest part of a picture or scene to a person looking at it). Then I proceeded to have them practice these basic principles in the following project.

Perspective Lesson 1: Foreshortening

                                     

Materials Needed:

• large white drawing paper (11x17 or so)
• watercolor or tempera paints
• magazines
• glue
• drawing materials (crayons, pens or pastels)
• scissors

1  Fold the paper in half (either horizontal or verical is fine). Unfold paper, and the fold line becomes the horizon line. Draw over this with a pen or pencil.

2  Paint the upper half (above the horizon line) the sky color (usually blue, but can be any color they choose. Paint the lower half the ground (or sometimes the sea) color.

3  While the paint is drying start choosing  magazine pictures to use as collage on the paper. The aim is to find different images of varying sizes (minimum of three images in three different sizes: small, medium and large) that can depict the concept of foreshortening, or how objects appear larger than they really are when they are closer to you, or smaller than usual when they are further away. The largest image will go in the foreground while the smallest image will go in the background.

4  Once the students have chosen their images I have them lay them out on the paper so that I can come around and review them, making sure that they are indeed different sizes and give them ideas about how to place them before they glue them on the paper. This is the point when it gets very confusing to a lot of people. Well, why would the kitten picture be up front  and the gorilla picture in the back when everyone knows gorillas are bigger than kittens? Yes, but remember the eye trick? And many times I have to review this with them before they grasp the idea and can move on.

5  Glue the images onto the paper, using the ideas of foreshortening, background, foreground and horizon line.

6 Now it's time to get creative! Draw around the images, make up silly scenes with the giant pictures and little pictures, or draw any way you want.