Contour Line

This is just a stunning example of contour line.  One of my 7th Graders drew this to fulfill one of her sketchbook assignments (they have to choose and complete 3 from a list of 25 options throughout the trimester).  The assignment drawn here was: Draw a face using only one line.  I think we can all agree, she nailed it!

Contour Line Portrait Drawing

Portraiture

8th Grade Portraits

Here is a link to a more detailed version of the lesson but here is a brief rundown of how I teach portraiture to my 8th graders.  We watch proportion videos taught by 9 year old Olivia (link to her YouTube videos on previous post) and map out our drawings lightly.  Now I'll jump in with the photo step by step version of my teaching of portraits:

 
    

      Discuss shadows and blending to give the illusion of a three dimensional face

Map out hair line  (we discussed how hair grows off of the skull and how our hairline should start just in front of our ears) and add a few strands of hair (draw lines as hair would grow)

Add some more strands to fill in basic hair growth

Blend hair strands lightly to fill in the empty spaces

Add a few dark details/shadows into the hair.  Especially focus at the part in the hair and the direction of growth and how the hair would lay

Blend the dark shadows in a bit and add a few more light strands on top

Add some highlights with the corner of a clean eraser

Blend the hair so that the eraser marks are less stark.  Add any necessary strands you want.  If you haven't already, add some fly-aways  and imperfections for believability

A Few Student Examples:

Portrait Drawing and Collaborative Art

I'm going to start this blog entry by sharing our portraiture lesson and then explain how this become a collaborative piece. So if you start reading and are wondering how this involves any sort of collaboration, stick with me...I promise, I'll get there!

My 8th graders have been taught how to draw faces before, but it never hurts to revisit a lesson (especially on drawing realistically).  Similarly to how I taught my fifth graders portraiture and proportion, I started by handing my classroom over to Oli on YouTube and letting her show off her skills as a 9 year old, while also teaching my 8th graders the basics.

We sketched out our faces and left them alone for awhile to talk about shading.  Shading faces can be tricky and I didn't want them to just add a little grey and smear it across their faces so that they still looked flat but now they were grey.  So we talked about how shadows and highlights add depth and show us the shape of the object and tell us about its form.

8th Grade Sphere and Shadow Study

We started out by drawing spheres.  I set out a ball and we noted where shadows were and reflections. Then I put it away and we had to think about it a little bit more.  Where is our light source (pick one)? Where is going to be the lightest spot on our sphere?  How about the darkest?  Etc.  I showed them how to use their pencil in the direction of the curves to accentuate the item's shape and then taught them blending with their finger or a tissue.

Once our spheres were complete, we discussed how that same concept can be applied to anything three-dimensional.  We talked about the high points on our face (cheekbone, forehead, nose and chin) and how/why highlights would fall there.  We talked about the areas with the most shadows and why as well as where middle grey/medium shadows would be.  We also discussed hair and how it is actually individual strands growing from the scalp and not perfectly smooth and colored in solidly.  I reminded them of using their pencil in the direction of the curve on that part of the face and encouraged them to use the sides of their pencils for ease of blending.  We don't have a class set of blending stumps nor shading pencils, so each student was working with their standard #2 and armed with a Kleenex and/or their fingertips.

My demonstration example of how shading a face can look before and after blending

 

Once we had covered portraiture...we got into the collaboration!  I work at a K-8 building, and our 8th graders are each assigned a Kindergarten buddy.  The idea is for the 8th graders to show the kindergarten kiddos the ropes and make the little guys feel comfortable in the building and they end up forming these adorable bonds!  This collaboration project was inspired by one of those popular articles that floats around Facebook.  In this blog entry by the artist/blog Busy Mockinbird, an artist and mother discusses and shares images that are created out of collaboration with her four year old.  To cut to the chase, the results are absolutely amazing!  And I wanted my 8th graders to do something similar with their buddies.  

So after we learned about portraiture, I shared my idea and the article with my 8th grade and had each student draw a medium sized head on a blank page in their sketchbook.  The next time that Kindergarten came to art, they were taught about collaborative art and how they were going to be working with their 8th grade buddy (I don't teach the kindergartners Art, but I stopped in and found them cheering at the idea of working in their 8th grade buddy's sketchbook).  And thus, our collaboration portion of the lesson...

But wait, there's more!  After the kindergartners added bodies to our 8th grade faces, they drew a face on another blank page in their buddy's sketchbook.  On which, of course, I had my 8th graders add bodies and backgrounds!

Pop Art Portraits

A lot of times, I find myself teaching and/or creating new lessons every year.  But I also have a few favorites that I can't stand skipping; this is one of those lessons.  Last year I posted about my lesson on Andy Warhol Pop Art , which is always one of my favorite lessons to teach...mainly because of all of the "ooh"s and "ahh"s I get from the students as they learn about how you can transfer a printed photograph onto a painting.  This year, I switched it up, just a bit.  I not only introduced my students to the work/stylings of Andy Warhol, but I also introduced them to Roy Lichtenstein.  We compared and contrasted their work which led us into our lesson.  I followed a similar procedure as I had in my lesson (step by step instructions here) from last year but I also gave them the option of adding some comic book flare with Ben-Day dots (we used printmaking with bubble wrap for ours) and/or text boxes/word bubbles.  It was fun to see the kids play around with their colors and layers while letting them choose their own style and inject their personalities into the paintings...and of course all of the "ooh"s and "ahh"s with photo transfer (this year I just used Modge Podge instead of heavy gel medium--it is MUCH cheaper and works just as well).  And I am just as impressed (if not more) with the results!  Enjoy!