Observational Drawing
(Drawing From Still-Life)
Lesson Overview:
Observational Drawing (Drawing from Still-life) challenges students to begin drawing what they see and now what they think they see. Students are introduced to still-life arrangements though historical and contemporary art examples from artists such as Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Aaron Douglas. Students are introduced to 3D shapes or Forms. As a class students must identify the different (forms, cube, sphere, pyramid, cone, cylinder). Students draw each form and shade with value to create a 3-dimensional appearance. Students add a highlight, form shadow, and cast shadow, from a light source. Students are introduced to a horizon line (back of the table) to ground their forms. Planning is continued with blind contour drawings of student's own hands. Students draw their own hand without looking at their papers. This exercise trains students brains draw actually what they are seeing, not what they think they see. Students have a full class period to complete their final still-life drawing. Students are challenged to look more at the objects then their paper. Once drawings are complete sketches are outlined with sharpie and colored using colored pencils.
Art Concepts (Big Ideas):
Line
Form
Value
Still-life
Perspective
Contour
Color
Observational Drawing
Line
Form
Value
Still-life
Perspective
Contour
Color
Observational Drawing
Above are examples of students final work