Drawing from observation

Third graders began to look a little more closely at things today in Art.  They learned about drawing from observation, and tried out two techniques:  Blind Contour and Modified Contour drawing.  Blind Contour is when the artist only looks at his/her subject, and never at the paper.  Modified Contour is when the artist looks at the subject 80% of the time, and his/her paper 20% of the time.

Fourth Grade Shoe Portraits

Fourth graders took on a big task.  They created portraits of people- but without drawing a person!  They brought in shoes from home, and then spent time making observational modified contour drawings of the shoes to warm up.  They drew a VERY large final pencil drawing of the shoe, and then painted with watercolors to give it a finished feel.  Finally, they wrote a personal narrative from the perspective of the shoe owner- BUT they had to come up with a character who was not themselves!  This was a time consuming and difficult assignment that required not only visual art, but creative thinking as well.  Here are the kids at work, and their final artwork.