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"A Faithful Attempt" is designed to showcase a variety of K-12 art lessons, the work of my art students, as well as other art-related topics. Projects shown are my take on other art teacher's lessons, lessons found in books or else designed by myself.
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I acknowledge, with deep respect, that I am gathered on Treaty 7 territory. I acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations. I recognize the land as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on or are visiting.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Paper Curl Observational Drawing


This is a super simple observational drawing lesson that has, in my opinion, very elegant, fresh and contemporary results. Plus it's very inexpensive!!!
I found the lesson HERE on the Painted Apple art blog.
I taught this to my Grade 7 - 9 drawing elective class.

I cut a bunch of strips of heavier weight white paper using my paper cutter. 
Between about 6 - 8 " in length. Have students choose a strip and then twist/bend/manipulate it into some type of curl. I was impressed by the variety of curls students came up with.


Students had already learned how to do a simple line contour drawing, so they started with that, drawing lightly with a HB pencil until they got the proportion just right. 




Then, using darker drawing pencils, blending stumps/ tortillons and kneaded erasers (my students love these), they started adding shading. They were encouraged to use the entire value scale.
I turned all the classroom lights off and just let in the natural sunlight 
which come from only one side of our room; it created a consistent shadow on all of the curls.

Most students managed to finish one curl in an 80 minute period; a few needed more time, 
especially those with more complex and/or larger curls.









I loved this 'Tower of Babel-esque' curl below!!!



my quick demo on my easel

Completed Grade7/8/9 drawings:

















5 comments:

Mrs. Hahn said...

This is a great lesson. I love it. Do you think it would be something you would try with a younger bunch of kids? How young would you go? I loved your word sculptures too. I loved your word sculptures and did them with my class as well. This is a quicker smaller project working on the same concept. Very nice! http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/2013/02/shadow-words.html

Miss said...

Mrs. Hahn, thanks for you comment :) I taught this lesson to a Grade 4-6 class as well. The Grade 4's and some of the 5's really struggled with it; it was definitely too challenging for them. So for my own students, I wouldn't do this with younger than Grade 6. Your students might be different, though!

Ch. Stückelberger said...

simple and great

Abby said...

I like this! I may try this with my 6th graders.
Abby
http://artfromonethousandhearts.blogspot.com

Miss said...

Thanks for your comments Ch. Stuckelberger and Abby :)

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