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Masterpiece: Apples and Oranges, 1899-Paul Cezanne
Lesson Plan – Grid Lesson
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Lesson: Grid Drawing of Still Life
Grade: 5th
Concept: Shading Form
Keywords: Still Life, Grid Drawing, Shading/Value
Objectives:
• To create a still life drawing.
• Learn the grid drawing technique
• To experiment with pastels and learn how to use shading to show depth.
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Supplies: (one per student unless otherwise noted)
• Sharpened sketching pencil and eraser
• Grid practice sheet
• 9 x 9 drawing paper
• pastel crayons (or chalk),
• 4 or 5 separate “vignettes” consisting of real or plastic fruit, bowl,
• patterned/checked tablecloth or napkin, and jug/vase/bottle (optional)
• 1 can per class of cheap hair spray (aqua net)
• 9x12 colored construction paper for mounting
Special Notes: this lesson is designed to teach the skill of grid drawing. It is very skill/technique driven. A powerpoint slide show of Cezanne is unnecessary, as this lesson is more about using his art to demonstrate the value of contour line drawing and the need for grid drawing. This technique will be used in the final Portrait Project in 6th grade. This lesson is designed to teach the students and provide practice of the skill set prior to the Portrait, there is not another lesson or time to teach this technique.
Instructions:
1. Discuss Cezanne, keywords, pencil drawing, grid drawings, and explain that their picture is part of a bigger picture.
2. Have students practice grid drawings with the grid drawing practice sheet. (5 minutes)
a. Label the picture w/grid and the blank grid, across the top A, B, C, etc and along the side top to bottom 1, 2, 3
b. Demonstrate on the overhead how to transfer the picture, going column by column or row by row, looking only at the column or row
c. Have the students practice transferring the image to the blank grid, do both if possible in 5 min
3. Hand out plain paper, have students write their name on the back and mark which end is up.
a. Have students lightly draw a one-inch grid from top to bottom and left to right
b. Have the students lightly label the columns A, B, C D
c. Have the students lightly label the rows 1, 2, 3, 4
4. Hand out one sheet (project card) of the grid packet to each student,
a. Noticing the identification label, and marking their label on the back of their drawing.
b. Have the students transfer the drawing on their project card, using colored pencils as necessary
c. Remind the students to transfer lines in one square at a time.
d. Remind the students to move forward either row by row or column by column
5. Have the students sign their artwork in the bottom right hand corner.
6. Mount the artwork on construction paper, and display in similar groups.
7. Color and shading is an important step. First determine where the light is falling on the fruit. Then add white or yellow in an arc or banana-shape near the upper edge of the fruit. Then at the opposite edge of the fruit, they can add a dark color in a banana-shape to show a shadow. Brown, blue, purple or even dark green can be used as a shadow color. They can blend their colors in the picture by using their fingers. This will create the illusion of light and shadow on their fruit and objects.
8. When they are done shading and blending, they may outline the fruit with black pastel. When the project is done, have an adult volunteer go outside and spray to set the artwork. Mount the dry art on a larger piece of colored construction paper. Then the project will be ready to display.
** Please Note **
Pre-mount artist’s bio to the back of the 9” x 12” construction paper. Cut white construction paper to 8” x 11”; this will be the paper the students will draw their still life on.
Key Words:
Still Life: A picture of inanimate objects.
Common still life subjects include vessels, food, flowers, books, clothing. A still life painting which reminds us of life's fleeting qualities is called a vanitas. A still life image of things associated with breakfast is called an ontbijt or breakfast piece.
This genre flourished particularly among Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, and the term itself originated in the Dutch language as "" and "". Jean Chardin (French, 1699-1769) is the most universally admired painter of still lifes. Chardin painted many pictures of everyday items, including kettles, vegetables, and earthenware vessels, with superb modeling of color, light, and texture.
The plural form is "still lifes." (Note its use in the preceding paragraph.) This construction might sound awkward. The plural of "life" is "lives," but to say "still lives" treats this term too literally, and fails to maintain its idiomatic heritage. Writers looking for a better-sounding alternative to "still lifes" might substitute "still life pictures," "still life paintings," or "still life photographs" perhaps.
Grid Drawing-It is a visualization aid developed and used, besides by Dürer, by Alberti, Da Vinci and other great renaissance artists in quest for proportional and perspective perfection.
The expression -Dürer grid -originates from the etching Draughsman Making a Perspective Drawing of a Woman made by Albrech Dürer in 1525. The principle is simple: A transparent grid is placed between the object and the artist. A similar grid is then drawn or projected on the drawing surface. Main benefits achieved are:
A clear, manageable map of proportions. The image is partitioned in segments that can be perceived as they are, without associative disturbance. By altering either of the grids it is easy to make a transformation of scale, perspective or proportions.
There are a few ways to construct a grid. Simplest is to draw a grid on a vertical glass pane. In the age of digital photography it is many times simpler to take a snapshot of the object or acquire a digital image from the Internet. This application will then serve well as a Dürer grid for your digital object.
Contour Drawing -A contour is the line that defines a form or edge - an outline. Contour drawing is the place where most beginners start, following the visible edges of a shape. The contour describes the outermost edges of a form, as well as dramatic changes of plane within the form. Coloring books are great examples of a contour line drawing.