Sample Class
Take a line for a walk… surprise portraits
Step one The first stage of this project involved the students in some art appreciation games and activities that developed their awareness of line.
Why line? Lines are all around creating borders, paths, outlines, and obstacles. Observe the fine lines a spider uses to spin her web, or the tall bending lines created by blades of grass, or even the jagged outline of a rugged mountain range.
Line is also a way of expressing our ideas and feelings on paper. We use line to write, diagram and sketch. Line can be a record of an action or a feeling. Some lines can affect our emotions and suggest feelings and a sense of mood. For example, some lines are nervous, some dreamy, others aggressive.
The students looked at how artists use line in many ways to stimulate our
thoughts, feelings, and imagination.
Step two I asked the students to take a line for a walk on an 8”x11” piece of paper (similar to taking a dog for a walk). The line needed to be continuous, and needed to include as many types of line as possible, i.e., wiggly, swirly, angular, straight, jagged, loopy, wavy…etc. The students had no idea what they were about to do with this line. (Figure on right)
Step
three We then looked at a variety of portraits, masks, and caricatures.
We found and described lines that created mood and expression in these
works. We also played some portrait art appreciation games, involving
students in reading and understanding portraits.
I then asked them to squint at their “line for a walk” drawing and look
for two features, eyes and nose, nose and mouth, hair and eyes…etc.
They needed to look at the drawing from all angles. Once they found the foundation for their portraits, they glued their line
drawing down on an 18”x24” piece of paper, keeping in mind the placement
that they wanted for their portrait. (Figure at left)
They then used their line drawing, expanded it, incorporated it and added to it to create their portraits.
Step four Black marker was added over all of the pencil lines, at right.
Step five Color was added with colored pencil and marker to complete the drawing. We went back and looked at some fauve portraits, so the students felt free to choose any colors, colors that fit the mood and expression of their figure, below.
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Samples of portraits in progress
Extended drawings, marker stage
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Color stage
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Completed Drawings
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| Age 5 | Age 6 | Age 8 | Age 11 | Age 11 |