A lesson in values - art project

MATERIALS

* 6" x 8" pre-cut white drawing paper (80-lb. preferable)

* Selection of pencils (HB, 4H, Ebony and #2)

* Kneaded erasers and pink erasers

* Eraser shields

* Drawing brushes

* Tortillons (cotton swabs also work)

* Selection of pens, Higgins[R] ink (or India ink), and marker tips (thick to thin)

* White-out pens (for corrections on ink work)

* Paint in primary and secondary colors (tempera or acrylic), plus white

* Paintbrushes and disposable cups for paint

* Selection of construction papers, tissue papers and magazines for use in collage

* Tracing paper and carbon paper

* Railroad board for mounting the series

* Scissors

* Glue

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* become knowledgeable about, and make use of, the materials and resources available for participation in the arts.

* get to know and use a variety of art materials, techniques and processes.

* create an original series, exploring four separate art mediums.

* be introduced to vocabulary of materials and techniques, and to organizational principles.

* focus on specific elements of art--value, space, line, color and texture--and use these elements to create an original work of art.

Students in my seventh-grade art class spent some wonderfully productive hours researching the element of design relating to the lightness and darkness of a color or a shade. The lesson was divided into four separate sections, each completed in a different medium. The lesson was meant to encourage exploration using the materials needed for work done in pencil, pen and ink, paint, and paper collage.

The lesson began with the class working on four "mini-sketches" on 12" x 18" white paper. The instructions were to design a simple landscape sketch using a minimum of five to six land forms--hills, mountains, lakes and so on. Other elements could be added, such as trees, rocks and cacti, but the shapes should be kept simple. Students were instructed to choose the best of their four drawings on which to base their series.

PENCIL TECHNIQUES The first lesson was a drawing lesson with a demonstration of four pencils: Ebony, #2, HB and 4H. The properties of the hardness and softness of the leads were related to the darkness and lightness of the pencil value, along with the amount of pressure applied. Students were introduced to a kneaded eraser used for "lifting" off graphite or making an area lighter; a pink "correction" eraser; an eraser shield for cleaning edges; and a drawing brush for wiping away eraser residue.

Students were shown how to use a tortillon to blend from dark to light, and how to use each pencil with varying pressure to create a scale of value, and transition from dark to light. Following the demonstration, students created worksheets with all the materials from the demo, and kept them aside with their names on them to be graded along with the finished series. Then, students created their first landscape in the series of four, including one shape in transition to demonstrate their skill level using transition, or dark to light.

PEN AND INK The second unit in the series was developed around pen-and-ink techniques. Pens were available to use with Higgins[R] ink (or India ink), as well as a selection of black markers with varying tips from wide to fine and ultra-fine. As I demonstrated hatching and cross-hatching, the students observed how the closer the hatching and cross-hatching lines are, the darker the value.

Other techniques and patterns were shared from books on pen-and-ink techniques. Students were then sent back to their seats to work on their practice sheets, coming up with a minimum number of patterns and trying to show transition with ink. Upon completing this phase of the lesson, the final drawings were the focus of several class sessions.

PAINT The third unit involved a lesson using the color wheel. The color groups--primary, secondary and intermediate--were reviewed, and the color schemes were introduced--monochromatic, complementary and analogous. Students were shown in the third demonstration how to lighten a primary or secondary color by adding white, and how to darken a color by adding a small amount of its complement.

Students were instructed to choose a primary or secondary color and to choose the complement and white. They were to take small amounts of the three colors in disposable cups and mix two columns of paint: the main color plus white, getting lighter and lighter, then adding the complement to the main color and progressive amounts of white to this to darken or lighten the color.

After completing the worksheet of paint samples in monochromatic shades, students were to begin the painting of the landscape, and were encouraged to have one section in the landscape illustrating the transition from dark to light in paint. (Tempera paint was used for this phase of the lesson, but acrylics would be even better.)

COLLAGE The final section of the series is the collage. A variety of papers are needed, such as construction paper, tissue, magazine pages and so on. Areas of the landscape were traced onto tracing paper and then transferred to the appropriate color, using a rubbing on the reverse of the tracing paper or carbon paper.