Homeschool Art Lesson With The Wooden Model

Spectrum home school lesson for drawing.

This week we drew, among other things, the wooden model man that we know as "Woody." These wooden models of the human figure are in most of the arts and craft stores. I bring the wooden model to class at least once a month. The best way to master the human figure is to draw it often in as many ways as you can.

I have the students pose the model so it is interesting and we simply draw it as a warm-up or as one of several projects.

There are several approaches to drawing the model. Today we used the articulated stick figure method. We begin by drawing a stick figure with circles for the elbows, knees, and other joints and straight lines for the length of the arms and legs. (Illustrated as the first drawing on the left in the example below.) The stick figure allows the drawing to all fit on the page since students have a habit of drawing the model larger than the paper they are drawing on.

After we have the figure positioned on the page then we begin to fill out the area of the figure with ovals circles and other shapes. (See the center drawing below).

By going around these shapes we further define the shapes. Lastly, we add shadows to give the roundness and dimension to the figure.  (Drawing on the right)

Tips For Drawing The Wooden Model Man From Art class.

(C) Adron Dozat

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Home School Art Lesson, Resources and Design a composition.

Art Lesson. Composition using resources.

There are many forms of composition and many rules that make a good piece of art.  Young people are not aware of all the homework that goes into making a design of a good picture. In this lesson, I brought several picture magazines and calendars and instruct the students to use at least three different elements from three different resources to work out a design.

For example, one resource had a lovely old barn, another resource had a rickety old barbed wire fence going from foreground to middle ground. A third resource had a river flowing across the middle ground. All three were combined to make a rural scene.

After they decide what to use they must do a pre-project sketch to organize their picture I prefer two such pre-project sketches but one will communicate the idea. Sketching these elements quickly on a small page of newsprint helps to get the ideas formed together where the three elements were combined to create a scene.

Sometimes things like perspective and values need to be corrected between the different resources.

After the pre-project sketch is done the project is begun with the resources and sketches in full view for reference. The final project was done on a full sized page.


(c)Adron Dozat

Adron

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Homeschool Art Watercolor Lesson And Building Character

Working with watercolor some home school students learn the character trait of patience. Each step must dry before you proceed to the next layer. The building layer on top of layer adds detail and depth as well as value.

Watercolor can be used in many ways but the lesson today was to use layers of wash adding darker hues over the dried lighter hues to get the round shape of the apple.

We set a pair of apples on a tissue and began our project. One apple stood upright and one lay on its side. The first step is to lightly sketch an outline of the apples and the napkin.

FIRST WASH
We begin our first watercolor wash of the background table top using a light value of brown. Let this step dry before adding the wood grain.

We do our first wash of the apples in clear water and then drop in watery red and let it spread; if necessary we use a rinsed out dry brush to move the paint around but only a little. A little green is added to the wet where the stem is.

Now the hard part! Let it dry before going on to the next layer.  This is almost torture for kids.

SECOND LAYER
When it has dried take a smaller brush and mix some darker reds using some purple or brown. Use these darker reds to add darkness only to the parts of the apple that are darker. Don't overdo it. Let this step dry.

Use some lavender or blue to put shadow in the tissue.

Use some darker browns to "draw" the grain in the wood table top. Use only the tip of the brush and go back and forth over the dried light brown you did at the beginning.

THIRD LAYER
Use a very small brush and finish the apple with the last layer of the darkest reds. Darker tones can be added to the shadows.

Draw the stems in brown.

Unfortunately, I do not have a step by step example but below is the finished project. I did this while standing holding my materials in my hands; this was not steady and by no means my best work. The paint was a student's toy store set of paints.

Apples, Example of Watercolor Art Lesson.

In my home studio, I often use a hair dryer when I have a large project to get done so I can add layers without waiting a long time for each layer to dry.

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(c)Adron Dozat

Home School Art Lesson, Drawing A Focused Highlight

Spectrum Home School Community 5/9/13

Effecting a highlighted area in a drawing.

In class pictures were distributed for the students to find inspiration off of.  These pictures were from old calenders; most were of lighthouses or structures that had a major area of white or negative space.

Using pencil the students drew the lighthouses and surrounding seascape. Since the light house is white little is needed to do except a gradual shading.

The white lighthouse is lost in the sky since most students want to leave the sky blank but by using a dirty blending stub the sky is stained so that the sky was a value darker than the lighthouse. Some have problems keeping the sky smooth and not showing the marks of the blending stub. It requires patience and several minutes of rubbing. A tissue may be used to smooth out the blending stub marks. It may need to have the charcoal or pencil rubbed on and removed a few times to get the desired effect.

Charcoal drawing of Light house with sky a value darker.

The example above is not the best I admit, but it shows the sky is a value slightly darker than the white lighthouse. The effect is to make the lighthouse brighter than the rest of the drawing. This moves the foreground  forward and gives the effect of distance.

Another example may be seen at the link below of a boy in a white shirt. The shirt looks white because the background is toned down as described above.
http://artistadron.blogspot.com/2013/05/quick-sketch-while-at-cafe.html

The link below shows another example of a creamer with a dogwood blossom. Here the dogwood blossom is bright because the table was stained to a slightly darker value as described above.
http://artistadron.blogspot.com/2013/05/charcoal-sketch-of-creamer-and-dogwood.html

(c)Adron Dozat

Home School Art Drawing the Human Figure.

Spectrum Home School lesson for May 2

Art 2

We will warm up with a sketch of Woody our wooden model. It will be posed in a common pose and students will be given a six minutes to draw it. (See the finished example of this at the link to my other blog: artistadron.blogspot.com.) This will help free up the young artist and teach them editing and decision making in drawing.

Our main project are inspired by pictures cut out from the local sports section of the newspaper. These often have dramatic postures and actions. The class will begin with a light pencil rendering and go over it in pen.

Below is an illustration of a sketch in marker of an athlete clipped from a paper. It was done during class as an example showing the process of the drawing.

Starting with pencil I drew an articulated stick figure for the frame and then adding the thickness of the figure. This part of the drawing took less than three minutes. Switching to pen and ink I rendered the figure sometimes tracing the pencil lines, and sometimes only using them as a reference. A dark area was in the photo so it was included in the picture to give reference and to help move the runner forward.

Sketch in marker of an athlete running.

The project was challenging to some. Since the photos were from the newspaper they were given to the students who wanted to finish the project during the week at home.

(c)Adron Dozat

Home school Art Lesson, Shading and Values with Pen and Ink

Spectrum Home School Art 2

Values are the degree of dark or light in an area in a picture. We ca control value by controlling the amount of ink in relation to the white paper showing.

This can be done with any technique, as well as any pen type.

Students will create an abbreviated value chart going only to five. The chart will have 5 squares each with a darker value. The first example shows standard crosshatching technique, the second row has dots and the third is scribbling.

Illustration for Art Lesson on Values in Pen And Ink

After the students make a chart similar to the one above they practice on a project of their own choosing as long as the work demonstrates multiple values.

(c)Adron Dozat

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Adron

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Homeschool Art Lesson, Pen And Ink.Basic Lines

Art 2 Pen And Ink. 

Our lesson is a practice of different lines. Contour lines, Parallel lines, Crosshatching, Dots. Stylized line, and Direct line.

• CONTOUR lines follow the contour or the round shape of an object. The bend of the line gives the look of roundness. 
• PARALLEL lines are parallel to each other. They may vary in thickness and in closeness to give the effect of roundness. 
• CROSSHATCHING are parallel lines that cross over each other in a fine grid giving the effect of darkness.
• STYLIZED line is a line that may be fluid in bending around an object and it may be of various thicknesses. 
• DIRECT line is a line that is clean and even without variation of thickness, it gives the effect of a drawing that looks like a mechanical illustration.  

Students should practice each technique.

A project is attempted. Being a first project students may pick the technique they want to attempt.

Some Examples of Lines for Pen Drawings

An example of pen drawing may be found at the link: Gourds.

(c) Adron