8th Graders are wrapping up one of my favorite projects of the whole year. The students are taking an 8 x 10 high quality photo of a celebrity and blowing it up to an 18 x 24 black and white drawing.
I teach the gridding system to set up the pencil drawing portion of the project. This is a way to blow up a picture proportionately by drawing one box at a time. The students have to focus on lines and shapes and not about drawing a nose, ear, or lips. Breaking down the complex facial features into basic shapes is what makes the students successful in the drawing stage of the project.
Once the students have mapped out all the necessary features and outlines of hair, neck and clothing, we can start the shading process. We are using charcoal sticks, white chalk pastel, as well as charcoal pencils (white and black) for details. I talked about the importance of shading in the direction of the facial feature to help make it look more three dimensional. Depending on the photograph of the celebrity, the students will layer the black charcoal and white pastel to create the various gray values. Students use their fingers to blend the chalk and charcoal where smoothing is needed and use less blending in areas where texture is needed, like hair.
The portraits will hang outside the JH art room until Thanksgiving break. They are ooooed and awwwed over the entire time they are up! Enjoy!!
I teach the gridding system to set up the pencil drawing portion of the project. This is a way to blow up a picture proportionately by drawing one box at a time. The students have to focus on lines and shapes and not about drawing a nose, ear, or lips. Breaking down the complex facial features into basic shapes is what makes the students successful in the drawing stage of the project.
Once the students have mapped out all the necessary features and outlines of hair, neck and clothing, we can start the shading process. We are using charcoal sticks, white chalk pastel, as well as charcoal pencils (white and black) for details. I talked about the importance of shading in the direction of the facial feature to help make it look more three dimensional. Depending on the photograph of the celebrity, the students will layer the black charcoal and white pastel to create the various gray values. Students use their fingers to blend the chalk and charcoal where smoothing is needed and use less blending in areas where texture is needed, like hair.
The portraits will hang outside the JH art room until Thanksgiving break. They are ooooed and awwwed over the entire time they are up! Enjoy!!