Curated OER
Classic Still Life Drawing
Provide your young artists with an opportunity to study the masters and their techniques to become skilled at drawing still life. They discuss and view images from artists like Degas and Michelangelo, practice drawing techniques such as...
Curated OER
Shaded Bottles
Learners draw, and then paint three-dimensional bottles to practice shading which shows shape and perspective. The step-by-step process for creating dimensional still life art is outlined, which makes teaching art an attainable task. Oil...
Curated OER
Pixel Drawings
Middle and high schoolers re-create a magazine photo or other picture and make it into a drawing using pixels. This fun art project should be a hit with your charges! The materials needed to implement the lesson should be easy to get,...
Curated OER
Weave Drawing - Pencils
Young scholars create a work of art based on a theme showing skill in pencil shading. They create a work of art showing value contrast to center of interest. They use math concepts to enlarge a composition using a grid.
Curated OER
Mixing Complimentary Colors, Tints, and Shades
Students explore primary, secondary, and complimentary colors. They mix tempera paints to create secondary colors, tints, and shades, and design and paint a color grid demonstrating color theory.
Curated OER
Pastel Drawing like Vincent Van Gogh
Learners discuss the elements of art and design found in a series of flower paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. They explore art, shading, and color as they create mirrored representations of the master's art, using oil pastel.
Curated OER
Relief Drawing
High schoolers choose an interesting view for an art relief project. They outline their composition, and shade their relief using charcoal pencil. The results are fabulous! One nice thing about this art project is that the materials...
Curated OER
Chuck Close Portrait Drawing
After watching a video of photorealist Chuck Close and examining his work, individuals create their own grid-style portrait.
Curated OER
Light and Shadow
Students compare and draw items with shading based on where a light source is in relation to the object.
Dick Blick Art Materials
Ball Point Engravings
Turn simple pencil sketches into colorful engravings. After first creating hand-drawn pictures, young artists then trace over them will ball point pens, etching the images into cold press illustration boards, before rubbing crayons over...
Curated OER
Contour Drawing
Students create a contour drawing of a hand creating an illusion of depth. After a brief demonstration of contour drawing, students practice by creating pictures of various objects. The final project consists of creating a contour...
Curated OER
3-D Ribbon Letters - Pencil Shading
Students examine the art of Edward Ruscha and make a three-dimensional model of a single word. They explore shading and value, and create a drawing of the model. They render ribbon strip letters in varied values to show 3-D quality.
Curated OER
Colored Pencil Repoussé
Artists employ a basic metalworking technique by embossing lines and textures into a soft metal. They look for examples of embossed metals in historical and contemporary examples. This fascinating process has been used by many cultures...
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Black and White Still Life
There isn't a lot to this instructional activity, but it could provide some guidance. It outlines a five-day drawing instructional activity where learners view a presentation on the importance of drawing in art history, practice pencil...
Curated OER
The Great Barracuda
Students explore oceanography by researching the great barracuda. In this animal life lesson plan, students read several vocabulary terms dealing with ocean life and examine a drawing of a barracuda. Students examine the many...
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Hand-scapes
Students draw hands from life. They combine realistic hand drawing in fantasy "scape". They utilize elements of design demonstrating composition and value shading.
Curated OER
Modern Mona
Students use contour drawings of the Mona Lisa. Students turn the drawings upside down and cover 3/4 of the drawing with a sheet of construction paper. They "erase from their minds" what the drawing is, and complete the quarter section...
Curated OER
Play on Words Design
High schoolers create a design of an image that combines two words to create an unusual visualization. They improve their drawing skills by completing a detailed, colored pencil rendering of the "Play on Words" they design. Using...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Chiaroscuro Apple
I absolutely love this idea. Kids explore the chiaroscuro technique as they draw, then bite, then write about an apple. They discuss chiaroscuro, depth, shade, perspective, and texture. Then they draw their apples, write a descriptive...
Curated OER
Super Bucks
Students examine paper currency for its artistic value. They design their own piece of currency based on the artistic methods used in the design of real money.
Curated OER
Family Tree
A unique twist on a family tree project is a fun alternative to the traditional family tree drawing. This 3D family tree would make a great display for back to school night or open house. Presenting all the important people in their...
Dick Blick Art Materials
“Decalcomania” Glue Paint Symmetry Prints
Who knew you could paint with glue? After first adding liquid water color paints to bottles of white Elmer's glue and applying them to paper, students of all ages are then challenged to use their imagination and creativity to draw in...
Sargent Art
Picasso and Beyond!
After reviewing the life and art of Pablo Picasso, learners set out to create abstract, cubist, relief portraits. They'll draw, color, paint, and cut out portraits just like the ones Picasso created. The lesson is extremely well written...
Curated OER
Addition and Subtraction of Fractions
Students demonstrate how to solve addition and subtraction of fractions. In this fractions lesson, students use folded paper to shade in fractional parts and identify the sum of the parts shaded.