7/8 Drawing Elective, First Quarter - Fall 2015

This fall in the 7/8 art elective students focused on both observational and imaginative drawing, while also taking inspiration from the history of drawing.  We had a great time together.  Everybody worked very hard.  Improvements in drawing skills were clearly evident in the students’ final drawing projects – now on display in the hallway gallery around the auditorium.

At the beginning of the year, students were read the picture book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds.  Every art student in the school (kindergarten through eighth!)  heard this inspiring story of creativity and then made their own “dot art” in response.  The 7/8s were tasked with creating a small work of dot art in each of a variety of media - graphite, charcoal, ink, and mixed media.  These small works served as an opportunity for experimentation and as the catalyst for a discussion about the pros and cons of the various available drawing media.  All of this dot art was featured in our Dot Show – honoring Dot Day (September 15^th), a day celebrating the message and spirit of this fabulous book.

At the beginning of each class we had a short but engaging discussions about a draughtsman or period of drawing from art history.  We looked at and discussed drawings from: Prehistory, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, Albrecht Durer, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Edgar Degas, Paul Klee, Kathe Kollwitz, Matthew Ritchie, and Marcel Dzama.

Slideshows: History of Drawing

Students completed a variety of projects in their sketchbooks.  These included a grid drawing, a still life, and three observational drawings.

For a final project, students completed a finished drawing, selecting their own subject and medium. The work they produced is beautiful and as individual as the students themselves.