ArtEase! Class 3 Study: "SHAPE"

4th-8th Grade
"Symmetrically-SHAPED Selfies"
Our THIRD class together on Thursday, October 11th, the 4th-8th grade students embarked on a challenging art assignment. They studied SHAPE (the third element of our Seven Basic Elements of Art) via a project called "Symmetrically-SHAPED Selfies." After a mirror-study and a few studies about symmetry, the objective of the lesson was to illustrate on canvas the other half of their self-portraits (the left half contained their pre-mounted self-photo from which to reference). This was not only an exciting adventure, but the students proved to be masters in detail observation, rendering shape structure, following design instructions, and willingly participating in activities that were new to some of them. I am utterly thankful for sharing this artist adventure with such an outstanding bunch of students!!!

Though we ran out of time for each student to complete his drawing (we'll finish them at the end of class 4), they did a very great job in the following:

• attention to detail of SHAPE (eyes, facial contour, teeth, etc)
• rendering of textures (hair, clothes, lashes)
• attempting to match the symmetry of photographs to illustration
• capturing their personalities, moods, and essence via texture, style of pencil & marker strokes, and shape

Enjoy the illustrated self-portion of the students art below! (Full images will be available after our first student art exhibit in December.)