Hello again everybody! Sorry for the long hiatus….. I meant to post this over a month ago when school was just out, but things have been pretty busy around here (and by busy I mean basically just totally chillin out and relaxing focusing on family, friends and my health—-but c’mon, can ya blame me?! It is summer break after all!

But back to the art lesson I’m posting about—-Grid drawings inspired by the amazing artist Chuck Close!

This was my last art lesson of the school year for 5^th grade. I have taught this lesson now for 5 years (4 years at the schools I’m teaching in now, and 1 year within another district). I think it’s one of the more challenging lessons for 5^th grade.

The images I print out aren’t super easy and although students have a choice on what image they want to draw, the lesson requires a lot of attention to detail and focus. Usually it takes students about 6 (sometimes even ­7 (40 minute) classes to complete.

So with that in mind, I have NO IDEA why I planned on teaching it with only about 4 art classes left in the school year…. (you’d think by now I’d of realized doing so would mean kids probably wouldn’t finish. Well… that is what happened. BUT—art isn’t always about the final product. It’s about the PROCESS. Learning about new techniques, learning about different artists, creative decision-making, discovering things about yourself, learning from mistakes and persevering through challenges.

Many students did finish, and I’d say most were probably ½ way finished. I DID however, have them draw on WAY smaller paper. In previous years kids drew on 9×12” or 8×10”, but this time round, I had them draw on 5×7” to help speed things up a bit, while still keeping the same learning goals in mind.

Students worked so hard and I’m truly impressed with their beautiful drawings! Even if unfinished.

Ok, sorry….that was a lot of text to read…  so here’s the artwork!! 🙂

Students selected one black and white photo of an animal. They could choose from about 15 different pictures.

I looked for images on Google that had a variety of value changes, were challenging enough in that they had some nice details, but tried to find ones with a simple background. Then I printed each of them as a 5×7” on 8.5” x11” printer paper.

When making a selection, I laid out each image in stacks of about 10 along a long table, then called groups of kids up (5 or 6 kids at a time) to make a choice.

Students used a 1” strip of cardboard to create their grids. I’ve had them use actual rulers before, but it proved to be too tricky getting accurate measurements and straight lines.

They drew a grid on their chosen black and white animal picture, then numbered each square, then drew the same exact grid on a piece of 5×7” drawing paper and numbered that grid as well.

Here’s some pics of students doing just that!

I explained to draw very lightly on the white drawing paper (so later on the grid lines and numbers wouldn’t show as much) but they could draw pressing much harder on their black and white animal pic in order to see the grid lines and numbers better.

To help students draw with a lighter touch, I showed them how to hold the pencil so their fingers gripped near the eraser rather than towards the pencils tip. The closer your fingers are towards the tip of the pencil, the more likely it is you will draw darker lines.

Once their grids were drawn and numbered, they drew just the contour lines of their animal, while observing just one box at a time. Like so…..

Once all the contour lines are complete, we reviewed what VALUE meant and after doing a demo under the doc camera, they started shading using various drawing pencils. I had them use just 2B, 3B, 4B and 6B.

I also had small handouts to refer to on a value scale with references on what pencil would probably work best for each value within their picture.

We also reviewed how you can change the value of the pencil marks by simply pressing harder or lighter as well.

Students also learned how to use a TORTILLION or aka a blending stump to soften/blur lines and create lighter values.

You can see the tortillion (not tortilla! Tortillion I joked with the kids) on this students picture of a giraffe.

Kids were amazed at how much detail they acheived and how accurate they could draw what they were seeing—-just by simply slowing down, and really paying attention to all the little details and nuances within each and every square!!

To view a great video and interview with Chuck Close himself– click on the video below!! 

And another if you like!….

To view additional Grid drawings by my 5th graders in the past—- go HERE and then scroll down until you see it! This is also where you can view the learning goals of my lesson.

Thanks for stopping by!! I will be posting again within the next week or so—so Stay Tuned!! 🙂