Sketching improved

Today the students did self portrait sketches using black and white pastels. They had to start with whisper lines, getting the shapes and proposition correct before putting in shadows and light. Not only do they look in a mirror, but many of them felt their faces to see which way the skin ran and what parts were curved. By using the pastels, students cannot rub out and are forced to be courageous about drawing the image.

With regular practice the childrens sketching skill and powers of observation have improved. They are now taking more care looking at the shape of objects, there they interconnect and where the shadow and light lay.

In the two photos on this Blog, the left hand sketch was do a few weeks ago and the one on the right was done today by the student hold the sketches. As you can see there is improvement in the student developing their own style while incorporating the sketching techniques taught to them.

Next learning step:
Using different medium to practice sketching the same objects. Move to sketching the whole body.
Comments for students:


“I found it easier to see the shadows and light today”. Louise


“If I don’t use the techniques to get the proportions right my face looks wrong.” Grace

“I still need to put in more shadow to make my face look rounded.”

Sketching

The students used pencil to sketch themselves while looking in a mirror to check their features. We talked about proportion, shapes and size. When sketching a buddy they observed details they missed when drawing themselves. Next the students sketched themselves by feeling their own face. This helped them understand features that stick out, others that are indented and the roundness of face and neck.

To get away from the restriction of pencil, the students had to sketch with charcoal, crayon and then paint. The focus of the white paint sketches on black paper was to highlight the shadow and light.

The coloured paintings are a work in progress. The students were given only primary colours. The yellow being the light tone, red mid tone and the blue shadow tone. They used yellow to draw the preliminary outline shapes.
Once they filled in the face with red they wanted to keep the colour pure and were very reluctant to blend in the yellow and blue. It was as if they were colouring the face like a colouring in book. They also would not paint over the preliminary lines.
When the students started painting a few of them forgot to use the correct proportions and the feature outlines looked like very young children's drawing, even through they had drawn the features correctly in pencil.
Interestingly, these students have not got the same observational skills as the students who had no problems getting shapes and proportions correct in pencil and paint.

The next learning step is to have a model and get the students to draw a range of facial expressions and viewpoints with paint. Give them a short time (5minutes) to draw each one. During the session have the students identify what has made their sketch look good, what they improved and how could they improve the sketch next time. Have them also share their painting and talk about them to a peer. Thus developing skills to self evaluation and problem solve.