VALUE DRAWING - SEEING THE VALUE IN ART

I. CLASS: 7th grade class

II. TIME NEEDED: 8 Class periods, 55 minutes

III. ART HISTORICAL BACKGROUND RELATED TO LESSON: M.C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher was born (1898) in a small town in the Netherlands called Leeuwarden . The majority of his drawings are actually lithograph prints, which were often monochromatic and were done on plates in order to produce multiple copies of his work. His work is considered highly surrealistic because it depicts things realistically but in impossible situations. For this reason, one could even consider him as a pioneer of Op Art (optical illusion art). It’s commonly thought that Escher used mathematical principles in constructing many of his works, but he said that he actually had little to no knowledge of any such established principles and instead created his works (e.g. his tessellations) based on techniques that he himself invented. The real inspiration for his tessellations came from traveling around Italy and encountering the Alhambra Palace—a fourteenth-century castle in Granada, Spain, in which there were intricate patterns woven throughout its architecture. Having no formal mathematical training, he took his inspirations and developed intuitive methods for creating his works. It was not until later in life that he did eventually study mathematics under the British mathematician Roger Penrose. Another notable artist is the local, although now nationally renowned, artist Leslie Adams. She recently had an small exhibition in one of the galleries of the Toledo Museum of Art in downtown Toledo last year (2012). A graduate of the University of Toledo, Adams work includes very large scales charcoal drawings in which she also uses white charcoal to bring out a high contrast between shadows and highlights. She lives in Toledo and has a studio downtown, although she travels around the country doing commissions for many political, religious, and high level figures, as she specializes in figure drawing and portraiture. You can even see some of her murals downtown as well, including in the Oliver House.

IV. SUBJECT: Students will create a value drawing based off M.C. Escher’s Drawing Hands (1948) and Reptiles (1943) using black and white charcoal to produce a range of values that make the work look 3 dimensional by learning to see the inherent shadows and highlights of objects from observation (drawing from real life).

V. EQUIPMENT / AV MATERIALS: PowerPoint presentation about M.C. Escher and his works, book on M.C. Escher (with examples of his work), and physical, laminated prints of his work.

VI. SUPPLIES: For roughly 30-36 students— No.2 pencils (student should have their own i.e. are responsible for bringing their own pencils to class), erasers, black and white charcoal pencils and paper towels for smearing (6 of each per table), and tinted construction paper for exercises (6x9) and final project (24x11).

VII. OBJECTIVES: Academic Skills: Students will learn about the way our brains interpret light and how shadows and highlights give the impression of 3 dimensionality to flat drawings.Craftsmanship Skills: Students will use drawing tools, including No.2 pencils, black and white charcoal pencils, and paper towels for smearing, to create a range of values to objects in their drawing to create the illusion of depthCognitive Skills: Show an understanding of the difference between 2D objects and 3D objects (in drawing i.e. on flat paper)

VIII. BENCHMARKS AND STANDARDS: A. Ohio Benchmarks and Standards in the Visual Arts:

1PE: Explore how personal experiences, interest, cultural heritage and gender influence an artist’s style and choice of subject matter2PE: Identify professions that use artistic skills and problem-solving3PR: Represent depth and volume in their 2 dimensional works of art6RE: Develop and use criteria to guide reflection and assessment of selected personal artworks.

Benchmarks and Standards in Other Disciplines : Mathematics:- Geometry and Spatial Sense: Students identify and compare characteristics

of 2D and 3D elements within art and use tools and techniques to create shapes and forms

Science:- Physical World: Students will learn about how the brain works in

understanding the relationships between lights and darks (shadows and highlights) and how one has to train the brain to draw what it sees and not what it thinks it knows about objects

English:- Language Acquisition: Students are introduced to the specialized vocabulary

of value drawing such as: Values, tones, shades, highlights, cast shadows, light source, depth, shadows, and still-life.

IX. LEARNER OUTCOMES: Students will be able to show the difference (within their drawings) between what makes objects look flat (2D) and what makes them look 3D through the use of values.

X. SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS: Students will be given the opportunity to bring in different objects from home to personalize their still-life drawings. Students need to be warned that objects need to be appropriate and used appropriately during class time i.e. used for drawing and not for playing around with e.g. a basketball being used to throw about the room instead of sitting still on their tables for drawing.

XI. ALTERNATIVES TO THE LESSON: Some struggling students can be given the option to draw less objects (less than the 5 required amount) and/or draw simpler objects that don’t have as many details. Other students can be given the option to have their drawing “exploding out of the page” if they feel like they want that challenge or want to try a different route.

XII. THEORIES/THEORISTS RELATED TO LESSON: Vygotsky and his idea of the Zone of Proximal Development will be utilized in this lesson as students will be new to the experience of value drawing, and yet have at their disposal the fundamentals necessary for achieving a successful value drawing e.g. experience with line drawings. The students are in that area (between what they can do and what they can’t do) where they can achieve the illusion of depth in drawing with some help.

XIII. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE: The students will be hearing and utilizing words such as art vocabulary words as: Values, tones, shades, highlights, cast shadows, light source, depth, shadows, and still-life.. Non-art vocabulary terms to be aware of are:

XIV. PROCEDURE:

1. Introduction: The project will be introduced by showing examples of M.C. Escher’s and Leslie Adams’ works of art which utilize A. Motivation – Perform pre-assessment asking students to draw a sphere and

another 3D shape of their choice. They will also do a ‘blind drawing’ exercise where they will be asked to draw their hands without looking at their paper. This will undoubtedly be difficult for students, but I will walk around and keep reminding them that this is to help train their brain to draw what they see and not what they think they know about their hand. Also, for each step in their final drawings (drawings on their “good” final paper) I will perform a 5 – 10 minute demonstration of how to draw my hand from observation, modeling how to problem solve and measure the proportions as well as thinking out loud to let them hear and see how I create 1st the outline of my hand, then the details (e.g. wrinkles) and then finally how to add value using charcoal pencils to the drawing of my hand.

B. New and Reviewed Experiences – Students will have familiarity with drawing from many previous art lessons. However, adding values to their drawings will be a new experience for most students, and using charcoal pencils will also likely be completely new for most students.

2. Distribution of Materials and Implements: Students are responsible for getting their group folders out which contain their drawings and bringing their own No.2 pencils to class. Charcoal pencils and paper towels will be already at their tables in small baskets.

3. Work Period: Students will be given the majority of class time (30 – 40 minutes) to work on their drawings.

A. (work) Day 1: Complete value drawing worksheet consisting of a 6-point value scale and 4 objects (1 sphere, 1 cube, 1 cone, and 1 cylinder) to be shaded in, as well as adding a cast shadow to one of their objects.

B. Day 2: Finish value drawing worksheet if they have not finished it. Then do the “blind drawing” of their hand on the back of the value drawing worksheet. When this is done, students will re-draw a sphere using charcoal pencils (black & white) to see how they compare to the No.2 pencils they used for the value drawing worksheet.

C. Day 3: Begin by setting up a still-life on their group tables to draw from observation. Students should work on getting all their outlines drawn (lightly!) for all their objects.

D. Day 4: Continue to work on drawing the outlines and adding any details to their objects.

E. Day 5: Begin using charcoal pencils (black and white) to add value to their objects that they want to look 3D.

F. Day 6: Continue working on drawings by adding value to their 3D objectsG. Day 7: Continue working on drawings…

Clean Up: Each group will be responsible for collecting and cleaning up their tables and storing their projects and all materials used in their creation.

4. Teacher-pupil Appraisal of the Art Activity: During the activity I will be walking around to check if each student is making progress and at the end of each session a quick formative assessment will be applied by asking review questions about art vocabulary terms and concepts including art historical questions.

XV. EVALUATION OF STUDENT WORK: The students will be evaluated on how they spent their time, the quality of their craftsmanship, and whether they completed all tasks of the assignment—Drew three 3D objects and two 2D objects, used a range of values to give the illusion of depth, and whether they used flat shading for flat surfaces and rounded shading for rounded objects and gave them cast shadows

Assessment of student ability to complete art activity

Excellent Good Average Needs improvement

Criteria 1 – Drew three 3D objects and two 2D objects

10 9 – 8 7 6 or less

Criteria 2 – Used a range of values to give the illusion of depth

10 9 – 8 7 6 or less

Criteria 3 – Used flat shading for flat surfaces and rounded shading for rounded objects

10 9 – 8 7 6 or less

Criteria 4 – Effort: took time to develop idea & complete project. (Didn’t rush.) Good use of class time.

10 9 – 8 7 6 or less

Criteria 5 – Craftsmanship – Neat, clean & complete. Skillful use of the art tools & media.

10 9 – 8 7 6 or less

Possible points: 100 100 – 91 points = A 90 - 80 points = B 79 – 70 points = C

69 – 60 points = D 59 – 0 points = F