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3-D Snowman The Elements of Design consist of: We have
discussed color in previous lessons and today turned to line, shape and
value in charcoal. We drew a circle freehand and learned that there are 2 common ways artists hold
their pencils (overhand as in writing and underhand). Each person needs
to find what position and angle is most comfortable to draw with. We discussed drawing from our elbows and
shoulders, not our wrists. This lesson focused on the element of design: 'Value' which is lightness or darkness (shading) that enables us to depict 3
dimensional objects. We tried shading different values with our 4B Charcoal pencils and noticed that the the soft charcoal was easy to blend with our fingers. Using
all of the above techniques, we changed a 2-D circle into a 3-D sphere!
We drew a circle freehand, chose a light source position, then began
shading with charcoal. Of course the darkest shadows were directly
opposite to the light source, the lightest areas were facing the light
source and the cast shadow was very dark. We found that shading in a
curved arc and finger blending in that same arc gave the most realistic
shadowing effect. We experimented 'lifting' some of the charcoal with
kneaded erasers. We also tried to blend the different values together
(to avoid stark lines) by smearing the charcoal with our fingers away
from the darker areas into the lighter areas.
All
of these same techniques were used to create 3-D snowmen
keeping in mind the light source location, cast shadows of each of the
snowman sections and smooth blending. Some kids chose to add eyes,
buttons, nose, mouth and other snowman accoutrements. Of course the
snowmen couldn't just sit out in space, so some added hills and trees. The students took these drawings home.
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