![Picture](/uploads/2/3/6/7/23677318/6426173.jpg?387)
"I will astonish Paris with an apple."
~Cezanne about his still life paintings
On the Rail of an Observation Car: Exploring Still Life
Essential Questions: How do mixing primary colors create new colors?
How does light reflecting off a surface change what I see?
How does adding highlights & shadows make my artwork look more realistic?
Enduring Understandings: All colors can be created from the primary colors (plus B&W).
The colors we see depend upon the color of the light and the surfaces light reflects off.
Highlights show where the light source is reflected; shadows ground the subject -
giving it visual weight.
Stories (Hook):
I begin this project with a demonstration on optical mixing. I set up the still life one
piece at a time beginning with the table top (paper box covered with primary colored
fabrics). As I add each piece, the students observe the reflected light changing the
color of the bottoms of the objects. (For example, a blue pitcher set on red fabric appears
purple on the bottom.) This optical mixing exercise helps the students see the subtle
ways artists use color to show and exaggerate what they really see instead of painting
what the brain tells us we see. It is training for the eyes.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Still Life
by Carl Sandburg
Cool your heels on the rail of an observation car.
Let the engineer open her up for ninety miles an hour.
Take in the prairie right and left, rolling land and new hay crops,
swaths of new hay laid in the sun.
A gray village flecks by and the horses hitched in front of the
post-office never blink an eye.
A barnyard and fifteen Holstein cows, dabs of white on a black
wall map, never blink an eye.
A signalman in a tower, the outpost of Kansas City, keeps his
place at a window with the serenity of a bronze statue on
a dark night ...
Essential Questions: How do mixing primary colors create new colors?
How does light reflecting off a surface change what I see?
How does adding highlights & shadows make my artwork look more realistic?
Enduring Understandings: All colors can be created from the primary colors (plus B&W).
The colors we see depend upon the color of the light and the surfaces light reflects off.
Highlights show where the light source is reflected; shadows ground the subject -
giving it visual weight.
Stories (Hook):
I begin this project with a demonstration on optical mixing. I set up the still life one
piece at a time beginning with the table top (paper box covered with primary colored
fabrics). As I add each piece, the students observe the reflected light changing the
color of the bottoms of the objects. (For example, a blue pitcher set on red fabric appears
purple on the bottom.) This optical mixing exercise helps the students see the subtle
ways artists use color to show and exaggerate what they really see instead of painting
what the brain tells us we see. It is training for the eyes.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Still Life
by Carl Sandburg
Cool your heels on the rail of an observation car.
Let the engineer open her up for ninety miles an hour.
Take in the prairie right and left, rolling land and new hay crops,
swaths of new hay laid in the sun.
A gray village flecks by and the horses hitched in front of the
post-office never blink an eye.
A barnyard and fifteen Holstein cows, dabs of white on a black
wall map, never blink an eye.
A signalman in a tower, the outpost of Kansas City, keeps his
place at a window with the serenity of a bronze statue on
a dark night ...
Materials: still life set-up ebony pencils white charcoal pencil chalk pastels 12 x 18 heavy weight white paper tempera paint: blue, red, magenta, yellow sketch journal drawing pencils crayons |
Vocabulary:
prism still life optical mixing observational drawing primary colors secondary colors visual weight highlights shadows |
Process:
~Practice drawing still life first in sketch journal.
~Draw bigger on 12 x 18 paper, beginning with a border
(define your own space)
~Paint still life as you see it.
~Paint primary colors first: red, blue, yellow.
~Mix secondary colors and paint those next.
(magenta is available for a true violet)
~Paint the background from your imagination - any color or design.
~Once dry, add highlight glints with white charcoal pencil.
~Add shadows and contrast lines with ebony pencil.
~Use pastel to blend/enhance colors.
Resources:
"Little Blue and Little Yellow" by Leo Lionni
"My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss & Steve Johnson
"Mouse Paint" byEllen Stoll Walsh
prism & flashlight (to project rainbows on the ceiling)
Bright colored pottery for still life set-up: bowl & pitcher
Learning Targets:
Students will demonstrate mixing secondary colors from primary colors.
Students will demonstrate drawing a still life set-up from various points -of-view.
Students will recognize the effect of reflected light on a subject & show that in their artwork.
Students will demonstrate the use of adding highlights & shadows to create a greater sense of realism.
Reflections:
Some students struggle drawing the still life big, filling the paper. I demonstrate this a few times and model
it for them with my example. When they begin to paint, I need to prompt painting the primary colors
first - I explain that once they start mixing colors they no longer have pure primaries.
I have changed the order of the drawing task - beginning with the final paper and ending with another sketch in the sketch journal - because so many 3rd graders feel frustrated trying their hardest on the first drawing and then having to do it all over again. I offer using the journal first for those who like/need to practice before going on to the final paper. I do like to use the journal time for those who finish quickly; they can practice mixing colors with crayons to match the colors they see in the still life.
Gallery:
~Practice drawing still life first in sketch journal.
~Draw bigger on 12 x 18 paper, beginning with a border
(define your own space)
~Paint still life as you see it.
~Paint primary colors first: red, blue, yellow.
~Mix secondary colors and paint those next.
(magenta is available for a true violet)
~Paint the background from your imagination - any color or design.
~Once dry, add highlight glints with white charcoal pencil.
~Add shadows and contrast lines with ebony pencil.
~Use pastel to blend/enhance colors.
Resources:
"Little Blue and Little Yellow" by Leo Lionni
"My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss & Steve Johnson
"Mouse Paint" byEllen Stoll Walsh
prism & flashlight (to project rainbows on the ceiling)
Bright colored pottery for still life set-up: bowl & pitcher
Learning Targets:
Students will demonstrate mixing secondary colors from primary colors.
Students will demonstrate drawing a still life set-up from various points -of-view.
Students will recognize the effect of reflected light on a subject & show that in their artwork.
Students will demonstrate the use of adding highlights & shadows to create a greater sense of realism.
Reflections:
Some students struggle drawing the still life big, filling the paper. I demonstrate this a few times and model
it for them with my example. When they begin to paint, I need to prompt painting the primary colors
first - I explain that once they start mixing colors they no longer have pure primaries.
I have changed the order of the drawing task - beginning with the final paper and ending with another sketch in the sketch journal - because so many 3rd graders feel frustrated trying their hardest on the first drawing and then having to do it all over again. I offer using the journal first for those who like/need to practice before going on to the final paper. I do like to use the journal time for those who finish quickly; they can practice mixing colors with crayons to match the colors they see in the still life.
Gallery: