One Point Perspective - Student Examples!

Still Life Assignment

All classes in grades 4 through 6th work on this simple still life assignment.  Each year the students get older, you can see improvement in their work.

The goal of this assignment is to draw the objects in correct proportion in relation to each other, then shade them as accurately as possible to make them look 3-D.

Here are some examples of the best of the student work!

5th grade - One point perspective

The visual art element of space means to create a feeling of depth in an artwork.  When you are working with a flat piece of paper, it is good to know all the techniques that make it possible to create the illusion of depth.  This week, the 5th grade classes are going to work on the concept of one point perspective.  But to do so, we need to know some vocabulary.

HORIZON LINE

A level line where water or land seems to end and the sky begins. (most definitions are courtesy of http://www.artlex.com/)

VANISHING POINT

The point at which objects moving away from you (getting smaller and smaller) appear to vanish.  This point is usually found on the horizon line.  There are an infinite number of vanishing points.

HORIZONTAL

Straight and flat across, parallel to the horizon. Notice the similarity between horizon line and horizontal?

VERTICAL

The direction going straight up and down; the opposite of (or perpendicular to) horizontal.

PARALLEL

Two or more straight lines or edges on the same plane that do not intersect.  That means they never touch or cross.

PERPENDICULAR

Intersecting at or forming right angles.  A right angle is a 90* angle.

Okay!  So, right now you are probably thinking to yourself, 'is this an art lesson, or a math class?!?'

It is both!  Besides knowing about art, an artist needs to be a mathmatician, a scientist, and an historian!  Being a musician wouldn't hurt, either.  So pay attention in your other subjects.  It will help you in art!

Alright, back to the lesson.

ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE drawing means that all of the objects in the picture are lined up with only one vanishing point.  Imagine looking down a long hallway...

Everything seems to come to one point in the center.

To create this effect, draw a horizon line and put one dot somewhere in or near the middle.  Use this vanishing point to connect all vertical and horizontal objects to the horizon line.  See the image below.

You can draw houses, cars, roads, or any other 3-D object using this techinque!  Make sure your vertical and horizontal lines are not leaning.  This will take some practice.

In class, we will be creating a 'dream room' using one point perspective!

5th grade - Human Body Proportion

The fifth grade classes are working on drawing believable people.  That means figuring out all the correct bones and joints in a 'stick figure'.  This simply doesn't cut it...

Instead, we can use a drawing mannequin to help us figure out how to draw the basic 'skeleton' of a person... with joints, long bones, pelvic bone, and rib cage!

Here are some basic generalizations that can help you to draw people.  Keep in mind that they are generalizations, which means that all people are their own unique measures, but we can use these generalizations as a starting point.

• Adult humans are generally 7 to 8 heads tall.  
• Legs are half our height.
• Elbows align with the belly button and swing out in a arc.
• The neck is half the length of the head.
• Feet are the same length as the inside of the forearm.

Mrs. Watson's still life

Of course, I won't ask my students to do something that I am not willing to do myself! Here is the still life I made while the students made theirs. This was done on a large sheet of gray paper taped onto the front board. I used crayon, so there was no erasing allowed for me! Fortunately for the students, they got to use pencils... and erasers!

proportion

Proportion means making sure each of the parts are the right size to be correct for the whole.  The best way to describe it is to imagine you are drawing a picture of a person.  If you were drawing a person, the arms should not be too long or too short.  It means making sure the head is not too big or too small for the body.  That sort of thing.

In class, each student selected an object out of the still life bins and practiced drawing in proportion.  They practiced doing basic comparison measuring to try to get the sizes right.  Comparison measuring means that you 'measure' the short side with your fingers, and compare that to the other sides.  If the short side counts as 'one', and the long side equals 3 of that 'one', you know to make it 3 times longer than the short side.

To work on this at home, select simple objects in the kitchen to draw.  A pot or pan works great!

Shading a Ball reference photos

Here are some shots of the ball that the students looked at while learning to shade. As you can see, the angle of the light really affects how the shading needs to be done! If you want more practice, you can look at these photos and sketch in the shapes you see created by the effect of light and shadow.

4th grade - Shading a ball

We started a shading lesson today.  Shading involves the Element of VALUE.  We also use the Element of SHAPE while working out where the lights and darks in the picture are placed.

I placed a playground ball on the center table in class and illuminated it with a lamp.  We talked about using the Element of SHAPE to lightly sketch in the shapes formed by the shadow on the table, the shadows on the ball, and even the dull light bouncing up on the back side of the ball from the table.

Students had an opportunity to walk around the room and see how the shadow shapes change on the ball depending on the angle you are viewing it.

4th and 5th grade - Still Life - Student Examples

Last week, the fourth and fifth grade classes focused on some drawing and shading skills as they drew a simple still life in the center of the room.  Here are some of the best student examples!

5th grade - Human Body Proportion - Student Work

The Principles of Design

...are the rules for using the Elements of Design well.

There are seven Principles (just like there are seven Elements).  They are;

Balance, Unity, Pattern/Rhythm, Variety, Proportion, Movement, and Emphasis/Focal Point.

 Balance

In visual art, balance refers to the visual weight of the objects in the picture.  If there are too many elements on one side, and not enough on the other, the picture does not feel balanced.

Unity

This means that everything in the picture feels like it belongs there.  An example of a picture that does not have unity would be a hot summer beach with a snowman on it.

Pattern/Rhythm

We have all known what pattern is since we were in kindergarten.  It is a set of repeating elements.  Rhythm is a complicated pattern.  Human beings are attracted to pattern and rhythm.  We crave it.  That is why we make and listen to music!  If you can create pattern or rhythm in your artwork, people will be drawn to it.

Variety

"Variety is the Spice of Life".  Ever heard that old phrase?  Although it is cheesy, it is also true!  You don't want to bore your viewers with too much of the same thing.  Try using different sizes, shapes, colors, or lines to give your work more variety!

Proportion

This means that each of the parts are the right size to belong to the whole.  This is very difficult to describe, but very easy to recognize.  In cartoons, the characters are usually out of proportion.  The head is too big, the legs are too small; that sort of thing.  That doesn't mean that cartoon artists are stupid and don't know proper proportion!  It just means that they know the rules of proportion and are breaking them on purpose!  If you want to be a cartoon artist, I recommend that you first learn the rules of proportion, so you can do a better job of breaking them when you need to.

Movement

This does not mean that the stuff on your picture moves around!  Movement refers to what the viewers' eyes are doing when looking at your picture.  You want to keep the viewer looking at your artwork for as long as possible, so you should try to design your picture to lead the viewers' eyes around in it.  This is NOT easy!

Emphasis/Focal Point

This is the most important thing in the picture.  It is the thing you want the viewer to look at first!  You should manipulate the elements so that the viewer's eye is drawn to it like a magnet.  Notice in the picture above that your eyes are drawn to the pink flowers because the are so strongly different in color from everything else in the picture.

Be careful putting people in your picture unless you want them to be part of the focal point.  We are drawn to the human figure, so most viewers tend to look at people in a picture first.

The Elements of Design (Visual Art)

The Elements of Design (sometimes called the Elements of Art) are the basic building blocks of art. Artists use these elements to plan and design their artwork. There are seven of them. They are Shape, Line, Color, Texture, Value, Space, and Form.

Shape

A shape is an enclosed figure. There is an inside and an outside. Shapes that have special mathematical rules are called geometric shapes. Examples of geometric shapes are circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, hexagons, etc.


Shapes that don't follow any special rules are called organic shapes. Organic shapes might look like something you recognize, like a leaf, or might simply look like a blob.




Line

In math, a line is the shortest distance between two points. In art, though, we are more free with the definition. Lines are not closed figures. They are open ended and can move across the paper in many different ways. Lines that follow a predictable pattern are called geometric lines. Zig-zag lines and wavy lines are examples of geometric lines. Lines that are completely unpredictable are called organic lines. Lines can be thick or thin, straight or curvy.




Color

We have been slowly learning about color every year since 1st grade. Colors are organized on a Color Wheel to help us see how they are related to each other. This year we are reviewing Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. We will be learning Complimentary, Analogous, Monochromatic, and Triadic for the first time.

Texture
Texture is the way something feels when you touch it, or how it would feel if you could touch it. If you can really feel it when you touch it, it is called Real Texture. If you can't feel it when you touch it, it is Implied Texture.








Value

Value is every tone of a color from the darkest of the dark, to the lightest of the light. When you arrange them in order from lightest to darkest, it is called a Value Scale. When black and white are arranged in a Value Scale it is sometimes called a Gray Scale, or a Key Scale.




Space

When we talk about space in the art room, we are not talking about outer space! Space means creating a feeling of depth. Near and far. Front and back. The illusion of space is created on a flat paper by using overlap, size and placement, and details.

Form

Forms are 3-D shapes.  

You can create the illusion of form on a flat paper by shading to show where the light and shadow are, or you can use contour lines.  Contour lines follow the surface of a 3-D object. 

Here is an amazing image that demonstrates contour lines!