For this activity, we used pencil.  To measure the bottle to a more accurate degree, we held the pencil straight as a distance, and comparing the length of certain parts for the bottle, drew the length from the estimates we found from the pencil length.  The arrow on the drawing represents the direction of the light source, and at the bottom left of the page, there are three sample shading techniques that can be used. 

I found this activity fun once I knew how to apply the estimating measurement technique.  Drawing proportionately is not my strong suit, and this method helped to create a more realistic bottle.  Shading is always a challenge, but by marking the direction of the light source helps to picture the shade.  Developing a good penciling technique to complete the blended shading around the bottle took some time.

Something like this could be incorporated into a junior level classroom if you were using simple shaped objects such as a bottle, or cube.  Once in the intermediate grades, you could incorporate a more complex shape.

Using chalk as a drawing tool was great.  I loved the way the colour stood out, especially on the dark paper.  Drawing with colour always increases my interest level compared with drawing with pencil.  Using the pencil to start is a good method to learn techniques but once you add colour components it adds FUN!  I used various colours to repeatedly trace the same design.

I think my final product looks a lot messier than it could if students had more time to plan and organize.  Also if I were to do this again, I would try to pick better colour combinations.  Right now, I have a mix of warm and cold colours.  Next time I would try to choose one over the other, or make all the petals one type of colour and the center of the flower and stem the other.  Another option would be to use complimentary colours (colours opposite each other on the colour wheel).

This activity is appropriate for any level but as you increase the grade you could also increase the expectations.  For example, have your students draw a picture, vs. having students include different types of shading in as on the ‘rendering drawing above’.  Also as you increase in grade levels continue to increase the level of colours, i.e. primary to secondary, or secondary to tertiary colours.

I really enjoyed this activity in the sense that it really made me feel better about drawing and that I may have some capabilities.  Many people believe that they have no artistic ability, and this activity shows how art work is practice and a development of skill.  The gesture is a loos hand drawing, with fast, smooth, and wide movements.  The contour drawing uses sharp solid edges.  The rendered drawing (like the other on this page) shows a contoured drawing in a more three dimensional way because of the shading.

Creating a gesture drawing is challenging because everyone wants their picture to look fabulous and in my opinion, the messy gesture drawing is far from fabulous.  To make this project successful, students need to know that it is to be rough, like a rough copy of an essay; it is something to work on and improve gradually.

This activity is appropriate for any grade level, but again, as you move up in grade level, the complexity of the item to be drawn can increase.

Printmaking turned out to be much more fun than I had anticipated.  By taking a piece of linoblock, we used gouges to engrave the linoblock and create a picture.  I decided to make mine festive since the holidays are approaching.  Two important things to remember during this project are:  1) The parts that you engrave will appear white, or the colour of your paper, and the other parts will taken the paint colour, and 2) If you are using words, be sure to carve the mirror image.

It was challenging to carve the image because the linoblock was very hard and it became much easier once you applied heat to the board.  It made it much softer.

Since the gouges are a little sharp and using heat makes the linoblock easier to work with, I would recommend doing this art activity with the intermediate grades.  I think you would need to have a very mature grade 7 or 8 class to use this in the elementary levels, but it is definitely appropriate for grade 9 and 10.

Once we had developed our linoblock image, we had to create an edition – a duplicate of the same print.  Using the same colour ink, and the same linoblock, I created two identical prints, naming the first 1/2 and the second 2/2.  To create the print, we covered a clear plastic board with paint and rolled it our smoothly with a brayer.  After there was a smooth layer, you roll the brayer over your linoblock covering the whole piece and then press a piece of paper onto your linoblock using a clean brayer to roll over top.  After separating the linoblock from the paper, you have a print. 

The challenge with creating an edition was trying to make both prints really similar in the sense that they were both covered with paint smoothly and equally.  Also with prints, there was a difficulty with making sure your engravings were deep enough so that the paint did not fill the cracks. 

As for the linoblock, I think this activity is more suitable for the intermediate grades unless there is a supply of engraved linoblocks for the junior students to use.

Creating monoprints and playing with colour was great.  Since I was going with a holiday theme with my linoblock, I decided to go for a festive ‘candy cane’ red, white, and green combination.  The procedure was the same, it just involved combining colours. 

One problem that arose that students may want to be aware of is to lay colours side by side rather than mix them, especially if you need to do a lot of rolling to get the paint smooth.  I tried red and green first and after rolling it created a brownish black – not so good.

I really enjoyed this activity and it is appropriate for any junior intermediate grade if the linoblocks are already prepared and is appropriate for the intermediate grades otherwise.

Using chalk as a drawing tool was great.  I loved the way the colour stood out, especially on the dark paper.  Drawing with colour always increases my interest level compared with drawing with pencil.  Using the pencil to start is a good method to learn techniques but once you add colour components it adds FUN!  I used various colours to repeatedly trace the same design.

I think my final product looks a lot messier than it could if students had more time to plan and organize.  Also if I were to do this again, I would try to pick better colour combinations.  Right now, I have a mix of warm and cold colours.  Next time I would try to choose one over the other, or make all the petals one type of colour and the center of the flower and stem the other.  Another option would be to use complimentary colours (colours opposite each other on the colour wheel).

This activity is appropriate for any level but as you increase the grade you could also increase the expectations.  For example, have your students draw a picture, vs. having students include different types of shading in as on the ‘rendering drawing above’.  Also as you increase in grade levels continue to increase the level of colours, i.e. primary to secondary, or secondary to tertiary colours.

This activity was my favourite.  I am more of a math mind than a creative mind, and this activity held my interest.  This is the style that I played with most often in my scrapbook.  Basically it involves drawing a straight line (the horizon) and choosing two 'vanishing' points, often one at each edge of the picture.  All vertical lines are drawn perpendicular (see the math mind) to the horizon, and the horizontal lines are drawn from a starting point and slope either up or down towards the vanishing points you have chosen on the horizon.  There are also one-point perspective drawings, where you choose only one vanishing point on the horizon and complete your picture the same way as above.   These perspectives give a three dimensional look to your two dimensional drawing.

For me this was not a challenging activity, but I could see how many would have difficulty with the concept of having the horizontal points sloping towards the horizon. 

I think the two-point perspective would be a good project for the intermediate grades.  In 7 and 8 you could have simple one-building examples and in high school get students creating whole blocks with different shaped buildings – a typical Main Street look.

Creating a sampler of painting techniques was a great resource to have for any future paintings.  It gave everyone a chance to try all the different types so that they could see what they liked and what they didn’t like.

I found that everyone had difficulty with the masking tape technique because the tape ripped the page when we took it off, but other than that we were successful.

I think that this activity is appropriate for any grade level.  In the younger grades, I would recommend doing a painting incorporating all of the techniques, and in intermediate grades have students use the techniques to create a picture.