Love what my 5th grade artist did with their Oliver K. Woodman figures! First of all Darcy Pattison is a local ARKANSAS artist which I love. She has presented for me at the Arkansas Reading Association conference several times and I adore her books. You have to admit...this is the perfect book for figure drawings. The book is written in a series of letters and postcards where Oliver shares his travels across the states. After we read and discussed the book we began with the sketching. We made careful observations about our forms. The students worked in group of 4. Each small group had 3 minutes to decide what "pose" their figure would take. We discussed shapes, lines, shadows and proportion. The students used rulers to help them decide how to make their figure the correct proportion. Some of them quickly figured out their alien size heads did not quite fit their bodies. When they moved on to their background they had to decide WHERE their Oliver would be in the picture. They discussed details with their tables on what might give clues to their surroundings then they were to creatively hide a sign stating their location on their piece. I have 2 classes left and I can't wait to see their finished pieces.
Here are 2 links for Darcy's books:
http://oliverkwoodman.com/
My kindergarten & 1st graders LOVED learning about artist ED HECK and his simplistic art pieces that add just the right punch of color! They fell in love with his art and wanted to learn how to draw every thing he had created. This was a great lesson for making observations, looking at line, shape and color. Ed is an artist that has a studio in New York. He has also written several children's books like the ones we used here.
I taught them step by step how to draw his creations. Each class featured a different piece. After they had theirs created which they were amazed at how good they did drawing, then I had them try to create their own pieces. They are just adorable!! If it wasn't the end of school we would have painted their pieces, but it was the last day and we just did not have time to get them finished. I have not received the COLOR by Penguins book yet and am so looking forward to getting it.
