2. Contents
3. Introduction piece of work
4. Exploring form 15. Relevance to National
5. Exploring tone Curriculum
6. My final piece 16. Learning opportunities
7. Starting points 17. Form and tone and its
potential in artwork
8. Initial sketches
18. ‘Hands’ as a theme for
9. Inspiration work across the
10. Use of Tone curriculum
11. My drawing investigations 19. Drawing activities
12. Pen and ink 20. Resources – books
13. Using photos 21. Resources – websites
3. Introduction
3
This electronic resource has been created in aim to Elements of art
inform teachers of how to use artwork in order to
develop drawing skills within the primary classroom. Mark making
It aims to guide teachers to gain a better understanding of Exploration of
line
how to use artwork as a vehicle to develop drawing skills
within the primary classroom. Tone
Colour
Texture
Form
Pattern
Additional information concerning drawing in the classroom such as Shape
resourcing lists and extension activities are available here. Space
4. Exploring form
4
Form concerns the shape of an object
Classical artist
Michelangelo - Sculpture
5. Exploring tone use of
tone examples
5
Explore making various tones with different
materials and apply to small sketches
.
9. Escher –
Inspiration drawing hands
(1948)
11
Leonardo Da Vinci – Studies of the hand
10. Use of tone
12
Tonal Activity
Give each child a piece of paper with a large
doodle on it with 10 different sections. The aim
is for the children to fill each section with a
different type of mark and to create tone
from one side of the section to the other.
14. Key skills promoted
16
Record from first-hand
observation
Using tone to represent form
and detail
15. Relevance to NC objectives
(adapted)
17
Explore, develop and Build a knowledge
represent ideas
of various artists
through observation 4. c)
1.a) & 2. b)
Explore themselves Investigate and make art
as a starting point using various
for practical artwork materials
5. a) 2. a)
Note for 4a
Build a knowledge Cross reference to mathematics
and understanding of Ma3 Shape, space and measures:
visual and tactile Understanding patterns and properties of
shape
elements such as 2. Pupils should be taught to:
tone and form a. describe properties of shapes that they
4. a) can see or visualise using the related
16. Learning opportunities
18
Year 4
Learning objective : To have a basic visual
understanding of the skeleton (hands).
Links/extra information:
The importance of sketchbooks
Sketchbooks in the classroom
17. SCULPTURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Allow children to look at Focusing on the human form and using small snapshots that highlight
sculptures of the human form the shapes. You could also focus on the tone on skin and or
and focus on the hands. fingers, allowing children to explore taking photos of each other in
19
Explore form of the hands or different positions.
parts of the body through 3D
materials. Possible activities:
Possible activities: Set up a photo studio- working in pairs, allow children to take
photos of hands engaging in work (drawing/writing/tying shoelaces
Willow/chicken etc.) and using computers, play around with contrast and light/dark
wire/clay/plaster sculptures tones on screen.
– taking hands as a starting
point, develop a sculpture Set up life drawing in the classroom – set up a circle of tables and
and or 3D form that ‘FORM &child to pose inITSmiddle and have a Drawing activities
allow one TONE’ & the session focusing on
form. TEXTILES
represents the use of a key. POTENTIAL IN
This can include other parts
PAINTING body.
of the PRINTMAKING ARTWORK Focus children on using
materials and sewing to create
Allow children to explore the Bring together elements learnt from their own gloves and/or
tonal qualities of skin by drawing and painting in order to decoration. You could look at
exploring the develop pieces of work and using henna and develop a represent
various printmaking techniques meanings of keys, shapes and
Possible activities looking at the hand/human form patterns within keys and the
Viewfinders- allow children to and/or hand decoration. broader things that relate to
use viewfinders to paint a them.
Possible activities:
section of a persons hand and Possible activities:
develop paintings using various finger printing – allow the children
paint mediums and compare. to print their own fingers and explore Making gloves/bracelet– allow
Develop these sectional the tones and pattern within them. You each child to create their own
paintings to create an abstract could develop this into pattern or line pattern inspired by henna and
18. RE/PSHE GEOGRAPHY/HISTORY
Allow children to explore Research, consider and explore how hands are used for greeting
how hands are used within people.
worship. Explore the Hindu
tradition of painting hands Possible activities:
21
and the significance of Develop your own school handshake – allow the children to develop
painting the whole body. their own handshake that shows their friendship/to say hello to a visitor
Possible activities: at the school
Explore how hands are Explore countries greetings traditions/cultural understanding –
used in worship – what do explore various ways of greetings around the world/why they do these.
Usin hands do in worship? Research– watch the HSBC advert which shows the various ways of
(Christianity –
g ‘HANDS’ & ITSnew with their handsIN MATHS
greeting someone POTENTIAL
ICT prayer, Hindu – THE CURRICULUM Allow children to explore
Decorate/symbolise
openness, Buddhism – the form of hands and
SCIENCE - anatomy explore the shapes that
used to calm, other – palm
PE reading) Focusing on physical features of the make up that three-
human form. How does the shape of the dimensional form. This can
Focus children on exploring be extended to the whole
hand/parts of the body help us to
movement of the hands, and/or human form.
function? Allow children to explore the
developing skills in balancing using
form of organs and muscles too. Possible activities
hands/parts of the body.
Possible activities: Play ‘spot the 3D form’
Possible activities:
Class anatomy book– using allow the children to look at
Gymnastics – explore using hands their partner and find as
drawing/studying parts of the
to balance many different 3D shapes
body, create a class anatomy
Dance – using hand movements in book, focusing on various parts of the within their form. This could
dance – perhaps look at flamenco body – most specifically the hand. be possible with 2D shapes
dancers. also.
Click here for a medium term art plan for year 5/6 on the theme of hands.
19. Resources - books
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Beazley.M (2000) Understanding Paintings, Octopus Publishing Ltd.
Clement,R.(1992) Investigating and making in art. Essex: Oliver and Bond
Daniels, H & Turner, S (1972) Exploring printmaking for young people Van Nostrand Reinholds
Department for education and employment (1999) The National Curriculum, London I would highly recommend looking at the
STart magazines as they are highly
Fabian, M. (2006) ‘Blue Sky thinking’. STart magazine, Number 21, Pg. 12-13 informative in the context of education
of art
Fitzsimmons, S. (1991) Start with art: developing creativity in young children Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Gair, A. (2005) Learn to Paint and Draw. Bath: Parragon
Hearne, S. (2002) Art in the primary school, 2nd Ed. London Borough of Town Hamlets
Martin, J. (2003) Colour. How to see it how to paint it. Quarto Publishing Ltd.
McInally,M. (2003) ‘ From scribbles to drawings’ in Children’s art, the development in imaginative drawing and painting, ages 3 to 11. Devon: Southgate publishers Ltd
Nobel.A (1996) Education through art the Steiner School Approach. Edinburgh: Floris Books
Painting with watercolour magazine (2003)
Rockwell, H. (1977) Printmaking Tadworth: World’s Work
Roswell,G. (1983) ‘Scribbling and doodling’ in Teaching art in Primary School. London :Evans Brothers Ltd.
Rothenstein. M (1970) Relief printing. London: Studio Vista
There are 6 in this series and all are
Sykes. K. T (2005) ‘ Portrait of an artist’ in Art of England magazine. Masterclass Publications Ltd. Pp.46-49 worth having in the classroom
Sherman/L & Hofmeyr.D (2003) Directions in art : printmaking. Oxford, Heinemann Library (Harcourt education)
Weaver, P. (1968) Printmaking: a medium for basic design Studio Vista
Wenham,M. (2003) ‘Art as exploration’ in Understanding art : a guide for teachers. London:Paul Chapman Back to contents
20. Resources - websites
27 www.corbis.com is a brilliant website for searching images for a certain subject.
Website Content
Resources
www.artsconnected.org/toolkit Extensive resource for artistic concepts to be explored
[online]date accessed 10/12/07 online and interactively.
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/art/contents.htm Many online teaching ideas and resources including lots of
[online]date accessed 16/12/07 portraiture links.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/art/art.htm [online]date accessed 16/12/07 Extensive range of online teaching ideas and resources.
http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm [date accessed 17/12/07] Extensive range of online interactive resources for all areas of art.
Artists
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/h/holbein/hans_y/biograph.html Online biography source pages – lots of artists to research good for
highlighting and research activities (more suitable for older
children)
http://www.gfmer.ch/International_activities_En/Leonardo_anatomical_drawings.htm Leonardo Di Vinci information bank of anatomical images.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/genius/portraits.shtm# Rembrandt information bank including zoom-able picture of
[date accessed 14/12/07] his works.
http://www.simonripley.co.uk/files/gallery5/index1.htm Print artist Simon Ripley’s site – pictures and techniques all available.
[online] accessed 4th February 2007
http://www.normanackroyd.com/kerr.html [online] accessed 21st March 2007 Norman Ackroyd – site Getting children to email artists is
an invaluable experience and really
allows art to become more relevant
and accessible.
General
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/etc/teah/teahindex_gfx_en.html Online museum resource for teachers – access to a vast amount of
information
http://www.monoprints.com/history/brief.html [online] accessed 19th March 2007 Information about monoprints
http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/schools/ [online] accessed 19th March 2007 Extensive site for many techniques, artists and resources.
Notas del editor
Looking at this painting made me think about the age and condition of the keys I had studied. It allowed me to gain a visual understanding of both age and condition alongside gaining an insight to how an artist has solved the problem of representing the object. I decided to focus on the textural elements of the age and condition of the keys within my final painting. It is important for children to be aware of how artists can be used to help inform their own work and influence their own studies and ideas. The national curriculum identifies this by stating ‘Pupils should be taught the...differences and similarities in the work of artists, craftspeople and designers in different times and cultures [for example, sculptors, photographers, architects, textile designers]. ‘Children can use other artists work to inform their own work and/or influence their visual understanding of a subject.By looking at how someone else has represented an object or scene, allows an artist to build their own ideas and supports their visual understanding further.
Starting with pencil, children should observe, collect evidence in greyscale and annotate where appropriate. This allows tone and detail to be focused on and allows for a more concentrated study including elements of line, tone and shape. From this point, children can follow through to exploring other medians such as pencil crayons, pen and ink or chalks. This encourages children to make coherent choices for working with certain materials. It also moves the drawing from observations through to colour and allows children to explore other elements such as colour, tone and patternThe observations and studies previously made through drawing can now be pulled together into using paint. Using all the information collected through drawing will enable more detailed studies take place. Again, allowing children to explore all types of paints (where appropriate) is also important. A final piece could take form from this.Observational DrawingThe more discussion and handling, if the drawing is of an object, the better. More hands on experience will allow children to understand the objects form and structure leading them to represent it through drawing in more detail.Completing observational drawings of still life gives children opportunities to explore shape, pattern, tone, form, composition and texture before being introduced to colour and other medias. This will allow for true understanding of the basics of drawing and it’s specific elements. Observational drawing helps children slow down their looking and noticing more and creating questions
Tone provides us with a sense of realism and depth that informs our drawing. These can then be used in drawings as a means of adding shade to the darker and lighter areas to create form. Children should be introduced to the basic concepts of light and dark, black, white and grey through the exploration of mark making in drawing and colour mixing with paint. To focus on the expressive qualities of tone, texture, light and shade limit children to the use of black and white.
This is my final piece...the project was titled ‘hands at work’ and we were asked to produce a piece of work that represented this in any form or material.
Where I started:Through brainstorming and exploring initial ideas in my sketchbook, I started to think about the places I could go within the subjectand collect initial images. From these, I could visually explore these avenues and make judgements about what sort of activities I wanted to explore with hands. When giving children a project, it is important to set them a place to start from:Giving them a brief and then letting them explore this idea using language and initial images is the best place to start. I find the most effective way of doing this is through the vehicle of brainstorms: Starting with the broad topic in the middle and then branching off thinking about the various areas you could go into. The next best thing to do is gather together images that relate to these thoughts and also talk them through with a partner. Explaining your ideas will help you clarify them and also allow other ideas to influence you. Providing children with a short, clear brief will focus their ideas and also give them something to work towards. However, it needs to have an element of choice within it.
Drawing and mark making are considered a fundamental aspect of art practice. It is a tool of communication and informs ideas which therefore needs to become accessible and valued in the classroom: Encourage children to talk about the marks they have made introducing new language – curved, straight, wiggly etc and at times challenge them to make marks, lines and patterns to express these descriptions.The art national curriculum requires that children work from experience, observation and imagination – allow children to interact with their object/s or at least discuss what the object is and does.Only focus on one or two visual elements at a time. This will allow children to fully investigate the chosen elements in detail and explore all of its possibilities.Starting with initial mark making and quick line drawings; of the whole object, parts of the object and small parts of the object, I was able to develop enough visual information for me to gain a better understanding of the objects. I used my sketchbook as a way of documenting my initial observations and sketched as many hands as I could.
I was inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci and his anatomical sketches...continued to explore the form of the hand with same sensitivity and focusing on the human form in detail and with care in the tonal aspects of hands. After doing some initial visual investigation,
These careful studies took about half an hour and allowing children the time to really look and study an object with effects of light and even taking photographs of their objects will allow them to explore tonal qualities of an object – they are constantly building up information about what makes their object and in this case – it’s light sources. Used tone to develop an understanding of the form and detail of the hand.
My initial drawing investigations were with the use of pencils and it is important that using other means of mark making is investigated too. Allowing children to use other means of making marks and echoing the marks of a form is very important. It entitles choice and experimentation that allows them to explore the object itself and find ways to best represent it. Using a biro pen, I sketched from observation – important to keep exploring the subject matter in various materials – NC objective – explore various materials. I took of the keys and annotated around it. By extending around photos or just making simple marks around picture will allow children to make initial marks and investigate without the worry of creating a final piece.
Using pen and ink, I quickly sketched the outline of a key. Encourage children to use different resources when using ink such as wooden sticks (see image to the left)
After exploring the various materials and the form of hands, needed to consider the theme of hands at work in a bit more detail. Looked at hands at work images again and found the work of the photographer ‘...’ really interesting and liked the idea of hands playing instruments. I had friends who played in a band and therefore took my own photos...focusing on the black and white element of the photos – tonal qualities.
Decided on the playing the cello as its tonal quality was the best.
This is a great activity that can be done with any age group to get the children into drawing concentrating on only one visual element. Drawings can either be completed in sketchbooks or on variety of different sized and type of paper.