the real deal.

This year I placed emphasis in many lessons on making images look real by using tints and shades. Kids never quit getting excited when they see something they are making go from flat to 3d on a piece of paper. It's something that can be addressed across all grade levels.

My 1st graders were introduced to the paintings of Audrey Flack this year. They could not get over the fact that her images were actually painted and not just photographs. I pointed out to them how she used light and dark to make the objects in her still life paintings look real.

We also discussed her use of primary and secondary colors. Students identified examples of these colors in a couple of Audrey's paintings.

When doing the drawing, I emphasized to draw the outlines of shapes lightly, because bold outlines would make the students' drawings look more cartoonish instead of more realistic. 

We based our drawing on Audrey's still life painting of crayons on a table.

1. students drew long cylinders with cones on the ends to make the crayon shapes. at least one needed to be a different length and they needed to overlap crayons at least once.

2. students added color to each of the crayons with colored pencils. they pressed hard on one side and lightly (making a tint) on the other side of each crayon. the light and dark sides should be consistent on all the crayons.

3. to make cast shadows for each of the crayons, students mixed the color of the crayon and a little black (making a shade), on the paper/table touching the shadow side of each of the crayons

4. students added different types of lines from each of the crayons to add variety and to make it look like the crayons had been used.