people and faces

I don't want to jinx myself, but I recently took down this winter display of our art. it is time for some positive thinking!

It has been replaced with a new display, showing off what 4th and 5th grade have learned about drawing people and faces.
year after year, its a huge request to learn how to draw people. i insist its all about practice, practice, practice, but teach students anyway how to use circles and ovals. kinda like this guy:


we then spent just a couple of classes talking about the proportions of the face. i feel like it was lost of some of the 4th graders, and even a few 5th, but you can't win them all, all the time. and drawing is something we will keep using, and practicing every year. those who did take the information and use it came out with some great drawings.

these are 4th grade's before and afters. I did NOT do this to show them what they do "wrong." the last thing I want to do is put students down. first we drew the one on the left. then folded it under while we followed some directions of the board. we even used our fingers to find the tops of our ears in relation to our eyes and things like that. when were done, we opened the page and observed the difference. I really wanted students to realize that your eyes are not on your forehead and your hair does not start growing at the top of your head. 

the next class, we took out mirrors and drew ourselves:

gotta love the Justin Beiber face paint! and not bad for a 45 minute class!
here's what 5th grade impressively managed after two classes:

these lessons are all in preparation for our "For Baby" painting, drawing, collage, illustrations. we started planning this week and God willing, I will have them done, scanned, and digitized by the April 28th Spring concert.