Learning From Nature, Using Technology

The 6th graders have just finished their Vegetable Still Life paintings. In the old days, we would have used an old slide frame or view finder while drawing to create a pleasing composition (vocab: composition=how things are arranged). Students were challenged to take a photograph of vegetables, by zooming in and cropping out the unnecessary information, and to create interesting negative space (vocab: negative space= the shapes of air around the things drawn). Having a photo on an ipad to look at as reference material is so much easier (unless of course you didn't save it like I asked you to, and your brother deleted it - ahem), because it doesn't move or change every time you look at it.

Vegetables are a good subject to draw/paint because they are forgiving...all vegetables look a little different from one another. Mother nature is good for that. :) Learning to see the different tints/shades of color, and finding or mixing the correct one is challenging and fun. Watercolor should be translucent (you should be able to see light and the paper coming through), not opaque or solid color like tempura or acrylic.

Students also learned how to add shadows by choosing a direction that the light is coming from, and how to use a bamboo brush!

#bamboobrush #shadows #stilllife #nature #watercolor #translucent #tints #shades #negativespace #composition #6thgrade