Art Connections Standard 1: Understands connections among the various art forms and other disciplines-Benchmark 3: Knows the similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms used in the various arts (e.g., form, line, contrast)

Visual Arts Standard 1: Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes related to the visual arts

 

Students will …

• trace around shapes
• reduce and enlarge shapes
• draw lines to create foreground, middle ground, and a horizon
• arrange shapes to show simple perspective
• overlap shapes to illustrate space
• glue shapes to paper

Perspective: Any system used to represent depth or space on a flat surface by reducing the size and placement of elements to suggest that they are further away from the viewer.

Foreground: The part of a scene or representation that is nearest to and in front of the viewer.

Middle ground: The area between the foreground and background in a drawing.

Horizon: In linear perspective, the line on which all vanishing points are positioned, more accurately described as the eye line or eye level.

Overlapping: A method of representing hierarchy of space in a drawing. Overlapping occurs when one object obscures from view part of a second object.

Picture Plane: The flat, two-dimensional surface on which a drawing is made.

Choose a sheet of white paper and 3 sheets of construction paper. Each sheet should be a different color. When you return to your table, choose a shape. You can create your own shape if you would rather. It needs to be about as large as your hand. Trace the shape three times, once on each sheet of small paper. Put away the shape. On one of the traced shapes, make a smaller copy of the shape by drawing a “copycat line” inside the shape. On another of the shapes, make a copycat line around it to make a larger shape. Do nothing to the third shape. Cut out each shape on the correct line. You should have 3 different sized shapes: small, medium, and large.

Next, we are going to create an interesting background for our picture. Use the large sheet of white paper for the background. This page is called a picture plane. With the marker draw a line horizontally about 2” from the bottom of your large sheet. This line represents the foreground. Draw a line 2-3” above the first line. This area in the picture plane is the middle ground. Finally, draw a line halfway between the middle ground line and the top of the paper. This last line is the horizon it represents eye level. Add details to make this an interesting space for your shapes. Arrange the shapes on your picture plane. Look to see what difference it makes when a larger shape is placed higher or lower on the page. Try putting a larger shape behind a smaller shape. What effect does that have? Usually to make an object appear closer, make it larger and place it lower on the picture plane. To make an object appear farther away, make it smaller and place it higher on the picture plane. Overlapping can also distinguish distance. Objects which are closer will be “on top” of those farther away. Begin with the smallest shape. Glue near the horizon line. Glue the medium shape in the middle ground and the largest shape in the foreground. Overlap, if you want.

Have the student(s) find photos, images, pictures and paintings with clear examples of this lesson in them-e.g. similar objects that get smaller as they are farther away.