Kindergarten Art Lesson: “Perspectives“

Goal:

Introduce still life drawing with simple shapes and fun set up.

Definitions:

Still Life: “Frozen Story“. A picture of objects sitting still, as if they were frozen in place.

Perspective: Bugs Eye vs Birds Eye View”. Parts of objects look bigger or smaller depending on where your eyes are looking from

Shading: “Shadow Blankets”. Adding dark or light colors where light is blocked or strongest. Gives shapes weight so they dont float away

Character: “Shape Personality”. Make a block look happy, sleepy, brave, or shy using tilt and posture lines.

2d to 3d: Square to cube, rectangle to Rectangular prism, circle to sphere.

Materials:

Blocks: 2-3 per group or individual (based on availability). Preferably a single unified color to better show shading.

Paper: 1 sheet per child.

Drawing Utensil: Thick Black Crayon or Pencil.

Shading Utensil: Pick a color, get a light and dark crayon of the chosen color.

Introduction and Example

Introduce the concepts of Still life:

Show a simple 2-3 block arrangement for a still life with a made up story and characters. Ask the children what the block are doing “Look at this tall block leaning over the short square. Is he being a helpful friend giving a hug, or is he a giant monster towering over him?"

Line Drawing: Demonstrate drawing them from a front on view, then a perspective view, then finally a characterized representation that takes the story into account.

Physicalize the concepts: Ask for students to act out perspective with their bodies (squat low, stand high) and character (tall brave pose, vs curled up shy pose). Moving their bodies grounds the spatial concepts before drawing on paper.

Shading: Demonstrate shading using a flashlight on the blocks to point out the dark shadows and the bright highlights. Illustrate shading by adding dark and light blocks to the line drawing. Explain that shading makes the block look like its heavy and standing firmly on the ground, rather than floating in space.

Freeze Tag Block Setup

Each student is given 2-3 blocks to play with. They are instructed to think of a story and characters using the blocks. An alarm is sounded for s students to Freeze the blocks in place. This is the start of their life drawing.

Hands on Drawing Blocks Shape and Form

Each student is given a sheet of paper and a Crayon for drawing the outlines of the blocks in front of them. Emphasize the importance of fun and remembering the story they created while playing over accuracy. Guide them to draw the basic geometric outlines large on the paper (fill the page).

Hands on Shading

Each student is given a light and dark crayon of a chosen color. They use the side of the crayons to fill the spaces on the sides and underneath their block characters to create shadow spots and light spots.

Wrap-up and Show and Tell

Have students hold up their drawings, ask 2-3 volunteers: describe your blocks names and story. Reiterate the key words : Still life, perspective, shading, and character.

Artist example: Pawns and Planets

If desired and enough time is allotted a small presentation on one of my personal art styles that is relevant to the lesson might reinforce the concepts in professional use.

LEGO Booth Concepts/Images: Thinking in 3D