Description of the Unit –

Students will first practice a variety of line drawing, or mark-making, techniques, and then use those techniques to render a landscape or still life in pen.

Activity statement –

Using photographs as a starting point, the objective of this lesson was for students to express changes in perspective, texture and value (light and dark) in a realistic drawing using a variety of lines, such as stippling, hatching, and cross-hatching, as well as varying the lines’ density. In this way they can transform a pen drawing into a realistic representation of a scene in nature. To help in this objective, students first created a mark-making chart expressing different types of lines, and discussed how the different types of lines could be used to represent texture, perspective and value.

Goals –

Students should…

Understand: How the use of different lines helps express dimension, texture and light/dark qualities in realistic drawing

Know: How to produce a basic variety of lines

Be able to: Identify (name) a basic sampling of different kinds of lines used in drawing, and to apply them thoughtfully to a realistic drawing

Objectives –

Students will: Thoughtfully produce a realistic drawing that employs basic line drawing techniques

Resources and materials –

• A student-produced mark-making chart
• Drawing pens (in this case I did not have access to different pen nib sizes, but if you do, you may also want to talk about how to thoughtfully use those)
• Drawing paper
• Photographs for reference (I like to use landscape and animal postcards)

Questions –

• What might you use hatching or cross-hatching to represent?
• What might you be able to represent with scribbling?
• When might you want to use stippling?
• Under what circumstances would you use contour lines?
• What kind of lines would you use to represent the texture of tree bark? Of grass? Of rippling water?
• How might you express the shadows on an apple?

Evaluation –

Did students:

• Properly identify different mark-making techniques?
• Understand how to apply those techniques to create a realistic rendering?
• Attempt to express dimension, value and texture with a variety of lines?
• Did students clearly articulate their choices?

Informal:

• Group discussions
• One finished piece

• 7th grade
• Drawing