Tints and Shades, Contour Animals and Bigfoot!?

Rory, 2nd grade

My experiment for the lesson

Savannah, 4th grade

Breanna, 2nd grade

Paige, 2nd grade

Abby, 2nd grade

Matthew, 2nd grade

Alexa, 1st grade

Ryan, 4th grade

Zach, 4th grade

love his lone angry pig

Ella, 2nd grade

This quirky art project began as a simple contour animal drawing lesson. I found this adorable pig and rabbit via Pinterest. I liked the line qualities and thought each child could create their own story to go with their contour animals a la Beatrix Potter. Last week a few of my 4th grade girls pleaded with me to do a Bigfoot art lesson. Bigfoot!? I didn't see that coming. Well, I thought a tint and shade backdrop for their creatures would be a great basic lesson for my group to learn. And as an added bonus, those who wanted, could add in a silhouette of Bigfoot. From there, they could make up their own stories to go with their art if they chose. They really had a ball with these. And I was so amused at all their commentary while creating their pieces.

We started with our animals first doing a direct line drawing lesson. After they went over their drawings with Sharpie, they used chalk pastels or colored pencils to add color. These would be cut out and glued to their background. They could choose blue or purple to create their tint and shade moonlit landscape. We started with a large half circle of white and added more and more color for our tints and then switched to black to create our shades. This of course is a great lesson all on its' own. Details including trees and of course the lurking silhouette of bigfoot were added last.