7th/8th Drawing Curriculum
7th/8th Drawing Curriculum
- Project 1: Pen and Ink Story Comic
- In this project, students create a 3-5 panel comic strip that uses sequential images to communicate a clear story, character, and setting. Working with pen and ink, students experiment with mark-making techniques such as hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and varied line weight to create value, texture, depth, and dimension.
- This project aligns with Art Standards, including:
- VA: Cr1.1.8: Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in traditional or new media.
- VA: Cr2.3.8: Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations.
- Through this project, students strengthen their storytelling, composition, and technical drawing skills while learning how line and value can communicate mood, movement, and visual information
- Project 2: Graphite Self-Portrait
- In this project, students complete a detailed graphite self-portrait from start to finish, beginning with taking a well-lit reference photograph and using a grid-transfer method to establish accurate proportions. Students will refine their sketches before building realistic value, tone, and form through controlled graphite shading and mark-making.
- This project aligns with Art Standards, including:
- VA: Cr3.1.8: Apply Relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a work of art or design in progress
- VA: RE7.1.8: Explain how a person’s aesthetic choices are influenced by culture and environment and impact the visual image that one conveys to others.
- Through this multi-step process, students strengthen their observational drawing, proportion, craftsmanship, and shading skills while learning how artists use reference imagery and technical methods to create realistic portraits.
- Project 3: Charcoal Still Life
- In this project, students are going to create a still life featuring objects that represent their identity, interests, experiences, or personal stories. Using charcoal as a new drawing medium, students experiment with value, contrast, blending, layering, and mark-making techniques to create realistic forms, textures, and depth.
- This project aligns with Art Standards, including:
- VA:Cr1.2.8: Demonstrate persistence in developing skills with varying materials, methods, and approaches in creating works of art or design.
- VA: CR1.1.8: Apply methods to overcome creative blocks
- Through this project, students expand their technical skills with charcoal while using value and expressive mark-making to communicate personal identity through observational drawing
- Project 4: Colored Pencil Surrealism Collage
- In this project, students create imaginative surrealist drawings by combining and transforming elements from multiple reference images into one unexpected composition. Using colored pencils, students develop careful layering, blending, shading, and mark-making techniques to create realistic details within an imaginative scene.
- This project aligns with Art Standards, including:
- VA:Re7.2.8: Compare and contrast contexts and media in which viewers encounter images that influence ideas, emotions, and actions
- VA:Re8.1.8: Interpret art by analyzing how the interaction of subject matter, characteristics of form and structure, use of media, art-making approaches, and relevant contextual information contributes to understanding messages or ideas and mood conveyed
- VA:Cr2.3.8: Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations
- Through this project, students strengthen their observational and colored pencil skills while exploring how combining unrelated images can create surprising narratives, concepts, and visual experiences.