Art Lessons
Art Lessons
Lessons for artists, students, and teachers. Includes proofs (examples) and instructions.
A Collection of Drawing and Other Art Lessons
Grade 5/6 Oil Pastel Cake Lesson. This lesson is completely free. It includes a PowerPoint and a smiple template, formatted for the printer. The template is just to help them with the top and bottom curves of the cake. It is very simple but very effective. Please try the lesson yourself before you teach it!
This is a 19 slide powerpoint lesson that walks you through how to make a proportionate human figure. It takes middle school and high school students about one hour to complete the instructions and move on to the challenges. Grade 5s and younger students can complete the lesson but will need more time to work through it.
An addendum to Mastering One-Point Perspective Drawing. This PowerPoint gives you a completely straightforward exercise to learn how to create evenly spaced objects in one point perspective.
This is a very straightforward lesson. It gives visual and written instructions that help you:
1. Find the proportions of an image
2. Recreate those proportions on a page.
3. Create a simple grid on the image to help you draw.
It has a practice image to draw, a landscape (pictured to the left) by Albert Pinkham Ryder.
This PowerPoint presentation comprises 35 slides tailored for in-depth learning. Teachers can structure a full 50-minute class around the main challenge exercise, with extension activities provided. The final exercise, designed to be a standalone project integrating the Creative Process, can extend across multiple classes. I would have this as a one-lesson class for grade 6, and a two-lesson class for grades 7 or 8. For higher grades and independent learners with their own computers, I would do one lesson as a class and then have them try out the challenges and pick one to extend into a larger project.
A downloadable colour theory PowerPoint lesson that gives a brief description of monochrome, triads, complementary (split, near, double, and mutual). The slideshow features examples from Josef Albers. It is designed to allow a class to vote on colour schemes to create individual or group projects.
This is a Joan Miró lesson using ideas gathered from online sources. It includes a class relaxation exercise, a warm up familiarization draw, a cute TATE Kids video explaining Surrealism, a Joan Miró game (found online and modified), and step by step instructions to create abstract Joan Miró inspired art.
This lesson was designed to teach students Art History, to help them study for their Art test, and to encourage them to build drawing and composition skills by asking them to draw famous art in just 4 minutes. The lesson is high in student buy-in (they pick the art), and it has proven very successful. Because each artwork is drawn for a very short period, it can be used as a warm-up, with students drawing a few images each class.
A simple introduction to Perspective, this lesson encourages students to make their own manipulatives. Requires the use of a printer and the paint software that comes with computers and is free to download and use.
This lesson helps students add complexity to 2-point perspective “cubes” (rectangular prisms) by adding a “cut out” section. The lesson is broken down into 23 easy-to-follow slides.
This geometry art lesson gives you step-by-step instructions to create a step pyramid in two-point perspective. The PowerPoint works through building pyramid steps below, at, and above the horizon line. This lesson is set at an Intermediate level. Grade 9+.
This geometry art lesson gives you step-by-step instructions to create a staircase in one-point perspective. The PowerPoint can be given to students in grade 7 and above. Younger students will need guidance. The lesson can be taught online or in person.
This drawing and writing lesson includes a core lesson and two warm-up lessons. The Ivan Brunetti Self Portrait lesson gives your students a 2-minute method of making a full-body portrait. The Quick Draw lesson teaches them that they can draw objects using their imagination. The cumulating lesson, Barry’s amazing Daily Diary Draw gives students a technique for journaling. There is a writing component that allows students to structure their thoughts and choose what to draw and share.
This drawing lesson provides a full hour of exercises but may be taught in 40 minutes. There are 5 exercises: 2 meditative line drawing exercises, and 3 observational drawing exercises. The meditative lessons come from Drawing in Black & White by Deborah Velasquez. In Warm-Up students spend 2 minutes drawing a single line. They then switch gears for Gesture Drawing and draw a series of images. These images come from the Denver Art Museum. The images follow a progressive order of complexity. Students then relax for 2-3 minutes, following simple instructions to create a doodle in Follow the Line. The final two exercises are Contour Drawing and Blind Contour Drawing. Instructions are provided for each kind of observational drawing.
This drawing lesson includes detailed instructions to lead a blind contour drawing session. You can even download a script which breaks the session down into multiple rounds providing guidance and countdowns.
This art lesson describes how to make a fusion beast – two creatures combined into one! There are lots of examples of fusion beasts, both drawn and constructed. There are also some videos describing how artists have made their creations.
