Art Lessons
Art Lessons
Lessons for artists, students, and teachers. Includes proofs (examples) and instructions.
A Collection of Drawing and Other Art Lessons
This is a short unit on graffiti. It begins with definitions of high and low art (outdated, but useful terms), and touches upon major artists (Basquiat, Banksy). It also gives examples of contemporary art and contains a number of videos. The final slide is a link to an excellent YouTube video and channel. It does not include lesson plans as the unit was designed by another teacher and that work is not my intellectual property. Please feel free to pull slides, videos, and other references.
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.
For these 3 Intermediate and High School lessons, we are mixing paint together. We mix primary, secondary, and tertiary colours, tints, tones, and shades. I used Primary Magenta in the place of Primary Red to produce brighter colors. These lessons are set up for students to work in groups of 4 – this reduces tidy-up and allows the group to direct each other. Between lessons, students switch jobs.
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.
