Realism+to+Abstraction+Acrylic

Realism to Abstraction //Adapted// //from original lesson by the creative and talented Jason Maddock.//

This unit can be done as a straight drawing unit or it can include a painting project. Either way start by introducing the keynote. Next move into drawing exercises. There are some good Youtube tutorials on how to teach gesture drawing that I like to show before I do a demo. After the students finish the drawing exercises, have them do the file, "Exercise 4 Still Life Drawing" last because it combines different shading techniques with gesture drawing skills. Once you are happy with the amount of practice the students have had with drawing from life, have students review the steps from the keynote that Theo van Doesburg took in creating his, "Abstraction of a Cow, Four Stages" work. Tell the studenst they are going to be working on their first and most realistic, fully rendered drawing first. Each time the students move on to the next stage, show them the next image in van Doesburg's series and talk to them about what certain things he is editing to help them visualize how to edit their own drawing. Each drawing should be done on a separate piece of drawing paper and when finished students can be given the choice on how to mount them for final display.

EXTENSION PROJECT IDEA: This is what I did with my 7th grade that was very successful. I had them go on a photo scavenger hunt to take pics of the Elements of Art or Principles of Art around school. (You can find the scavenger hunt worksheet below.) They chose their favorite photo and then did the abstraction steps based on their photo. From there, we studied Acrylic painting techniques, in particular how to paint a straight edge, masking off shapes and how to create subtle value changes. They were then given a small canvas and were asked to take their most abstract image from their 4 sketches and transfer it to the canvas. I had them select 2 colors total for their whole painting and told them they could make tints and shades of the colors to complete the painting. I encouraged them to use complementary pairs.