Fourth Grade Meets Edgar Degas

Fourth graders have been studying French artist Edgar Degas this week.  They watched a movie about Degas’ life and career, learning that he was interested in showing movement in his figure drawings of ballerinas.  Then…it was time to be models ourselves as we practiced figure drawings.

I don’t repeat too many art projects – but this one is always so much fun, and is such a great way to help kids get over any anxiety about figure drawing, AND to pack lots of figure drawing practice into a class session…that I can’t pass it up!  My students do quick gesture drawings as they model for each other – GASP! – up on the art room tables!!  Check out the dramatic poses!

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5 thoughts on “Fourth Grade Meets Edgar Degas

  1. Pingback: More Figure Drawing – Georgetown Elementary Art Blog

  2. Do you have a link to the video that you watched? I have never done figure drawings, but this looks like a great lesson!

  3. Hi Jacklin – we watched “Degas and the Dancer” – the video is about an hour long. Here’s a link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182571/ A little long, but the kids loved it. We watched half of the video in one class and finished it another day as the kids worked on their project.

  4. Hi Valerie – nope, no rubric; the activity was just to loosen the kids up and get them over the hump of trying to draw the figure “just right”. We focused on doing lots of drawings, and the kids got better at them as we did more. At the end of the class, the kids selected their best drawing and we did a gallery walk around the room, looking at everyone’s work.

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