Fun With Figure Drawing

Back by popular demand…Fourth Grade Figure Drawings!  Fourth graders learned how to do gesture drawings and had a blast posing for each other.  We viewed and discussed the figure drawings of Edgar Degas – and then the giggles commenced as they stood on the art room tables and posed for 30 second gesture drawings.  We do this project every year, and it never gets old!

We followed up our figure drawing practice by drawing from our mannequins.  Fourth graders were excited to show off their new figure drawing expertise!

Fourth Grade Figure Drawings

Fourth grade artists wrapped up their study of Edgar Degas and figure drawing as they created these ballerinas and martial arts figures.

They learned about Edgar Degas and how he captured movement as he drew ballerinas as they rehearsed.

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After posing and drawing each other and drawing from wood mannequins, they had fun showing movement in these cute drawings.

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This project was inspired by fourth grader Nathan, who loves to draw martial arts figures!

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I CAN: tell two facts about the artist Edgar Degas; draw a huma figure showing movement.

Fourth Grade Figure Studies

Georgetown Fourth Grade artists recently finished a huge figure drawing unit.  They began by looking at the art of Edgar Degas, who was a master at drawing the human figure and known for his pastel drawings of ballerinas.

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Then they tried their own figure drawings…modeling for each other and doing a series of quick gesture drawings in their sketchbooks.

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Next we moved on to drawing wooden mannequin figures!

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Finally – they created a background by straw blowing paint and outlining their beautiful blotches…and adding their figure drawings and other practice forms on their background.  Magnificent!

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I CAN:

* Identify the work of Edgar Degas

* Capture movement in a figure by gesture drawing

* Draw a mannequin figure in correct proportion

See more 4th Grade figure drawings at our ARTSONIA on-line gallery!

 

More Figure Drawing

After completing their figure gesture drawing practice, my 4th grade artists are now practicing drawing figures using wood mannequins.  Such concentration!

We are following up this figure drawing work with a large single figure drawing.  My students are learning about body proportion and are even using some fractions as they work to make their figures “eight heads tall”.

 

 

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!

Fourth Grade Nutcrackers – Sweet!

Fourth Grade artists have been working on nutcracker drawings the last few art classes.  We just finished up with a study about Edgar Degas and spent some time looking at his drawings of ballerinas, and followed up with some time posing for each other and drawing figures from mannequins.

When I showed my 4th graders a nutcracker, they immediately noticed how the mannequins and nutcracker figures were similar, and were excited to begin their drawings.

Nutcracker & Mannequin

We started in pencil on 10″ x 24″ drawing paper, and have been adding color with crayon (glitter crayons are a favorite!) after tracing the lines with marker.

We’ll finish up this week with a little color in the background, and for fun I’ll read a short story version of The Nutcracker while the kids work.

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