VALUE DRAWING - SEEING THE VALUE IN ART

I. CLASS: 7
th
grade class

II. TIME NEEDED: 8 Class periods, 55 minutes

III. ART HISTORICAL BACKGROUND RELATED TO LESSON:
M.C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher was born (1898) in a small town in the Netherlands
called Leeuwarden . The majority of his drawings are actually lithograph prints,
which were often monochromatic and were done on plates in order to produce
multiple copies of his work. His work is considered highly surrealistic because it
depicts things realistically but in impossible situations. For this reason, one could
even consider him as a pioneer of Op Art (optical illusion art). Its commonly thought
that Escher used mathematical principles in constructing many of his works, but he
said that he actually had little to no knowledge of any such established principles and
instead created his works (e.g. his tessellations) based on techniques that he himself
invented. The real inspiration for his tessellations came from traveling around Italy
and encountering the Alhambra Palacea fourteenth-century castle in Granada,
Spain, in which there were intricate patterns woven throughout its architecture.
Having no formal mathematical training, he took his inspirations and developed
intuitive methods for creating his works. It was not until later in life that he did
eventually study mathematics under the British mathematician Roger Penrose.
Another notable artist is the local, although now nationally renowned, artist Leslie
Adams. She recently had an small exhibition in one of the galleries of the Toledo
Museum of Art in downtown Toledo last year (2012). A graduate of the University of
Toledo, Adams work includes very large scales charcoal drawings in which she also
uses white charcoal to bring out a high contrast between shadows and highlights.
She lives in Toledo and has a studio downtown, although she travels around the
country doing commissions for many political, religious, and high level figures, as she
specializes in figure drawing and portraiture. You can even see some of her murals
downtown as well, including in the Oliver House.



IV. SUBJECT: Students will create a value drawing based off M.C. Eschers Drawing
Hands (1948) and Reptiles (1943) using black and white charcoal to produce a range
of values that make the work look 3 dimensional by learning to see the inherent
shadows and highlights of objects from observation (drawing from real life).

V. EQUIPMENT / AV MATERIALS: PowerPoint presentation about M.C. Escher and
his works, book on M.C. Escher (with examples of his work), and physical, laminated
prints of his work.

VI. SUPPLIES: For roughly 30-36 students No.2 pencils (student should have their
own i.e. are responsible for bringing their own pencils to class), erasers, black and
white charcoal pencils and paper towels for smearing (6 of each per table), and
tinted construction paper for exercises (6x9) and final project (24x11).

VII. OBJECTIVES:
Academic Skills: Students will learn about the way our brains interpret light and how
shadows and highlights give the impression of 3 dimensionality to flat drawings.
Craftsmanship Skills: Students will use drawing tools, including No.2 pencils, black
and white charcoal pencils, and paper towels for smearing, to create a range of
values to objects in their drawing to create the illusion of depth
Cognitive Skills: Show an understanding of the difference between 2D objects and
3D objects (in drawing i.e. on flat paper)

VIII. BENCHMARKS AND STANDARDS:
A. Ohio Benchmarks and Standards in the Visual Arts:
1PE: Explore how personal experiences, interest, cultural heritage and gender
influence an artists style and choice of subject matter
2PE: Identify professions that use artistic skills and problem-solving
3PR: Represent depth and volume in their 2 dimensional works of art
6RE: Develop and use criteria to guide reflection and assessment of selected
personal artworks.

Benchmarks and Standards in Other Disciplines:
Mathematics:
- Geometry and Spatial Sense: Students identify and compare characteristics
of 2D and 3D elements within art and use tools and techniques to create
shapes and forms
Science:
- Physical World: Students will learn about how the brain works in
understanding the relationships between lights and darks (shadows and
highlights) and how one has to train the brain to draw what it sees and not
what it thinks it knows about objects
English:
- Language Acquisition: Students are introduced to the specialized vocabulary
of value drawing such as: Values, tones, shades, highlights, cast shadows,
light source, depth, shadows, and still-life.

IX. LEARNER OUTCOMES: Students will be able to show the difference (within their
drawings) between what makes objects look flat (2D) and what makes them look 3D
through the use of values.



X. SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS: Students will be given the opportunity to bring in
different objects from home to personalize their still-life drawings. Students need to
be warned that objects need to be appropriate and used appropriately during class
time i.e. used for drawing and not for playing around with e.g. a basketball being
used to throw about the room instead of sitting still on their tables for drawing.

XI. ALTERNATIVES TO THE LESSON: Some struggling students can be given the
option to draw less objects (less than the 5 required amount) and/or draw simpler
objects that dont have as many details. Other students can be given the option to
have their drawing exploding out of the page if they feel like they want that
challenge or want to try a different route.

XII. THEORIES/THEORISTS RELATED TO LESSON: Vygotsky and his idea of the
Zone of Proximal Development will be utilized in this lesson as students will be new
to the experience of value drawing, and yet have at their disposal the fundamentals
necessary for achieving a successful value drawing e.g. experience with line
drawings. The students are in that area (between what they can do and what they
cant do) where they can achieve the illusion of depth in drawing with some help.

XIII. ACADEMIC LANGUAGE: The students will be hearing and utilizing words such as
art vocabulary words as: Values, tones, shades, highlights, cast shadows, light
source, depth, shadows, and still-life.. Non-art vocabulary terms to be aware of are:

XIV. PROCEDURE:

1. Introduction: The project will be introduced by showing examples of M.C.
Eschers and Leslie Adams works of art which utilize
A. Motivation Perform pre-assessment asking students to draw a sphere and
another 3D shape of their choice. They will also do a blind drawing exercise
where they will be asked to draw their hands without looking at their paper.
This will undoubtedly be difficult for students, but I will walk around and keep
reminding them that this is to help train their brain to draw what they see and
not what they think they know about their hand. Also, for each step in their
final drawings (drawings on their good final paper) I will perform a 5 10
minute demonstration of how to draw my hand from observation, modeling
how to problem solve and measure the proportions as well as thinking out
loud to let them hear and see how I create 1
st
the outline of my hand, then the
details (e.g. wrinkles) and then finally how to add value using charcoal pencils
to the drawing of my hand.
B. New and Reviewed Experiences Students will have familiarity with drawing
from many previous art lessons. However, adding values to their drawings
will be a new experience for most students, and using charcoal pencils will
also likely be completely new for most students.
2. Distribution of Materials and Implements: Students are responsible for getting
their group folders out which contain their drawings and bringing their own No.2
pencils to class. Charcoal pencils and paper towels will be already at their tables
in small baskets.
3. Work Period: Students will be given the majority of class time (30 40 minutes)
to work on their drawings.


A. (work) Day 1: Complete value drawing worksheet consisting of a 6-point
value scale and 4 objects (1 sphere, 1 cube, 1 cone, and 1 cylinder) to be
shaded in, as well as adding a cast shadow to one of their objects.
B. Day 2: Finish value drawing worksheet if they have not finished it. Then do
the blind drawing of their hand on the back of the value drawing worksheet.
When this is done, students will re-draw a sphere using charcoal pencils
(black & white) to see how they compare to the No.2 pencils they used for the
value drawing worksheet.
C. Day 3: Begin by setting up a still-life on their group tables to draw from
observation. Students should work on getting all their outlines drawn (lightly!)
for all their objects.
D. Day 4: Continue to work on drawing the outlines and adding any details to
their objects.
E. Day 5: Begin using charcoal pencils (black and white) to add value to their
objects that they want to look 3D.
F. Day 6: Continue working on drawings by adding value to their 3D objects
G. Day 7: Continue working on drawings
Clean Up: Each group will be responsible for collecting and cleaning up their
tables and storing their projects and all materials used in their creation.
4. Teacher-pupil Appraisal of the Art Activity: During the activity I will be walking
around to check if each student is making progress and at the end of each
session a quick formative assessment will be applied by asking review questions
about art vocabulary terms and concepts including art historical questions.

XV. EVALUATION OF STUDENT WORK: The students will be evaluated on how they
spent their time, the quality of their craftsmanship, and whether they completed all
tasks of the assignmentDrew three 3D objects and two 2D objects, used a range
of values to give the illusion of depth, and whether they used flat shading for flat
surfaces and rounded shading for rounded objects and gave them cast shadows

Assessment of student ability
to complete art activity
Excellent Good Average Needs
improvement
Criteria 1 Drew three 3D
objects and two 2D objects
10 9 8 7 6 or less
Criteria 2 Used a range of
values to give the illusion of
depth
10 9 8 7 6 or less
Criteria 3 Used flat shading for
flat surfaces and rounded
shading for rounded objects
10 9 8 7 6 or less
Criteria 4 Effort: took time to
develop idea & complete project.
(Didnt rush.) Good use of class
time.
10 9 8 7 6 or less
Criteria 5 Craftsmanship
Neat, clean & complete. Skillful
use of the art tools & media.
10 9 8 7 6 or less
Possible points: 100 100 91 points = A 90 - 80 points = B 79 70 points = C
69 60 points = D 59 0 points = F