This week grade 9 and 10 studied light and how it affects our portrait images for our Identity unit (for more info, see earlier post Ink Wash Portraits)

First students used spot lights in a darkened classroom to create dramatic lighting on each others faces, and took photos to capture the effects. Then we used compressed charcoal on large (A2) white paper to draw from the photographs, focussing on the shapes the shadow made. Working this large was new to many of them, so we discussed moving from the shoulder, standing, and being brave!

After that, we switched to black paper and white conté crayons. It was very challenging to draw the light parts of our faces, rather than the lines and shadows. Still in some cases, this version was more successful as students were pushed even further out of their comfort zone.

The next lesson, I let student free to chose any of the media we used before and to work smaller. Focussing on expressing themselves through the media and style as it pleased them. Some students chose to create a drawing of someone else.