Emphasis Drawing

     This was a project that I did with my Art II students. It was their first serious project at the beginning of the year. We started off by simply completing an observational drawing. I gave each student an artist mannequin to draw from as well as an HB drawing pencil and eraser  For the lesson, I demonstrated how to sight with a pencil and how to block in a drawing. Then I let the students pick a position for their mannequin to stand. Each student spent two or three days drawing their mannequin in pencil.
     After most had completed the first stage I gave the student's another lesson which was a lecture on emphasis. For this lesson we looked at a PowerPoint with several examples of ways to go about creating emphasis in a work of art.  After the emphasis lesson, I explained to the students that next step in their project would be to design a background for their mannequin drawing using colored pencils that would create a strong sense of emphasis on their original pencil drawing.  Before they could start on the background the students had to complete 3 thumbnail sketches and have one of them approved by me.   I also gave a short demonstration about using colored pencils and how to blend and layer them.


Here are a few examples of their work...