Pencil Grid Drawing

This was the first big project for my art I students, and the culmination of what they had learned of basic drawing skills from smaller projects.

Materials:

• Drawing pencils
• Erasers 
• Large drawing paper
• Rulers
• Photo sources printed out for each student

Process: 

1. Each student chose a  black and white photo of a variety of still lives. I tried to have a variety of pictures prepared that would interest each student. 
2. Students use their ruler to draw a grid on their photograph and then a larger grid on their drawing paper. They also had to include a 1 inch border on the drawing. We doubled the sized of the photos. So, we went from a half inch grid to a 1 inch grid.
3. Begin an outline of the objects in the drawing and indicate where the shadows will be. 
4. BEFORE starting with actually shading, the students must erase each section of their grid as they go. If they don't do this they will still have the grid visible on their paper when they are done. 
5. Its important that the students try to create a full range of values. 
6. To finish, go back and erase any smudges that got on the border.