Saturday, February 28, 2015

2nd grade Family Portraits (step by step lesson)


This year I was so excited to come up with a new improved way to teach 2nd grade how to draw their families nice and BIG with overlapping! 
When families have their portraits made, they bunch up, they aren't just in a line, which is how kids like to draw people! 

These are the steps
1. draw the horizon line in the middle

2. I made little ovals for them to trace. Adult heads at the top of the paper, children on or just below the horizon lines, and teenagers between mom and kids. Make sure they don't make the child too far below the horizon line or there won't be room for legs.
The kids can be directly under and adult head to create OVERLAPPING which creates depth and makes it look more realistic. 

3. Make a "skeleton" to position the bodies. I tell kids to draw the neck and then a letter "I" for the shoulders and hips

4. Now draw arms and legs. we talk about how you like your family members and could be holding hands or have their arms around one another

5. then draw hair lines, eyes in the middle, and eyes could be looking at each other to create emotion and a feeling of love between family members! Then erase the sticks, draw clothes, and decorate (glasses, mustache, add pets and items/props that represent their interests)






6. Use liquid watercolor to paint. We painted the skin, hair, and grass during the first painting class period





7. In the second painting class, we painted the clothes and sky. Separating these parts between two days helps eliminate sky and grass from blending into the people

Here are some of our finished products! They turned out BEAUTIFUL!!