Arts-Creative PDF Lesson Plan

Lesson 3: A New Perspective Connections Education Art 8 A Unit 3: The Essentials of Visual Arts Objectives: Identify the steps and concepts of drawing in two-point perspective; Describe the importance of value when drawing in perspective; Create an image in two-point perspec...

Lesson 3: A New Perspective Connections Education Art 8 A Unit 3: The Essentials of Visual Arts Objectives: Identify the steps and concepts of drawing in two-point perspective; Describe the importance of value when drawing in perspective; Create an image in two-point perspective that is harmonious; Assess the success of the image created Note: This lesson should take 2 days. Distance As an artist creates art, he often needs to create an illusion of space in the piece. He wants the viewer to see the distance that the image represents. Review the following images. Do you get a sense of three-dimensional depth and distance in the scenes? Objectives Identify the steps and concepts of drawing in two-point perspective Describe the importance of value when drawing in perspective Create an image in two-point perspective that is harmonious Assess the success of the image created Key Words horizon line one-point perspective  orthogonal lines perspective two-point perspective vanishing point You will have two days to complete this lesson. Creating Illusions As artists work to portray different scenes, they are creating illusions for the viewer. They are painting an image of a person so that it looks like the person is sitting in front of you, or they are creating an imaginary world that appears to be absolutely real. Another illusion that they create is that there is depth in an image. They want you to feel like the background of the image is actually far away from you. They want you to feel like the space inside the painting or drawing is endless. This is referred to as perspective. To do this, they are portraying what the world actually looks like, if you trust your eyes, and not what you think it should be. For example, look outside your window and find the visible object that is farthest away from you. Hold your thumb up so that it is beside that object in your line of sight. How big is that object compared to your thumb? It is probably smaller than your thumb. Logic tells you that your eyes are offering an illusion to make the object appear farther away. This is the type of trick that an artist uses when creating the illusion of perspective. There are a few key terms that you should be familiar with before you learn the steps of drawing in perspective. The first term is horizon line. This is the line, or illusion of a line, where the sky and the ground meet. As you stand and look in one direction, you will begin to notice that the items in your view tend to get smaller in the direction of a particular spot. This is the vanishing point. If you are looking down a street or sidewalk, you might also notice that the lines created by the edges of the street or sidewalk, and the tops and bottoms of any buildings, all descend to the vanishing point. These are the orthogonal lines. In actuality they are parallel, but due to perspective, they all meet at the vanishing point. The following photograph illustrates all of the key terms discussed. You can clearly see the line that is created by the sky and ground meeting in the distance. The orthogonal lines created by the sides of the road converge to a clear vanishing point. The lens of the camera clearly captures the same illusion that you see with your eyes when you draw or paint in perspective. Identify the horizon line, vanishing point, and orthogonal lines. Click on the link to check your answers. Answers The Rules of the Game Now that you are familiar with the key terms, you need to know a few basic rules for drawing in perspective. The first is that the items in the distance will always appear smaller than those in the foreground. If you draw two people and one is close to the viewer and the other is 100 feet away, the person in the distance will be a fraction of the size of the person in the foreground. The next rule is that there should always be a value change. The location of your light source will affect the value change in the image. If you are standing outdoors, the sun or moon is probably your main light source. That would mean that the items in the background will be brighter because they are closer to the sun or moon, and the items in the foreground will be darker because they are far away from the light source. If you are drawing an image with an artificial light source, such as a streetlight or a house light, you will still use the same concept. The closer the item is to the light source, the brighter it will be. The last rule is to always use your vanishing point, or points, to aid you in drawing. To make sure that the items in your image are getting smaller at the same rate, the vanishing point is an essential guide to help you. The following are two images that illustrate perspective. The first is one-point perspective, meaning that it only has one vanishing point. The second is two-point perspective, meaning that it has two vanishing points. Notice that even though there are different vanishing points, the rules still apply to the illusion created in the image. Create with Perspective You will now have the opportunity to draw using the concept of perspective. You will first complete a simple drawing of boxes in one-point perspective. This will give you some basic practice to help you understand the concept. Once you have completed the drawings of the boxes, you will draw a city street in two-point perspective. Focusing on Connections Be a Contemporary Artist As an artist, it is important to use every opportunity to practice and sharpen your skills and techniques. Have your art sketchbook handy to take notes and practice the concept presented here. Select the play buttons to access the “One-Point Perspective” and "Two-Point Perspective" videos. 0 O 0 00:00/ T 00:00 U I W  0 O 0 00:00/ T 00:00 U I W Critiquing Perspective Critique the two artworks you identified. Remember to include the following: Describe: What do you see? Analyze: How did the artist use the Elements and Principles of Art? Interpret: In your opinion, what is the message of the artwork? Judge: In your opinion, is the artwork successful? Take the assessment. A New Perspective Building a Reference Folder Becoming an artist requires you to have knowledge of what many different things look like. You may be asked to draw anything from a landscape to a field of frogs. You may not always have a good knowledge base of what all of the different items and scenery looks like. This becomes a difficult hurdle, especially when you are drawing something technical like a building or a car. To help you have access to imagery that can help you with future artistic endeavors, you can begin building a reference folder of photos that you can refer back to later. To start, take some pictures of both one-point and two-point perspective scenes. You can shoot the photos from a pathway, the corner of a walkway at the mall or street, or any place that would provide you with both an interesting perspective and interesting subject matter. If you take the pictures on a digital camera or a phone, save them so that they are easy to access at a later date. You can also take pictures of any item or scene that you find interesting. These images may inspire you to create, or aid in an assignment. Just as you would access research when writing a paper, you can access these images when drawing. If you cannot take photos, look through newspapers and magazines for photos that show one- and two-point perspectives. Cut them out, label them, and save them in your Personal Art Folder for future reference. © Connections Education LLC.