7th & 8th Grade

Sketchbook Assignments

Select and complete five different drawings to complete in your sketchbook.  Make sure your drawing fills the page and all directions are followed completely.  Label each drawing with the corresponding number in the bottom right hand corner.

Two techniques to practice that make objects in your drawing look closer or further away: Overlapping Change in baseline

#1 "Bottle Landscapes" Everyone knows that things that are further away from us look smaller. But what if you can't rely on size to tell the story? This assignment uses plastic bottles, which can be any size. How do you make a big detergent bottle look like it's sitting behind a little eyedrops bottle? Things that are partially covered by another object are seen as being behind the object: (overlapping) Things that are further away are drawn higher on the picture plane. Their bases (bottoms) will be placed higher on the page than the bottles that are supposed to be closer. Assignment: Take one bottle at a time to your table, and do a contour line drawing of it, starting anywhere on your page. Then do the same thing with another bottle. Fill your page with overlapping bottle shapes. Bottles that are meant to be in front must have a base that is lower on the page than the object that is behind it. Warning: If the bottom of your front object is higher than the one behind it, your front object will appear to be floating in the air!

After the contour drawings are done: Add some color accents Finish the page in an interesting way

#2 "Full of Contours Page" Do a page full (20 to 25) of "mini" blind and modified blind contour drawings. (May take 2 facing pages.) These are quick studies of people/children in different positions doing things. Perhaps --- go to a park or a sporting event of some kind. Observe and Quickly draw people being active Do this in pen please!!

#3 "Everybody's Junk Drawer"

1.I think every household has a
"junk drawer" - that drawer that's filled with all the "stuff" no one knows what to do with. Open the drawer, don't move anything, and draw what you see as a modified contour drawing.
--Do the drawing very lightly in pencil-no black marker
--You can make the drawing
in a 7" x 9" rectangle.
--Don't be obsessed with realism! Let the drawing be loose! Fill the page! (or the rectangle.)

2.After completing the pencil drawing,
now outline in felt tip marker.
Then layer colored pencil in interesting ways.
What color scheme/approach can you invent?

Shading: lighter on top, darker beneath

#4 "Roller Coaster Contrast" You will be creating at least six continuous bands of color. (You can think of them as loops - like flat and really long rubber bands. ) Each band must reach at least 2 sides of the paper. Each band must cross or be crossed by at least 2 other bands. Bands should be at least 1/4" wide, with consistent width. One path will appear to be above another at each crossing site (you'll have to plan, and erase one set of lines.)

Shading info: Let's assume that things that are closest to us will get more light, and appear lighter, and that things further away from us receive less light, and are therefore darker. As we look at the bands you have drawn, bands passing under others seem far away from us, and bands on top seem near. To emphasize this, shade each band darker when it goes under another, and lighter where it passes above. (Layer combinations of colors to achieve best darks!) #5 "Stained Glass Stroll" Begin by drawing 1 outline shape, then overlap partially with the same shape again, letting the first one show through. Overlap again and again, creating interesting paths across your page, filling it. Remember to plan your paths to create interesting negative shapes around them, too. Color: With colored pencil, begin at any point and color the original shape in entirely. (Light pressure works best!) Choose another color and color the next whole overlapping shape, even where they cross. (Easiest with analogous colors!) #6 "Design Your Own Superhero" Your superhero must be original. Please do not turn in Superman, Cat Women, Spider Man, or any other copies! Invent your own, please. Capes, tights are optional! Create your very own Superhero. Your drawing must be in color and it should take up the entire page. Include your action hero's name, his/her superpowers and super-talents. Also, write what this hero's biggest pet peeve is... what do you have to do to really tick this person off? And if you did... what would they do to you? (Be inventive, not gory, please.) #7 "Earth's Invaded" But you are the only human on earth who has met them! It is up to you to tell their story! Make a full page, color composition and tell the world the news that everyone is waiting breathlessly to hear: What do they look like? What can they do? Where are they from? What language do they speak? Why are they here? What are their names? How did they get here? Ok to include words, descriptions, or labels with your drawings. Make them attractive, as part of your page layout. Plan the whole page of your color composition-- You can include backgrounds and you can use more than 1 picture - like snapshots, closeups, families #8 "Visual Puns" Choose a saying or an idiom that usually doesn't mean what it actually says. Example: "Raining Cats and Dogs." Illustrate the saying in a color composition according to a literal interpretation (exactly what it says) or an alternative interpretation Don't illustrate its idiomatic meaning. Include the saying as part of the design of your full page composition Some sample sayings are below. Sample Sayings ( or use others that you know ) apple-pie order, apple of his eye, at the tip of my tongue, beauty is only skin deep, too big for his britches, blow hot and cold, blow your stack, bread the ice, cast pearls before swine, cat got your tongue, change of heart, chase a rainbow, chew him out, cold turkey, that's the way the cookie crumbles, cool it, costs a pretty penny, crocodile tears, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, a fish out of water, with flying colors, follow your nose, go bananas, grasp at straws, like greased lightening, I have half a mind to..., hang loose, heart to heart talk, can't hold a candle to..., if the shoe fits, wear it, get up on the wrong side of the bed, in one ear & out the other, in a pickle, in the doghouse, keep your eyes peeled, knuckle down, laugh out of the other side of your mouth, my lips are sealed, off his rocker, off the wall, on the ball on the wagon, over the hill, pass the buck, pay through the nose, play it by ear, play musical chairs poker face, put your best foot forward, rat race, snow job, square meal, stuffed shirt, talk in circles, two-faced, walk on eggs. #9 "Continuous Line Face"   Draw a face using lines that go all the way across the page from the left side to the right side without stopping. They can wander, double back, repeat, echo, curve, and change direction but they can't stop before they get to the other side. Use your imagination. Don't copy my sample. Do a whole face and make it big on the page! Use color! Fill the page!Exaggeration is good; gargoyles OK; remember to skip the demon/vampire icons, please.

#10"Magazine Reflection" Step 1 Use facing pages in your sketchbook. Side by side if your book opens that way, or up-down if your book opens that way. Step 2 Find a full page magazine photo (not a magazine illustration) that you like. B/W or color, but B/W is easier on this. Cut the photo into 10 pieces that are about the same area. They don't have to be the same shape. Shapes can be regular or not. Try to cut through interesting areas of the photo (like the face!)

Step 3 Select alternating pieces, and paste them in their correct positions on the right side of the paper. Paste the remainders on the left, also in their correct positions. Step 4: Choose one side and shade in the missing areas in pencil, using the opposite page of pieces as reference for what to draw. Try to recreate the values (lights and darks) of the original photo.