Face Your Fears 

The idea for this project came from a student. Our last project was in reference to the Fauves and Fauvism. We are still 100% virtual for my gifted art classes and sometimes hearing things clearly is not the easiest. When I was saying "Fauves" one student thought I was saying "Phobes" and thought we were doing Phobia drawings. Thus the birth of this project idea. 

Face your fears incorporates our previously learned knowledge of value and shading. 

In class we reviewed the 4 ways we learned to add value (stippling, hatching/crosshatching, scumbling, and blending)  We talked about drawing facial features and decided to start with the eyes. 

We watched a tutorial video on drawing eyes: 

After the video, I walked them through drawing an eye step by step including proper shading techniques. We talked about expression- and how the eyes can convey different expressions. I asked them to practice drawing different eyes and we used this image as a reference:

Next up was the nose, which students feel is the hardest feature to draw, and I agree! We talked about the mistakes students make (drawing the sides of the nasal canal, drawing complete circles for the nostrils, etc) I mentioned how most of the nose is made simply with shading to make it appear 3D as opposed to drawing the entire outline.

We watched this tutorial video:

After the video I walked them through drawing and shading a nose. 

When the noses were complete, we moved on to the mouth.

After watching the tutorial video, I walked them through drawing a mouth step by step.

The last feature we focused on was the ear. We watched a tutorial video on how to draw ears: 

After the video I walked them through drawing and shading an ear step-by-step.

When we finished practicing drawing facial features, I asked them to tell me some different fears that they or people they know might have. I got everything from fear of spiders to the fear of holes and everything in between. Once we had a list, I asked them to choose one fear and think about how they can illustrate that fear. 
When students had decided on a fear, they had to choose a facial feature that they would draw to "face" their fears. I asked them to think creatively and figure out how to incorporate the fear of their choice coming out of their chosen facial feature using proper shading techniques. 

These drawings aren't meant to be huge, they are mostly no larger than 6"x6" 
I will update the post as soon as students begin to complete their drawings. 

Student Project Examples: