Abstract Watercolors and Figure Drawings

This project was completed with my gifted art students in grades 7 and 8. 

Students began this project by talking about what abstract art really is. We looked at various contemporary artists like Brenden Spivey, and of course the masters like Wassily Kandinsky. 

Students were given a 9x12 piece of watercolor paper to complete their abstract watercolor painting. Before they began, we talked about what a color scheme is, and how to choose what colors they wanted to use. I suggested that they use 3-4 colors for their background and then choose a contrasting color to add in at the end, however I did not limit their choices. 

After the completion of their painting (and after it dried) they were instructed to outline their paintings using a sharpie marker. This task proved to be difficult when looking at every brush stroke they painted. I found that outlining was very soothing for me personally, many students felt the same way. They had the option to outline the entire painting, or only certain parts. Many chose to outline the painting in it's entirety. 

When the paintings were completed, we began talking about gesture drawings. We talked about how they are fast drawings which simply capture the essence of a person in motion. 

To practice creating gesture drawings, I asked for volunteers and students posed for us to draw them. Students found this exercise to be a lot of fun. Another option that some students chose was to look up images online of people in motion (sports photos, etc.) and complete their gesture drawings that way. I had students complete between 5-10 gesture drawings. 

Following our discussions and practice with gesture drawings, we began looking at refining the gesture drawings into figure drawings. Unfortunately I did not have enough wooden mannequins for my students to use, so I found an alternative in the form of an online posable form. Students used the website below to manipulate the person into whatever position they chose. I had them complete two figure drawings focusing on proportion.

Posable Mannequin

Lastly they chose one of their two figure drawings to recreate in a slightly larger scale. Once they completed the drawing, they outlined it with sharpie and they were instructed to add some color using the same color scheme they used in their watercolor background. We used colored pencils for this task. 

 Some students who used a warm color scheme for their background decided to use a contrasting color scheme for their figure. I let them have a bit of freedom in their choices throughout this project so that I would have some variation in the outcomes. 

The last step in our process was to cut out their final figure leaving a small amount of white paper around their drawing. Finally they glued their figure on their painting after moving it around to find the perfect place. I am so proud at how well they are doing on this project! 

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