Completed by: Kerry, Olivia, and Colton
This blog outlines different resources that can be used with the medium pencil and pencil crayon. Throughout this blog, there are sections that focus on different aspects and techniques of a pencil and pencil crayon. For each resource there will be a description outlining what that one is about and the resource will be connected to the grades that we believe are suitable.
Project Ideas and Prompts
Elements Worksheet – Grade 1 ⇒ 4
This website offers a worksheet on the 7 elements of art that can be printed off. The words of the different elements can be coloured in to match the specific element.
Content: Elements of Principles of Art
Competencies: Creative Process and Think
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Draw a landscape – K ⇒ 5
This website outlines how to draw a landscape by using layers. It can be easily modified for each grade by adding complexity within the layers.
Content: Image Development Strategies, Vocab, Materials Techniques and Process
Competencies: Creative Process and Think
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth and Intentions Historical Context
prompts – k ⇒ Grade 8
This website demonstrates different ways to integrate prompts into your lesson. Some prompts may pose questions such as: “What lives in the desert?” Other prompts may begin with a line that allows for endless creations.
Content: Image Development Strategies
Competencies: Creative Process, Think, Personal and Social
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Drawing their dream home – Grade 3 ⇒ 8
This is a project idea for students to draw their ideal dream home from the outside. With the resources provided below, there are drawing tutorials on how to draw natural objects such as mountains, trees, houses, grass, and bushes all of which could be incorporated to enhance the decor outside their desired property. Having students imagine what their home would look like, the teacher could pose questions such as, what is the weather like at your house? Is it near water, mountains, trees, or desert? What animals would live outside your house?
Content: Personal and collective responsibility associated with creating, experiencing or presenting in a safe learning environment
Competencies: Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging
Big Ideas: Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice
Pencil shaving art – k ⇒ Grade 7
This is a project idea that incorporates art with pencil shavings. This website shows a tutorial on how to design a basic creation, but depending on the age of the class, the teacher can always show some samples of more complicated pieces. This project will be most effective after students have completed an art project where they have used a lot of their pencils, thus providing a lot of shavings. In preparation, you could let students know ahead of time when sharpening each colour, to keep them separate for ease of use later.
Content: Processes, Materials, Technologies, Tools, and Techniques to support creative works
Competencies: Designing and Developing
Big Ideas: Artist experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities
Upside down Picasso drawing – Grade 5 ⇒ 8
This activity asks artists to copy an upside-down, distorted version of Picasso’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky. The purpose of this activity is to exercise different parts of the brain by focusing on viewing the artwork as lines, rather than a whole image. This exercise is a great warmup activity and is very useful for practicing line work.
Content: Line, Space, Rotation, Distortion, Drawing
Competencies: Think, Reason, and Reflect
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth, Artist Intentions
Expanding on an image – k ⇒ Grade 8
For this activity, teachers prepare clippings of a variety of images (from books or magazines), and the students use their imaginations to draw a scene around the clipping. This can be done with either pencil or pencil crayons and can be used as a way for artists to practice techniques.
Content: Line, Shape, Space, Colour, Texture, Elaboration, Embellishment, Drawing
Competencies: Creative Processes- Explore/Create/Expand; Communicate- Develop, Acquire, Transform Ideas and Information
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Blind Contour Drawing – Grade 4 ⇒ 8
A video provides the outline for this activity, artists draw a chosen subject, however, they are not allowed to look down at their page while drawing, and instead, have to look at the subject for the entire duration of the activity. This urges the artists to focus on the details of the subject, and not worry about the accuracy of the end product.
Content: Line, Shape, Drawing, Space
Competencies: Think- Reflect/Expand
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Sample Lessons
Colour value scale – Grade 1 ⇒ 7
This lesson was introduced through the brand Crayola. It shows the value scale of a pencil crayon. The value scale shows how a colour ranges from light to dark. This would be a great lesson to have before introducing blending into the lesson.
Content: Elements and Principles of Art
Competencies: Communicate
Big Idea: Artistic Growth
Drawing an Optical illusion – Grade 1 ⇒ 5
This is a lesson idea for younger students to create an abstract piece of artwork. The lesson’s idea is to start with a simple squiggly line and then proceed to create more lines parallel to the first but ensuring each line is slightly different. Then connect each parallel line with a plethora of little curved lines. The effect will be completed when the paper is filled with slinky looking designs that the students can then colour.
Content: Symbolism and Metaphor to explore ideas and perspectives
Competencies: Questioning and Investigating
Big Ideas: Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities and perspectives
Zentangles – Grade 2 ⇒ 6
This activity has students create busy and stimulating art using line and pattern. There is flexibility and room for creativity for artists on whether they want to create an image and fill it in with patterns, fill up their entire page, or have their Zentangle be colourful.
Content: Line, Colour, Texture, Pattern, Abstraction
Competencies: Creative Processes- Explore/Create
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Name Art perspective – Grade 3 ⇒ 8
This is a lesson idea focused on perspective. This activity can be at the beginning of an art class at the start of the year because it can be used to create name tags to go on desks. The premise of the lesson is to draw out your name in block letters. The teacher could do one of two things; they could have the perspective fade out to a single point above the name or have the letters just stretch backward, creating a long 3D effect.
Content: Symbolism and Metaphor to explore ideas and perspectives
Competencies: Questioning and Investigating
Big Ideas: Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities and perspectives
Techniques
PEncil colouring techniques – Grade 3 ⇒ 8
Two websites are listed below. These websites define basic pencil colouring techniques from stippling to back and forth stroke to scumbling and provides a brief description of how to complete each technique. The websites provide embedded videos and instructions for each technique.
Content: Image Development Strategies, First Peoples worldviews
Competencies: Creative Process, Think, Communicate, Personal and Social
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth, Exploring Identity and Sense of Belonging
8 Essential Colored Pencil Techniques
PEncil recommendations for realistic drawings – Grade 4 ⇒ 8
This website outlines each pencil and the shade that corresponds with it. It also goes into detail about the benefits of each pencil when completing a realistic drawing. This would be geared toward the intermediate grades where they can practice many different techniques together.
Content: Elements and Principles of Art
Competencies: Think
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
How to hold a pencil – grade 1 ⇒ 8
This website demonstrates different ways to hold a pencil in order to achieve a certain result. This would be a great lesson to start at the beginning of a pencil unit because the students could practice different ways to hold the pencil in order to get desired results.
Content: Elements and Principles of Art
Competencies: Think
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
PEncil drawing techniques – Grade 4 ⇒ 8
This pdf book outlines several pencil drawing techniques that could be easily implemented into a lesson. Some of the techniques highlighted are the dark value pattern on page 41, which focuses on using different shades of grey/black to enhance the drawing. A shading technique in smudging the pencil on page 42 allows for a smoother surface covering. Finally, drawing reflections on the water on page 45, that covers the difficult technique of reflections and how to draw an object through the perspective of looking at it through the water to add dynamics to your drawing.
Content: Image Development Strategies
Competencies: Designing and Developing
Big Ideas: Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice
Cloudy Smudging – Grade 3 ⇒ 8
This technique is a method of colouring and shading that is not typically taught in an art class. This method of colouring encompasses the artist to use scissors and shave off pieces of their pencil or pencil crayon onto a tissue. They then proceed to use the tissue paper to swirl around the page, creating this soft, even colour across the page. It is a great technique for all ages and is extremely good for colouring objects such as clouds.
Content: Process, Materials, Technologies, Tools, and Techniques to support creative works
Competencies: Designing and Developing
Big Ideas: Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice
Drawing Texture – Grade 2 ⇒ 8
This worksheet shows examples of different textures and designates space for students to attempt the techniques on their own. This resource could be useful when discussing texture in class and can give students ideas on how to incorporate texture into their drawings.
Content: Texture, Drawing
Competencies: Explore, Document, and Creative Processes
Big Ideas: Artist Growth
Websites
Anti-colouring book – k ⇒ Grade 8
This website introduces the idea of anti-colouring books, which could then be turned into a lesson. It includes a short video on why colouring books hinder creativity and shows what an anti-colouring book looks like. This could be used in many different grades, and really spark creativity and exploration with their drawings.
Content: Image Developmental Strategies, First Peoples Worldviews
Competencies: Creative Process, Think, and Communicate
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth, Exploring Identity and Sense of Belonging
Drawing lesson – k ⇒ Grade 8
This website provides follow-along lessons for beginner artists to learn how to draw a line and continue on to different techniques such as ellipse and boxes. This could be an excellent filler for an art student who may have missed class due to extracurricular or sickness.
Content: Image Development Strategies, First Peoples Worldviews
Competencies: Creative Process, Think, Communicate, Personal and Social
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth, Exploring Identity and Sense of Belonging
Continuous line drawing – Grade 4 ⇒ 8
For this exercise, the teacher selects a subject or image for the students to draw, but they have to do so without lifting their pencil off of the page. The goal is for the students to depict the image using one continuous line and work outside their comfort zones in the drawing.
Content: Line, Shape, Drawing
Competencies: Think- Reflect/Expand
Big Ideas: Artistic Growth
Artistic exploration – k ⇒ Grade 8
This is a helpful website that can be used by a variety of ages to get a creative jump on what to draw. This website provides 251 different writing prompts for students, which they could then translate into a setting to draw. For example, a prompt that states, “What would you do if you won the lottery?” the teacher could get the students to draw themselves in a fictitious world of winning the lottery, what they would buy, or where they would travel.
Content: Personal and collective responsibility associated with creating, experiencing, or presenting in a safe learning environment.
Competencies: Acquiring and Presenting Information
Big Ideas: Through art-making, one’s sense of identity and community continually evolves
Artists
Proko: Portraits
Dan Beardshaw: PErspective
Alphonso Dunn: Cross Hatching – Grade 9 ⇒ 12
These artists provide various videos on how to draw portraits, perspective buildings, and tips regarding cross-hatching techniques. All of Proko, Dan, and Alphonso demonstrate advanced strategies and tips on accurately drawing and shading various art creations. This resource is targeted for an older class or students looking for a challenge with more difficult tasks/techniques and samples on how to do them.
Content: Image Development Strategies
Competencies: Generating and Incubating
Big Ideas: The arts provide opportunities to gain insight into the perspectives and experiences of people from a variety of times, places, and cultures
Romero Britto
Romero Britto is a modern Brazilian artist who lives in Miami and is known for his bright, fun colours and patterns. He is the most licensed artist in history and has done work for Disney, Coca-Cola, and The Olympics. He uses many different mediums to create artworks of things like animals, hearts, and flowers.
Britto Heart Mural – Grade 2 ⇒ 6
This activity involves an entire class to create one big image/mural of a heart in the style of Romero Britto. Each student decorates their own piece of the mural with patterns and colours of their choice. In the example video, the teacher uses chalk pastel and markers to add colour, however, this could easily be done with a pencil crayon instead.
Content: Line, Colour, Drawing, Pattern, Intercultural Artist
Competencies: Creative Process- Create/Communicate, Personal/Social- Finding and Achieving Purpose
Big Ideas: Artist Intentions, Exploring Identity and Sense of Belonging
Britto self-portraits – Grade 4 ⇒ 7
For this activity, students will draw a self-portrait in the style of Romero Britto. The students will be able to achieve this using bright colours and bold lines, and can easily personalize the portrait by including patterns that are meaningful to them. The examples included use marker and chalk pastel, however, the portrait can be sketched in pencil and coloured with pencil crayon.
Content: Line, Colour, Drawing, Pattern, Intercultural Artist
Competencies: Personal/Social- Understanding yourself and others, Creative Process- Connecting
Big Ideas: Exploring Identity and Sense of Belonging, Personal Context
Books
Head and hands book – grade 10 ⇒ 12
This book is for artists who are looking for more information on how to draw portraits. This book is an excellent resource for students who want to pursue their passion in art to learn extremely complex techniques of perspective, lighting, and shading regarding drawing the human face.
Content: Materials, Techniques, and Technologies
Competencies: Designing and Developing
Purposeful artistic choices enhance the depth and meaning of artistic work
