Light and Shadow
Grade 8
One of the major art elements which made Renaissance art so exciting and life-like was value. Value is about light and shadow; in drawings or paintings, this means black, white, and all the shades of grey in between.
After studying the anatomical structure of the human face while creating several practice portraits of your classmates and surprise guests, you will develop a large-scale charcoal drawing of your own face. For inspiration and some historical context that will connect with your Social Studies unit on the Renaissance, we will examine the dramatic portraits created by artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Jan Van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Sofonisba Anguissola.
Find a mirror and carefully observe the structure of your face— what features make you look like you? What shapes in your face are formed by muscle or bone? Where are the brightest brights and the darkest darks?
Task sheet and rubric
About the artwork (coming soon)