Monochromatic Cityscape
What you need:
- Plain paper
- Canvases
- Pencils
- Rulers
- Black Crayons (1 per student)
- Tempera paints; black, white, color
- Paint brush (1 per student)
- Paper plates for mixing colors
- Paper towels
Set Up:
- Each student will receive one piece of white paper, pencil, black crayon, paint brush, paper towel, bowl of water and paper plate with black paint and white paint
PRE-ACTIVITY:
- Begin your lesson with a short discussion about color tinting and shading. Introduce the concept of Monochromatic art. There is a power point presentation for this project.
- Demonstrate the technique of tinting a color with white and shading with black. Note: When mixing colors always add the darker color to the lighter color. Pick up a little white and paint a spot onto your plate. Clean your brush, then pick up a little of your color and rub it onto the spot to create a tint. Clean your brush. Now try a shade; pick up a little of your color and put it on your plate. Next, pick up a little black paint to create a shade.
Project: Create a Monochromatic Cityscape
- On a blank piece of paper, students should sketch out a sample of their cityscape with a pencil and a ruler. Start out with a horizontal towards the bottom of the paper. Then they can add skyscrapers, windows, clouds, simple trees, sun, or other elements.
- Draw big. Do not make very small details since it will be hard to paint.
- They do not have to totally create the cityscape on the blank paper, just enough to get the idea of what they want to draw on their canvas. It is hard to erase on the canvas and each child only gets one.
- After they are done drawing on the canvas, use the black crayon to draw over the pencil lines.
- Next, students should paint their art: fill in all the white space of their drawing with tints and shades of the color they chose.
