Procedures:

You can see a lot of depth in this picture. How can students tell the beach is very far down? In this instance, the size of the objects show depth. Trees and the boy in front are much larger than the trees and people below. Click on the image for larger view.

Before the lesson is begun, it is important to pre-test students' skills in drawing a landscape to achieve an illusion of depth. Motivate them by stirring their memories of someplace they remember being which was in the country, on a vacation trip.-- not in a city, but any other kind of a place-- e.g. desert, shore, mountain, forest, farm, etc. They can put whatever things and people they remember in that place. Tell them I'll be looking for things which are nearby and things which are far, far away.

Materials:

White drawing paper and crayons.

Seeing Near and Far

1. Understanding Art: Students will explain how overlapping and size differences show perspective, and that on a level surface, the lowest part of a near subject is lower in a picture than the lowest part of a farther subject. Learners will recognize which objects in a picture are near and which are far. This is an introduction to the concept of the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
2. Creating Art: Students will use scissors to cut out simple animal shapes. Learners will arrange shapes, using size and overlapping, to show perspective.
3. Appreciating Art: Students will identify the differences among near and far objects in the environment.
4. Vocabulary: perspective, overlap, horizon, horizon line

1. Materials: Each student needs: crayons or water-markers, four sheets of different colors of construction paper, scissors, and glue.
2. Example Images: Photographs and/or art images which demonstrate our new concepts. These may be pictures students are asked to find by leafing through old magazines, cutting out images that they think show near and far objects.

1. Focus on Looking and Thinking: Showing students examples of two-dimensional images which have near and far elements, ask students what makes these good examples. Point out how overlap and differences in size help to achieve an illusion of depth. Point out how these things can be seen in the actual space around them.
2. Focus on Making Art: Students will draw the shape of an animal on each of three pieces of paper, each animal being the same kind of animal, but a different size. After drawing a horizon line on their last sheet of paper, they will arrange their animals on that last sheet so as to utilize the size differences and the level of each animal's lowest part in order to achieve their illusion of near and far. Finally, students will draw additional elements to complete an image of an environment for their animals.

Resources

Books

The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium - Phil Metzger presents perspective as a matter of mimicking the way we see--like the way a distant mountain appears blue, or a road seems to narrow in the distance. The Art of Perspective offers techniques for achieving a convincing illusion of depth and distance, whether it's a few inches in a still life or miles in a landscape.

DVD's

Art In The Classroom Series: Perspective Drawing - Students learn how to see perspective before they draw it. Experts teach one, two and three-point perspective.

"Michael Delahunt authors and publishes an online art dictionary called ArtLex at http://www.artlex.com . In addition to defining art terms, ArtLex offers thousands of images of examples, pronunciation notes, great quotations, and cross-references."