Supplies:

• Perspective handouts
• Drawing paper for sketches
• Heavy duty poster board (or canvas, if you can afford it)
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brushes, small for details and large for base coats

Space has always been a tedious concept to tackle. Usually practicing perspective results in frustrated students and cookie cutter drawings. I’ve been on a search for an amazing perspective lesson for awhile, so I was thrilled to see this idea on another teacher’s blog.

I loved the combination of Surrealism and perspective. My students were able to learn the rules and then break them in a smart and effective way.

I started by having them practice basic perspective drawing. They sketched a room and chose three elements to add to their room. I was surprised by how much they enjoyed this step! It reinforces what I’ve always believed – students are happiest when they are given the opportunity to make choices. The tutorials I found at this website were incredibly helpful.

After learning the steps to creating realistic perspective, I had my students change their drawing to bend those rules. I let them choose between completely re-drawing their sketch or tracing elements from their first sketch onto a new paper. The last step was for them to add Surreal elements to their sketch. The sketching process for this project took about twice as long as it usually does, but it was worth the extra time.

Before they used the acrylic paints, I had them draw and paint a color wheel by mixing the three primary colors. I’ve learned that having them practice making tertiary colors results in a more interesting color palette when they get to their final artwork. I also emphasized painting in layers. They were wary of covering their whole drawing with a base coat, but it kept them from falling into the “paint like it’s a coloring book” trap.