3D Letters with Year 7

As the final task for my Year 7 class in semester 1, I taught the class about 1 point perspective.

We began the unit by learning the key vocabulary related to the topic such as Horizon line, Vanishing point and Perspective lines.

Students then learned how to draw a simple cube as a 3D form. They drew cubes on, above and below the horizon line so they could compare their appearances.

Help instructions were also provided to students who were struggling to understand or remember the necessary steps.

Once students had mastered their cube drawings, the moved onto angular letters such as ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘H’. These were taught and practiced as a whole class, with students volunteering to draw on the board. Following the whole class demonstrations, each student completed some practice letters on their own.

Another help sheet example:

Once students were confident in their understanding of perspective drawing they chose the word that they would produce. They traced their chosen letters from a printed template using a ruler and pencil. The 2D letter shapes were then transformed into 3D forms. This drawing was then scanned into their computers. 

Using Adobe Illustrator, students then traced the outlines of their letters. They then used Adobe Photoshop to fill in their 3D letters with different colours. Filters were then applied to the different layers providing interesting effects.

The Year 7 students really enjoyed this task. While a lot of them struggled to maser the perspective drawing, they were generally really happy with the outcomes. This is definitely a task that I will repeat, especially as this semester’s cohort have seen and requested to do the task.

Van Gogh Inspires Year 7

This was a great task that I undertook with my mentor teacher while on teaching rounds last year.

While this task was designed to allow students to practice using paint, it could easily be expanded into a much more in-depth task. Students could explore more of the work of Vincent Van Gogh and other Post-Impressionist artists or could look into colour theory, discussing why the artists placed certain colours next to or behind others.

Students began by finding a black and white portrait photograph which could be photocopied up to A3 size. They lightly traced the basic shapes of this image onto their A3 page and then added their first layer of thin paint. Each of the different main shapes (hair, face, clothing, background) were painted a different colour.

Once this first layer of paint had dried, students began layering their colours. They needed to pick a contrasting colour to the one they had painted the background. The paint strokes, short or long should give the painting some movement and texture.

Following this second layer, a third layer of paint was added. Again, this was done in short or long strokes and should have followed the lines that were painted in the previous layer.

This is the final artwork that was completed as an example to show students.