HIGH SCHOOL A SYMBOLIC EXERCISE Denise Zlogar Tabatha S. I n keeping within our drawing cur-riculum, I chose the American flag as the subject of this year’s drapery study. With the primary election right around the corner, I thought the flag may help to remind those who recently turned eighteen to exercise their right to vote. Little did I know at the time how important this symbol would become as we began to struggle as a nation to combat COVID-19. The question I posed to students was, “How can you use line and value to realistically represent the folds within a piece of cloth?” The objec-tives were to identify light and shadow within a piece of drapery; identify and apply cross-contour lines in repre-senting a 3D appearance; mix colors matching those found in all parts of the drapery, including highlights and shadows; and continually improve art-istry in using oil pastel in a drawing. Getting Started To prepare for this lesson, I arranged two American flags, pinning one on each bulletin board in the room so that students on each side of the classroom could observe their folds and shadows. I highlighted the values in the flags by locating a specific light source and dimming the classroom lights. To introduce the lesson, I shared a slideshow presentation with many visual examples of drapery drawings and paintings. Within the presenta-tion, emphasis was placed upon the location of light and shadow directly affected by the position of the light source. Practice Exercise 1: Drawing In their sketchbooks, students first drew from a black-and-white photo-32 SEPTEMBER 2020 SchoolArts
School Arts Magazine September 2020: Page 34
