Submitted by: Roger Whiting, Community Art Educator
Title of Lesson: Book Illustration
Grade level: 3-6
Goals / Objectives:
Students will:
- Identify characters, setting, and tone of a page of text.
- Identify adjectives, verbs, and adverbs within text.
- Use basic shape construction to draw characters
- Identify contrast within an illustration
- Use space and line in an illustration
- Show distance using scale and height
Materials Needed:
Drawing Pencils
Lesson Description:
Modeling (Show the Incredible Art Factory video below on this page.)
- Ask the students if they are familiar with the story of Alice in Wonderland. Have one student give a brief synopsis of what the story is about.
- Explain how illustrators are asked to follow the details of a story, but that much of a story is usually left up to the imagination of the reader. Illustrators must therefore make up a lot of details that are not included in the text of the story.
- Explain how there are essential elements to a story that must be present in an illustration for it to effectively tell a story. Ask them what they think those elements are (character, setting, action, etc)
- Show a page of Alice in Wonderland
- Refer to the story to choose characters for a scene of the story. Choose a character to illustrate and a scene in which to illustrate him/her.
- Draw a figure using basic shapes, then begin adding the details about the characters as highlighted in the story. Once those details have all been added, speak out loud as you decide what other details to invent about the character. Add the invented details to your drawing. Draw those details as well to create an interesting character.
- Repeat the last two steps until all characters of the scene are present in your drawing. Once those details have all been added, speak out loud as you decide what other details to invent about the setting. Add the invented details to your drawing.
- Refer to the words highlighted about the setting of the story, and draw those elements mentioned in the story in the background of your picture. Show how something higher in the picture looks as though it is farther back. Show how something of a smaller scale also looks to be farther away.
- Refer to the words highlighted that describe the tone or mood of the story. Explain how dark tones and high contrast can often portray sadness or anger in an illustration. Explain how the intensity of the lines used in the drawing can also contribute to the mood of an illustration. Explain and demonstrate how using value contrast around a specific area of the picture can make that part of the picture the center of interest.
Assessment(s):
Students will create an illustration based on a page of Alice in Wonderland or another story of their choice using the following guidelines:
Identify characters, setting, and tone of a page of text.
Identify adjectives, verbs, and adverbs within text.
Use basic shape construction to draw characters
Identify contrast within an illustration
Use space and line in an illustration
Show distance using scale and height
Download the PDF of this lesson.
National Core Arts Standards and/or National Visual Arts Standards Covered:
Visual Arts
Grade K-4, Visual Arts Standard 1
Content Standard
Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
* Students know the differences between materials, techniques, and processes
* Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses
* Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories
* Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner
Grade K-4, Visual Arts Standard 6
Content Standard
Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
* Students understand and use similarities and differences between characteristics of the visual arts and other arts disciplines
* Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum
Language Arts Standards
S7O2c |
Form mental pictures to aid understanding of text. |
