NeoPopRealist Hedgehog Ink Drawing
Submitted by: Nadia Russ
Title: NeoPopRealist ink & pen pattern drawing inspired by Nadia Russ: Hedgehog
Grades: Kindergarten to 3rd Grade, adaptable to Grades 3-5
Lesson developed by: NeoPopRealism PRESS
Summary:
This is collaborative effort between the regular classroom teacher and the art teacher.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Learn about the the work of Nadia Russ and the style of NeoPopRealism that was created in 1989 on this website.
2. Learn new ink pattern drawing techniques, and experiment while drawing.
3. Learn about the anatomical makeup of hedgehogs.
3. Create Hedgehog art inspired by the artworks of Nadia Russ, who used ink pen and white paper. No eraser should be used, even if mistakes are made. (important).
Materials:
- Ink pen black 0.7 mm Rollerball
- 8.5"x11" (21.5 x 28 cm) white Card Stock
- a book "How to Draw Without Eraser: Children's Guide to the World of NeoPopRealism
Day 1:
Students have previously read the book "How to Draw Without Eraser: Children's Guide to the World of NeoPopRealism
First, the art teacher demonstrates the drawing process. The teacher illustrates the hedgehog's shape (see below) on a white board or overhead. The teacher then divides the hedgehog into sections (with zigzags-needles), and fills these sections with different repetitive patterns, such as circles, dots, lines, etc. Any imaginative patterns are OK to add. The teacher will then explain why he or she doesn't need an eraser. If a "mistake" made, the created patterns cover each section and causes the stray marks to disappear. Students first use light lines and when they are confident of the position of the lines, they go over them with darker lines.
Students will use their imagination to create repetitive patterns in a gallery that can be exhibited on a classroom wall or display case in the hallway. The book "How to Draw Without Eraser: Children's Guide to the World of NeoPopRealism
Day 2:
Revisit the fact that students should not use an eraser when creating their NeoPopRealism ink pen pattern drawing. Pattern drawing should be an intuitive and meditative process.
After practicing with repetitive patterns, students create "Hedgehog" artwork from beginning to end, on 5.5"x8" (14 x 20.3 cm) paper, using different imaginative patterns. These patterns can be simple or more complicated, such as circles, dots, and paralleled lines. There should be variations and different combinations.
After their drawings are completed, students critique the results. They will discuss their NeoPopRealism work and art drawing style. Student artwork can be laminated by the art teacher and exhibited or scanned, and posted online.
Lesson Plan - Background and Historical Information: NeoPopRealism Ink & Pen Drawing Style Brief History
Nadia RUSS is a Ukrainian-born Russian painter/ graphic artist living in the USA. She is famous for innovative, creative, NeoPopRealism art and ink pen pattern drawings, the contemplative style that she created in 1989. Instead of realistic images Nadia uses a more abstract style that demands an imagination. Through time her drawings became more symbolic. Although she primarily uses an black ink pen on white paper, she has been known to use blue, gold, or silver ink on black paper.
See more about Nadia Russ on her website.
About hedgehog:
Hedgehogs are found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand. The name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge ("hog"), from its pig-like snout. Other names include urchin, hedge-pig and furze-pig.
Hedgehogs are easily recognized by their spines, which are hollow hairs made stiff with keratin. Their spines are not poisonous or barbed and, unlike the quills of a porcupine, cannot easily be removed from the hedgehog. However, spines normally come out when a hedgehog sheds baby spines and replaces them with adult spines. This is called "quilling". When under extreme stress or during sickness, a hedgehog can also lose spines.
A defense that all species of hedgehogs possess is the ability to roll into a tight ball, causing all of the spines to point outwards. However, its effectiveness depends on the number of spines, and since some of the desert hedgehogs evolved to carry less weight, they are much more likely to try to run away and sometimes even attack the intruder, trying to ram into the intruder with its spines, and rolling as a last resort. This results in a different number of predators for different species: while forest hedgehogs have relatively few, primarily birds (especially owls) and ferrets, smaller species like the long-eared hedgehog are preyed on by foxes, wolves and mongooses.
The hedgehog's back is made up of two large muscles, which control the positioning of its quills. There are about 5,000 to 6,500 quills on the average hedgehog, and these are durable on the outside, while being filled with air pockets on the inside. The hedgehog uses its quills to protect itself from predators, using muscles which draw their quilled skin to cover their full body, and pulling in the parts of their bodies not covered, such as their head, feet, and belly. This form of defense is the hedgehog's most successful, but is usually their last resort. Hedgehogs are fairly vocal and communicate through a combination of grunts, snuffles and/or squeals, depending on species. Self-anointing Hedgehogs occasionally perform a ritual called anointing. When the animal encounters a new scent, it will lick and bite the source, then form a scented froth in its mouth and paste it on its spines with its tongue. The specific purpose of this ritual is unknown, but some experts believe anointing camouflages the hedgehog with the new scent of the area and provides a possible poison or source of infection to predators poked by their spines. Anointing is sometimes also called anting because of a similar behavior in birds.
The hedgehog sleeps for a large portion of the daytime either under cover of bush, grass, rock or in a hole in the ground.
Hedgehogs feed on insects, snails, frogs and toads, snakes, bird eggs, carrion, mushrooms, grass roots, berries, melons and watermelons.
Follow‐up activities:
View all of Nadia Russ' NeoPopRealism artwork on her website or in her books and discuss NeoPopRealism ink pen pattern drawing style. Name several artists who invented new styles of visual arts along with the styles they invented:
Monet - Impressionism,
Salvador Dali
Picasso
Andy Warhol
Jeff Koons
Nadia Russ - NeoPopRealism.
Resources:
- A book "How to Draw Without Eraser: Children's Guide to the World of NeoPopRealism
- Information on NeoPopRealism ink pen/ pattern drawing, its concept and Nadia Russ, who created this style in 1989, biography.
- Wall decals and posters-prints with NeoPopRealism ink pen pattern drawings: http://www.neopoprealism.net
Watch the video, NeoPopRealism and NeoWhimsies (See above)
