A valuable skill in visual arts is accurate drawing.
Students benefit from learning about drawing from observation early on.
In third grade, we have been practicing this kind of drawing using pencils and ink, observing geometrical forms and shadows.
It is a challenge for young children to differentiate between things they see and things they know are there, so it is important to look carefully and count corners, for example. We know a cube has 8 corners, but we can only see 7.
We keep the classroom nice and dark with only one directional light on our models, to control the amount of shadows.
Children practicing hatching shading with ink.
