Life Drawing

By Jackie Andrews
High School (intermediate level) / Art

Common Core Standards:

Key Ideas and Details:

1PR Demonstrate proficient technical skills and craftsmanship with various art media when creating images
from observation, memory, or imagination.
2PR Make informed choices in the selection of materials and techniques as they relate to solving a visual
problem.

Craft and Structure

3PR Generate a variety of solutions to visual arts problems through preparatory work.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

1RE Apply methods of art criticism when discussing selected works of art.
2RE Apply assessment practices to revise and improve the

Lesson Summary:

This lesson will introduce life-drawing through lessons on human proportion, gesture drawing, and sketching
human form. The students will be presented with the basic handout of human anatomy. The students will
begin with handouts on human proportion. Then they will spend a class period understanding human through
a series of short, one-minute gesture drawings. The drawing times will increase to two-minutes, five-
minutes, then ten-minutes. Following gesture drawing, students will work have a class on facial proportions.
They will draw along with me as I teach. Then draw independently. On the final day students will work from
a virtual model to draw a human figure with facial features.

Estimated Duration:

This lesson will be five 50-minute classes. It is best taught on successive days since each day builds on the
skills from the previous day.
Day 1: The introductory activity has a short 10-minute presentation of human form in Art History followed a
(5-minutes) attempts at five one-minute gesture drawings. Next, students will by a handout of human
proportions and a 30-minute walk through of capturing proportions in gesture drawing, accurate
measurement, examining negative space, and foreshortening.
Day 2: This day will have a full 50 minutes of gesture drawing. I will begin with a 25-minute YouTube
video of female models followed by a 25-minute video of male models.
Day 3: Students will be given a handout of facial proportions (5 minutes). I will demonstrate techniques for
drawing and shading faces (20 minutes). Students will draw along with me. Following instruction, students
will be given 35 minutes to draw a face.
Day 4: Begin with 5-minutes of gesture drawing to refresh proportion and foreshortening, followed by a 10-
minute drawing of face. Now have students create three 15-minute sketches.
Day 5: The student will create a completed life-drawing using all skills and techniques from the week (30
minutes). The culmination will be a 20-minute critique of the artwork from the week.

Pre-Assessment:

The 5-minute introductory activity on Day1, will establish the student’s understanding of human form,
gesture drawing, and foreshortening. In addition, each day recaps previous skills from the class(es) before.
This allow me to adjust instruction to the appropriate level for the class.

Scoring Guidelines:

The five gesture drawings on Day 1 during the introductory activity and the five gesture drawings on
Day 4 will be assessed as follows to generate the pre-assessment and the post-assessment.

Emerging (1) Developing (2) Proficient (3) Exemplary (4)

Body proportion
Foreshortening

Pre-assessment scores will not be used for grading. They are to determine the starting point of the
student and the final point of the student.

Post-Assessment:

Post assessment is a two- part assessment. First gesture drawings from Day 4 will be used to evaluate
progress in body proportion and foreshortening. It will be graded on the scale shown above. The second
assessment will be of the final project from Day 5. That evaluation will be based on: body proportion, facial
features, and quality of the work (mastery of materials, principles and elements).

Scoring Guidelines:

Numeric values will be assigned to the gesture drawing Students with an average of one (Emerging)
will receive between 60-69 points, average of two (Developing) will receive between 70-79 points,
average of two (Proficient) will receive between 80-89 points, and average of two (Exemplary) will
receive between 90-100 points.

The second evaluation of the final project will be scored based on three criterial
body proportion 40 points
facial proportions 30 points
foreshortening 10 points
quality of work (mastery of materials, use of principles and elements of art) 20 points
Differentiated Instructional Support
Instruction for gifted or accelerated students will remain the same, however, the option of working in a
medium of their choice can be offered.

Students struggling with the material can be accommodated by allowing them to stand or sit while drawing.
Tape can be placed on life models to show the lines of arms, legs, spine, hips and shoulders. This may help
them visual the form when gesture drawing.

Extension
Here are some online resources to practice drawing at home:
Gesture drawing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9VzqHcgjA

If you want an in-depth instruction this is an excellent instruction on drawing heads and faces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7cDY7YDsg

Homework Options and Home Connections

The only way to improve drawing the human form is “Practice, practice, practice!” Students should use a
sketchbook everywhere they go. Waiting in lines, sitting in cars, and watching TV: use the time for gesture
drawings. Students can use the freeze frame to work on longer sketches at screen time. On phones,
computers, and TV stop movement and sketch.

Interdisciplinary Connections
Drawing human form dovetails with biology and human anatomy. The study of the human skeleton would
improve drawing and forward understanding of human anatomy. In addition, the proportions of human form
can take on a mathematical equation. A historical look at the importance of perspective in the renaissance
with the explosion of art, literature, music, astronomy, and science.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers Smartboard for

Prezi presentation of What’s Whacky?
Nearpod classroom presentation
 YouTube sites
For Gesture Drawing Poses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNSwITdPIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNSwITdPIM

For students  Paper, charcoal pencil, eraser, tortillon, sketch books

 Manikin App for iPad to pose a mannequin to draw

Key Vocabulary

Proportion, foreshortening, line, negative space, gesture drawing, sketching, drawing, critique, tortillon

Additional Notes