Art Activity #10: Out Your Window
Today we are going to be using a window as a natural frame and drawing what we see beyond it. We may not all have windows, and the windows we have may not have the most scenic view, but the focus here is on sharing your perspective for others to take in. Remember, a window can be defined as anything that gives you a view to another place, so you have some flexibility in which window you choose.
Here is what you will need for this activity:
paper and pencil
a window in your home
a hard, flat surface to draw on
your patience and observational skills
Follow these steps to complete your illustration:
Choose your window. Miss Marks happens to only have one window in her apartment, a big one in her bedroom that faces the street. If you have more than one window in your home you can choose your favourite, or the one you look out the least.
Start by drawing your window itself. Draw the parts of the window that are inside your house, known as the window frame. Use your artist eyes to draw what you see and include any details. Draw the whole window frame first before moving onto the next step.
Pick one spot to sit in while you draw your view outside the window. What you see can change a lot based on where you are in the room. This view is called your perspective. Figure out what you want your perspective to be before you begin to draw.
4. Begin your perspective drawing by first drawing the big shapes and lines you see outside. Focus on the horizontal and vertical lines you see. Once those are done you can start adding it the smaller shapes you can find, then the finer details. Much like our self portrait we are going to focus on drawing what we see, rather than what we think it should look like.
5. Search for any patterns you can see and add them in. Try to capture the sky in your drawing too, even if you have to draw it quickly! Your window drawing is complete when you have drawn everything you can see from where you are sitting.
6. Take a photo of your finished drawing and share it with your class on Microsoft Teams. You can also email it to me at smarks@vsb.bc.ca to share in the student gallery here. I look forward to seeing your perspectives!
