Contour Shoe Drawings

The 7th graders jumped right into drawing recently. I went over some drawing tips that they had to write down in their sketchbooks. They drew contour drawings of their thumbs and then drew contour drawings of their shoes. I had them choose some shoes at the table that had laces and various parts sewn on. (Some tried to draw Toms, Uggs, etc.) The tennis shoes worked best for this lesson. They practiced drawing slowly, drawing what they see instead of what's in their minds (the left brain symbolic drawing), they practiced closing one eye to reduce depth, and they also practiced tricks such as holding their pencil up to see angles, as well as sitting back from the shoe so that they could see it better. They wrote a few definitions in their sketchbooks. These included contour drawing, blind contour, and gesture drawing. I believe that they were impressed with the results!