Lesson At A Glance

A brief overview of each step. Buttons jump to each section for detailed information.

15 Minutes – Warmup with clay snowpeeps

10 Min – Draw snowdude face from 2 views

10 Min – Story about life drawing

20 Min – Clay animal step-by-step

10 Min – Realistic quick sketches

5 Min – Sketching to learn & sketch again

10 Min – draw clay model – toon or realistic

20 Min – make 3-4 more clay things to draw

5 Min – Everyone helps

SCROLL & TEACH

LESSONPLAN

Each section is a different color. Read over once and then you can SCROLL & TEACH using any device you like. It’s designed to work best with your phone.

Have students set up work area and warm up their clay.

As students arrive, give them the instructions. Show them or use the pdf.

Before students arrive, place sheets of 11 x 17 copy paper at every seat. Write, “Clay must stay on the paper at all times” on every paper.

Alternatively, you can have them use a sheet torn out of their palette pad as the first thing they do. Give them a sharpie to write their name, and “clay paper” on it at the top. Draw a line all around the very edge to create a visual border.

Have students get their modeling clay out and explain that the clay needs to stay on the paper and not touch the table. This is to keep the clay clean, and also keep your table from getting oily.

“The clay must stay inside the border, even when you’re holding it!”

You can do a quick exercise where they hold they clay outside the border for a second, as you say, “no!”, and then inside and you say, “yes!” Go back and forth a couple of times for fun and to remember.

Everyone needs a quick “how to” for sculpting in clay. Provide instruction handouts if you want to.

1. Twist – twist off SMALL pieces of clay to work with. Large pieces do not work.
2. Roll – making snake shapes or worms will warm up the clay fastest.
3. Press – pressing gently over and over is much better than mashing hard, or smearing.
4. Pinch off – change a shape by pinching off some clay you don’t need.
5. Add on – Stick new pieces of clay on your work to modify it.

And later, explain how this material is managed:

• Clay must stay on paper
• Clay never dries, so you can’t keep your creations for very long.
• Clean hands by wiping thoroughly with a paper towel before washing (wipe/wash/wipe)

While they work, pass out the clay tools, which are for DETAILS only. Explain that these are plastic, and will break if you push them too hard. If you’re pushing hard, then you are trying to make big shapes. Tools are not for this.

Do not stab or attempt to cut clay with a tool. Only twist off small pieces to begin working.

Have students do simple snowpeeps in clay.

As students finish preparing their clay and a few “worms” are ready, you can move them into the next step as a group, or individually.

Step-by-step Snowdude instructions

1. Start by making a ball, about the size of a ping-pong ball, or even a little smaller.
2. Roll the ball at first, but then gently press all over it, with tons of tiny presses. This will erase creases and help you shape it more circular. This is actually a sphere.
3. Make a second ball, a little smaller for the middle of the snowdude.
4. Finally, make a smaller head.
5. Stack your snowdude up.
6. Now poke two tiny spots for eyes, and a line of spots for a mouth.
7. Let’s make a carrot out of clay for the nose. Roll a teeny worm, but make it a bit shorter and fatter than you think. Make one end more pointy, but not so much that it droops.
8. Stick your carrot nose in place. If you need to try again, that’s a great idea. A big carrot nose is the best. It often takes artists several tries before we get things just the way we want them.

If you have super fast early finishers, have them make another dude or a snowpup

Students will see how the carrot nose looks amazingly different from two viewpoints: Front & Side.

First, have everyone set their snowdude’s on top of the riser or stand, and draw the head from the side. They will see the carrot sticking out and should draw a long and pointy nose, one eye, and half of the mouth. It should only take a few seconds.

Next, have everyone turn their riser, so that the figure looks right at them. The carrot nose should be pointing straight at their eyes.

Explain that they should not move their head to see the long nose, but instead try to draw it with the pointiest part right in the middle of the nose!

Draw this. Some will draw a small blob or circle, but some may still draw the longish nose, kind of going to one side or the other. That’s ok.

Show the two slides and read captions.

1. Here is what the snowdude looks like from the front. It’s really difficult to imagine what the nose is like. It could be a dot with a spot.

2. Here is the same snowdude with shadows. In real life, shadows and our 3D vision tells us what is really going on. Learning to draw shadows is very important!

Tell everyone this story, and make the important point that our experiences and senses are all connected. Using touch and familiarity helps us draw more accurately and more easily.

Kids can fiddle with their clay and make things while you talk.

When Mr. Dennas was about 9 years old, he met a friend who also liked to draw. His new friend, Jon, was very good at drawing, so good that young Mr. Dennas felt like he had a lot to learn! Jon grew up to be one of the most important artists at DC comics, and was responsible for drawing Superman comics for years.

Mr. Dennas eventually learned to draw as well as Jon, but it wasn’t as easy for him and it took many years of practice. He wondered if his friend had been born with some kind of talent that he had not.

When Mr. Dennas went to art school, they taught him the importance of drawing from real life; things he could see in full 3D right in front of him. This really changed things, because he had only learned to draw from books and photographs, which were flat. Drawing from real life improved his work very quickly.

Later, when Mr. Dennas had a son who also loved drawing, he wondered if there was some kind of learning that his friend Jon had experienced, and if that could help his son draw like Jon could at such a young age.

Mr. Dennas had his 3 year old son draw from real life. Not only did he draw from real life, he drew the dinosaur toys that he played with and clay sculptures he had made.

Mr. Dennas had read how young people can create connections in their brains when learning, and he thought maybe the familiarity with real life objects and even creating them, could make those extra connections. He suspected maybe Jon had done this on his own when he was young.

It worked! Mr. Dennas’ son, Evan, could draw everything much easier and more like real life at a much earlier age than Mr. Dennas could. He could draw things with an understanding of the 3D world, in the same way that Jon can.

You may have seen Mr. Dennas’ dinosaur tattoo on his arm. His son drew it to commemorate the lessons he had, using his dinosaur toys.

That’s why were going to make clay sculptures and draw them today.

Always draw things you are familiar with, and things you can see in real life, in full 3D. It makes a huge difference.

Either have everyone follow along step-by-step, while you make an animal you selected or voted on, or allow kids to create their own animal looking at references or animal figurines from our collections.

Animal references (tap any image to open viewer)

Assist students with sketching their clay sculpture.

Prop the animal up or place on the riser to view and draw. The point is to draw the clay, not an idea. Check the lighting so there are decent shadows.

Shadows are actually very hard for kids to see at all. Point out where the shadows are using a pencil as a pointer. This really helps students see them better. It’s ok if they don’t do much with shadows, so don’t push that.

Students can use charcoal or an ebony pencil to sketch their clay sculptures from observation. Have everyone place their large 14 x 17 sketch pads in a bathtub position. Draw a line from top to bottom in the center, dividing the page into two sections. There may be time for more sketches but they can make more on another page. Each sketch should be on half a sheet of paper in the sketch pad.

“While you want to draw what you see, don’t worry about clay creases or tiny things. Just draw the bigs shapes first, and add details that are important to you.”

Sketches

2-minute sketch – no worries on this one. It’s just to learn.

4-minute sketch – take a little more time with this one, but don’t worry about the details too much.

Students draw a careful, detailed rendition of the clay model.

It’s always good to practice short strokes of hatch shading on a sketch page before you flip to a clean page for your drawing. Use a fresh page in the sketch book and use all pencils and erasers available. A 2B is lighter than a 4B and should be used to begin.

Steps for drawing accurately:

1. Frame – We do not have frame, so the animal drawing can float on the page
2. Big shapes – Use guide lines, or “tickle lines”. Barely touch the paper to get a sloppy copy type of shape of the clay. You can draw some points or lines where the main features will be placed. Erase and modify as needed until everything looks like it’s in the best spot. Do not shade or add details. These guide lines will be under your real drawing.
3. Details last – Draw over the guide lines, adding more and more details. Add shading at the end. Have fun!

Artists’ Choice in clay.

Try to get students to finish their first animal drawing before moving on to artists choice in clay.

Try really hard to get them to spend 5 minutes sculpting, and another 3-5 at least, on drawing that same sculpture. This is a drawing lesson.

But having fun is important too.

•  Place clay back into the clay bin, baggies, or whatever containers you use. 
• Wipe/Wash/Wipe method to clean hands after using clay
• Put art supplies away
• Wipe tables & toss trash
• Remove any smocks (last)
• Check for items on floors and tables

Print all of your PDFs from the lesson plan and cut any references apart as needed.