Lesson At A Glance

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

5 Min – Demo how round the face is

22 Min – Use mirror & observe

10 Min – 3 Charcoal sketches

5 Min – Lesson point about sketching vs drawing

10 Min – draw clay model

25 Min – with clay

2 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.

Kids will make something fun to warm the clay up, like an animal or cartoon.

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.

At the beginning of class, hand students a large lump of clay that is about the size of a medium or large orange. It’s good to have extra clay on hand as well. Students will ask for more to finish details.

Tell them right away 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.

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 this belongs to the studio/class
• Clean hands by wiping thoroughly with a paper towel before washing (wipe/wash/wipe)

You may want to offer to take photos of anyone’s sculptures and either email or print them.

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.

First explain that most people will make learners when drawing or sculpting faces. Our brain tells us that the face is flat, but that’s not true. It is amazing just how curved the front of a face really is. Walk your students through an exercise.

Hand out mirrors for reference.

First, do the steps yourself as a demo. Then have everyone go copy your steps. The steps are divided into smaller sets that are easier to remember. For big shapes, do not use tools to manipulate. Only use your hands.

Demo 1:

1. Roll clay into a fat log and set it in a vertical (shower) position on your paper
2. Pinch off the bottom end (about 1/4 of the whole) to save some extra for nose, lips, and stuff
3. Press the log down all around the sides and top to make the log more like a half log with a rounded top
4. Make the bottom look like a chin, more triangular but still rounded.
5. You can shape your face to make it look like the proportion on the handout
6. Take care to make SURE that the face keeps a round shape and does not become flattened.

Now the class works on their own clay to do these same steps. Help students through the steps, showing them how to get  proportions and good shapes.

Tap the 4 arrows icon to enlarge the video to full screen.

Review the demo video and demonstrate to your students, or you can simply display the video on a larger screen for them to watch.

remember to use your mirror and observe your own face for reference.

Gather around for a continuation of the demo and then another round of clay work. Have students use one of their palette knives, a toothpick, and provide any clay tools if you have them (tools should be dedicated to oil based modeling clay only).

Find the middle of the face in height – make a light eye line with your palette knife.

1. Make a mark for the bottom of the nose, and a line for the mouth. Use a toothpick to poke tiny holes for the corners of the mouth. Note that the mouth at rest is not very wide at all
2. Press to make eye bowls, letting the indention wrap around the side a bit
3. Make a nose shape and place it on the face
4. Make a thin worm and place onto the mouth, no wider than the holes you made
5. Make two tiny football shapes and place into the eye bowls for the eyes
6. Add tiny details using toothpick and any other tools you have

Now the class works on their own clay to do these same steps. Help students through the steps, showing them how to get  proportions and good shapes.

Special note: if you’re dividing into two sessions, the clay face models must be saved for drawing from observation on the second day. That means that you need enough clay for each student to have their own model to save. If you don’t have the resources for this, there are a couple of ways to extend them. To cut the clay amount you’ll need in half, you can stagger the lesson. Let half your students finish the second session before the other half begins the first. Another idea that can save even more cost, is to save just enough face sculptures so you have enough for one class at a time to draw from on the following day (re-using the same set for each class). Letting 2 students look at one sculpture between them means you may only need a few saved sculptures. Each class can then re-use the rest of the clay to make their sculptures during each class.

Prop the face sculptures up onto a cheasel or stand, sitting on paper to protect surfaces. The view should be from the front, and not the side or even a three-quarter view. Remove all the mirrors, because you want students to look at the clay only. The point is to draw the clay, not a person. 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.

Students use charcoal 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 will be 3 sketches and one drawing, so they’ll divide one more page like this. Each sketch should be on half a sheet of paper in the sketch pad.

3 sketches

1. 2-minute sketch with one long line. Do not lift your charcoal, and move around slowly but without pauses. When they’re finished take a break for the teacher talkbelow.
2. 3-minute shadows-only sketch using the side of the charcoal and no lines AT ALL. Break a stick if it’s too long.
3. 1-minute to add lines to the shadow sketch or make a new quick sketch.

After students create their first sketch, explain this important concept:

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 face may float on the page
2. Big shapes – Use guide lines, or “tickle lines”. Barely touch the paper to get the shape of the clay, and lines where the main features are placed. Erase and modify as needed until everything looks accurate. 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. Have fun!

Make sure they keep the clay on paper, and enjoy!

•  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.

STUDENT’S

MATERIALS

• 14″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
• Charcoal
• Stretchy Eraser
• 2B Pencil
• 4B Pencil
• White Eraser

Week 26: Portrait In Color

This is one of two lessons about portraits. Today everyone will work on accuracy, while also learning how observation helps accuracy more than anything else. There is a memory drawing game and an oil pastel copy of a Van Gogh portrait.

Week 27: Self Portrait

Using mirrors to observe themselves, artists will draw a pencil self-portrait. First, though, there is a lesson about shadows, reflected light, and soft edges using an egg.