Creating Depth in Art

Starting in around 3rd grade, many kids really want to work on making their drawings look more realistic.   One of the ways that I teach this is through teaching them the 6 Ways to Create Depth.  I created on this lesson when we were in online school in 2020 but I find that the simplicity and clarity work well in an in person setting as well.  The strategies I cover are: overlapping, shading, placement, size, perspective and value/focus.  Resources for the whole lesson can be found here.

I start by taking them through a slideshow that demonstrates each concept in a simplified form and using a piece of artwork.  

Next, we practice the skills we learned with a worksheet:

And finally, I show them a piece of art that I created that uses all the concepts we covered.  And I leave it up to them how they want to demonstrate their understanding.  Digital?  Sounds great--tell me what apps you are interested in and let's see what you come up with!  Colored pencil?!  Super, let's sit down and I will show you the magic of coveted Prismacolor pencils.

I hope you and your students find this useful!