"Eggciting Eggsibit".

My second and third year drawing students are usually rusty when they return to school after a summer with no formal art classes. To brush up on drawing skills, we spend the first nine weeks of every class drawing. I've found this assignment to be useful in reviewing the major concepts such as composition and skill in rendering value. It also serves as a great creativity enhancer.

Rendering Shape and Tone

The students spend the first day drawing a scene I set up of eggs resting on white paper with a spotlight shining down. This activity provides an opportunity to practice accurate rendering of shape and subtle changes of tone. I move the spotlight once or twice to allow students to observe changes in shadows and shading.

If students are having trouble rendering a full range of values, a five-step value scale can be assigned for each pencil used in the project.

"Eggcelent" Ideas

On the second day students make a list of things associated with eggs. Some of the obvious items include spatulas, egg dishes, Humpty Dumpty, chickens, and eggheads. After sharing ideas from their lists, I suggest "ex" words from the dictionary that could be converted to "egg" words--such as "eggsercise," "eggsibit," and "eggsit." I list examples of these words on the board. I then ask students to turn in at least three ideas for the egg drawing featuring an egg in an unusual situation or an illustration of a play on words. The ideas are submitted in thumbnail sketch form (about 3 x 5" or 8 x 13 cm) with notes where appropriate.

The students select one of their ideas, taking into consideration both the idea with best composition possibilities and teacher input. They create three more thumbnail sketches in an attempt to organize the idea to fit a larger, 11 x 14" (28 x 35.5 cm) format.

Designing the Page

The arrangement of the page is often the most difficult part of the assignment. We look at examples of creative compositions, including the work of the Impressionists and children's book illustrators. Cardboard viewfinders are valuable tools for getting students to notice scale variation and overlapping. Often their original egg idea just needs to be larger within the format of the page.

When they have created a tight compositional sketch which uses the entire page, they trace the finished picture lightly on 11 x 14" (28 x 35.5 cm) bristol board. One full week of class is devoted to rendering the picture with black pencil in a variety of hardnesses. I encourage the class to use strong contrasts to make the drawing bold. Students are asked to use a full range of values to suggest a three-dimensional quality.

Evolution of an Idea

I grade the assignment at three stages: five points for thumbnail sketch ideas, ten points for finished full size composition, and fifteen points for rendering and final presentation. Grading the work in progress allows students the opportunity to improve the work before the final drawing is completed. Following the completion of the project, the sketches are displayed with the finished pieces and their work is critiqued. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of the idea and composition.

Students enjoy the freedom to develop and refine their original ideas. Many are amazed at the difference between their original idea and their finished piece. Some drawings end up as decorative patterns, some are cartoon-like illustrations, while others push realism to a surrealistic vein.

This assignment is a wonderful refresher project for upper level students or a good assignment for beginning students after learning the basics of drawing.

Materials

Sketching paper pencils in various hardnesses (2H, 36 and ebony pencils) 11 x 14" bristol or illustration board cardboard viewfinders

RELATED ARTICLE: NATIONAL STANDARD

Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks.

Debra Rosenbaum is an art teacher at Archbishop Hannah High School in Meraux, Louisianna.