Expressive Figure

I love teaching with themes that are both paired with new skills and open to interpretation and media choice. I planned a unit about expressive figurative work that combinedlearning gesture drawing with creating figurative art that captures motion or expresses emotion.

The unit started with a few days of learning and practice with both gesture drawing and longer poses. I always ask my students to take turns modeling, which can be a tough sell, so this year I encouraged them to pick an item to hold and offered candy to volunteers.

Next, I asked students to apply new learning by creating their own art that incorporated both the figure and expression or motion. I asked them to base their work in drawing or mixed media and challenged them to choose media they hadn't used yet this year. Students were also required to take their own reference photos.

I love how each artwork shows understanding figurative drawing, individual style and personal voice. Here is the slide deck I made for the unit.