Draw Like an Egyptian

Can you see anything?
Yes, wonderful things.

When I was seven, I wanted to be an Egyptologist. So when I spotted this project several years ago, I knew it was a keeper. It's also relatively neat, takes time to do well (it usually covered two 55 minute sessions), and requires only a few supplies - a winner all around.

First, I had the kids take rulers and mark a piece of manila paper in thirds, horizontally. This was the first time some of them had attempted this. Next, we studied the term profile, and discussed proportions of the face. (For kids especially, eyes fall about in the middle, the nose halfway between the eyes and chin, and the mouth halfway between the chin and nose.) After sketching in a profile view of a face in the right third of the paper, and marking where each feature should be, we looked at examples of ancient Egyptian art.

Tut's Tomb


Ramses III


Nefertari

On flat surfaces, the ancient Egyptians depicted people in profile - there are only a few examples where this is not the case. However, they also drew each eye as though it was being seen from the front. We also looked at the colors used in Egyptian art - mostly reds, blues, and yellows.

We added details to our profiles to make them into Egyptian self-portraits. Each kid drew hair, eyes, and other features to resemble themselves, but added accessories that an ancient Egyptian would have worn. Once we had drawn a self-portrait we were happy with, we traced the lines in black marker.

In the left third of our paper, we drew a decorative line to separate it from the rest of the page. Then we used that third of the page to draw a cartouche. A cartouche was a specific shape used to enclose a royal name. For now, we left ours blank. First we had to talk about hieroglyphics.

At first, Egyptologists were uncertain they would ever be able to decode hieroglyphics, the symbols the ancient Egyptians wrote with. But in 1799, a French soldier in Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone. This stone had a passage carved in three different scripts, including ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and ancient Greek. It took twenty years to match up the translations, but in the end, the code was cracked.

Online charts of hieroglyphics don't always agree on what symbol makes what sound. I put together the chart above, a simplified version of a couple of different ones (right click; view image for full size). I encouraged the kid to spell their names phonetically, rather than concentrating on the English spelling.

Once we'd drawn our names, we traced them in black marker as well. Then it was time to move on to the cray-pas. I asked the kids to create a pattern for their background, and to use bright colors. Finally, we got out metallic gold pens and colored a few small details, such as jewelry or crowns, to add a little glow.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Here are two quick end of the year projects for Pre-K and Kindergarten students.

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Here are two final art projects with the kids. I really wanted to do something that involved both the individual and the entire class for the younger ones. So the pre-Ks did these flowers. First we each drew our own stems, grass, and... flower middles. Whatever they're called. Then the kids dipped their thumbs in paint, stamped a thumbprint petal, and passed their picture to their neighbor. It was a bit of a nightmare to get the passing and the stamping coordinating. I ended up doing "Simon Says" to get them to stamp and pass at the same time, and felt oddly like a coxswain on a rowing crew. But at the end, each kid had a cute picture that everyone helped make.

For the Kindergarteners, I decided to do something that wouldn't require much planning or preparation. First we read a story about a rainbow, and I told them we'd be making our own rainbow, but it would require teamwork. Each kid picked a piece of paper out of a jar; each piece of paper had a color written on it. The kids were given magazines with instructions to only cut out images in their color. Two of each color x three classes, and I had six of each of our color wheel colors. Then on Thursday, I put them up in the cafeteria.

Wyland Mural

To start, I'm reblogging two entries from my illustration blog.

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Every Friday when I was in middle school, I would walk the couple of blocks from school to my piano teacher's house. I was never the first lesson of the afternoon - in nice weather I'd sit outside and do my homework, but most of the time I'd come in and sit on her couch. She had a coffee table book full of art by Robert Wyland, otherwise known as "that guy who paints life-size whales". Years later, taking the train from New York to DC, I'd keep an eye out for the "Whaling Wall" in Wilmington.

So when an administrator at my school told me she'd signed us up to do our own mural for a contest set up by the Wyland Foundation, I was excited. My middle school class is the perfect age for it, so we looked at Wyland murals online and did lots of sketches of different sea creatures. Finally, each kid picked an animal he or she wanted to be responsible for, and did a detailed sketch. I took the drawings home, and came up with a composition that would fit all of them.

As a teacher, I struggle with control of the big picture stuff - this definitely came to the surface on the yearbook. I erred on the side of controlling dictator that time, as I've seen books where the advisor was absent and the senior section had each student's "nickmane" (amongst many, many other mistakes). But most of the time in art, the process is more important than the final product, and the kids just want to get good and messy. I feel like this is one of those grey areas. So my sketch is just that - a sketch - and we're making changes as we go. I doubt we'll finish by the contest deadline (Thursday), but it'll be something nice to hang up in the gym.

Friday, May 21st, 2010

As promised, the middle school mural...

It's come along farther now, but this is how it looked when we sent in the picture for the contest. The turtles and eels are more detailed, and we have some great, stripey lionfish keeping the puffer fish company around the coral. I think the kids did a really excellent job with the gradation on the water - we were painting on gravel at the time, but I think the little white spots look like light in the water.