Lesson 2: Expressive Line Landscape

Objective: To have the children create a landscape drawing with expressive lines.

Vocabulary:

drawing - A picture made with a pencil, pen, crayon, marker, or pastel.

expressive qualities - Characteristics of art elements that make the elements affect the viewer's feelings. Lines, shapes, colors, and forms all have expressive qualities.

landscape - An artwork that shows an outdoor setting typically displaying the beauty of nature with things like plants, trees, fields, hills, and mountains.

line style - The common names we give to lines, such as straight, angled, zigzag, jagged, curved, curvy, curly, bumpy, wavy, scalloped, spiral, etc...

mood - The way an artwork makes you feel or emotion the artist is trying to make you feel.

Wild West by Emil Armin

Lines Express Feelings

Wild West by Emil Armin is a landscape, or outdoor setting. What feeling about Wild West do you think the artist wanted to show?
Artists can use lines to show how they feel about something. In Wild West, the artist used thick jagged lines to create an exciting feeling. The jagged lines also show that the land is rough and bumpy. How would the painting be different if the artist had used many straight lines? What feeling do you think curving lines would create?

Think Critically - Tell what you have learned.

Studio Time: Expressive Line Landscape

Materials:

sketchbook, pencil, white paper, and colored pencils

Plan

Think about a landscape you would like to make. Try to choose a setting based on your past experiences and identify how you felt. Think about the feelings you would like to express. What kinds of lines will you use to express those feelings? Create a sketch of a picture that uses line styles to express feelings.
Check list:
- Landscape - an outdoor setting showing things like fields, trees, gardens, and mountains.
- An emotion. What emotion are you trying communicate?
- Expressive lines that you believe communicate that emotion.
Example of lines that show expression:

Curves

Safe, relaxing, calm, gentle, soft.
straight, curved, curvy, horizontal, smooth, wavy, loopy, even, regular, slow

Angles

Exciting, dangerous, wild, rough, hard.
jagged, zigzag, diagonal, angular, pointy, scribble, uneven, irregular, fast.

Create

Copy or recreate your best sketch onto white paper.
Add details to the landscape. Include different lines that show your feelings about the setting.

3. Use colored pencils to finish the drawing.

Reflect - Tell about your artwork.

Photograph and Submit your work on Google Classroom.

Photograph sketches as well as completed artwork.
"Add" (attach) to Google Classroom assignment.
"Mark as done" to submit your work for a grade.

Challenge: Postcard

Create a postcard of an imaginary place using lines to express feelings, complete the postcard with a short message to a friend and address it.