LANDSCAPE ART

GRADE 2: TRIMESTER 3: LAYERED LANDSCAPE ART

Landscape art is art ABOUT THE LAND. The land was here before we were, but dinosaurs were NOT artists. Art was invented by creative ancient humans. Some of the very oldest art made by humans was art ABOUT THE LAND and about the people and animals that lived on the land. Ancient people used rocks, burned sticks, charcoal, and other natural materials to draw pictures onto the walls of caves or to carve sculptures out of bones or mammoth tusks.

In more modern times, artists used pencils, paints, and pastels to create drawings and paintings of landscapes. Landscape photography allows artists to use cameras (or smart phone cameras) to choose and capture images of nature from around the world.

We are going to create landscape drawings using three layers: 1) Background (farthest away layer), 2) Middle ground (middle distance layer), and 3) Foreground (nearest layer). The background layer will be at the top of your drawing, and the background items will be too far away to include much detail (to see detail in the background you would need binoculars or a telescope!). Try drawing one of the landscapes in the Art Hub for Kids videos below. For coloring, you could use whatever you have--markers, colored pencils, crayons, or even watercolor paints if you have them. If you don't, you can still make a really great landscape drawing even with just pencils and pens.

I would LOVE to see the animals that you have drawn, colored, or painted! You can take a photo with a smartphone or iPad and share with me at mwgriffi@jeffcoschools.us using email or by sharing through Google Drive.