As a girl I loved looking at Degas’ work. I was enamored by the beautiful ballerinas in voluminous tutus practicing their movements . It seemed effortlessly feminine. Though most of his work focuses on the female form, he also did paintings of men and children in everyday life. The overarching theme in his work is the human figure, and he was able to expertly capture the movement of the body.
Because I want to teach my students about Degas’ mastery of the human figure, I am straying completely from the Discovering Great Artists lessons. Instead, this lesson will teach VERY basic figure drawing ideas. Don’t worry, it’s simple!
We will be drawing human figures in motion by looking at pipe cleaner “models”. I got the idea for from www.playgroundparkbench.com/degas-dancers-preschool-art-study-of-models-pastels/. What a wonderful (and cheap!) way of making artist’s manikins!
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Materials:
Drawing paper
Pencils with erasers
Pipe cleaners
Beads
Tape
Colored Pencils
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