Icons and Illuminated Manuscripts

This week, our fourth graders will be starting a new project. As we move into this next project, we will be looking at icons, specifically Madonna and Child on a Curved Throne, and illuminated manuscripts, with special attention to The Book of Kells.

With our next project, students will have the chance to do a little illuminating of their own.

Line in Action

As you can see, students are hard at work technically applying what they have learned about line in their current project. We have been reviewing the importance of line weight, of paying close attention to negative space when drawing, and of using our pencil to measure space and direction in our drawings.

The Element of Line

For this project, before we begin actually putting line to work, we review some of the various definitions of line. Students are learning that vocabulary words they are accustomed to in other disciplines can have very different meanings when used regarding art.

I would ask students for definitions for words such as 'organic', 'varied' and 'negative' and would help lead them, using the Socratic method, to the specific meanings of those words in art. As we move forward this semester, we will continue to randomly review the definitions we learned in this project as we use the different kind of lines to help solidify students' understanding of these terms.