Shading with Hatching, Cross-hatching & Pointillism

The next lesson I introduced to my daughter's fifth grade class was shading: using hatching, cross-hatching & pointillism. The students used Ultra Fine Point Sharpie markers for this project.  This was a 2-day lesson/project which included learning & practicing with hatching, cross-hatching & pointillism and creating a finished drawing using those skills.

Students usually love working with Sharpie markers. Not only are they incredibly satisfying to draw with, they are also usually "forbidden" to use by most parents & teachers because as we all know - children & permanent markers don't always play well together! But, in this instance, I passed them out to the students willingly.  And, they were thrilled!

(image found on Google Image Search)

When handing out fine-tip Sharpies, it is really important to instruct the young artists that pushing down too hard with the marker tip, or hitting your paper (while drawing dots/pointillism) is NOT acceptable with these pens and it WILL RUIN your marker by splitting the tip. Also, since Sharpies are fairly prone to drying out, or needing to "rest" once in a while, it is a really good idea to have extras - just in case.  And, then there are always the occasional pens that for whatever reason leak ink - yikes!

This is a lesson that I always try to have as a follow-up to the previous lessons of just learning about shading with a pencil and shading with charcoal. This lesson involves explaining & demonstrating the basics of what hatches/hatching is, and showing the students how drawing the hatches/lines closer together created an area that looks darker, and drawing them farther apart makes the area look lighter. I usually (always!!) have the students do a value chart for both hatching and cross-hatching. It's important to add that cross-hatching can be done using hatches/lines which go in more than one direction, crossing over each other. Definitely show them 2 directions, 3 directions, 4 directions, etc... 

Here are a couple images from my old lesson plans on hatching, Cross-hatching & Pointillism:

The students enjoyed working with the markers, but complained (as usual) about having to to Value Charts - oh well!  It must be done! As I have probably mentioned before, I am a HUGE fan of Value Charts!  I like having students create them whenever I introduce a new medium to them. I always tell them that it's a good idea to create a Value chart whenever trying out a new kind of art material, whenever you haven't drawn for a while, or whenever you want to remind yourself what can be achieved with any particular medium. I have also had students create Value Charts with color pencils or crayons by layering 2 different colors with each color being darker or by itself at opposite sides of the chart, and then seeing how they blend together. One time, years ago, I had a young boy give me a little mini Value Chart he had created at home as a gift for me.  That was SO cool!! So, despite all the complaining, I believe my students have (for the most part) understood the importance of creating them and have seen the value of them and knowing how & why to create them - even on their own at home.

After the students played around & practiced with hatching, cross-hatching & pointillism, they began drawing guitars, which is the finished drawing that will incorporate all of these. I will have a separate post for the guitar drawings which turned out super cool!!

Check out some of my other posts about teaching art to children:

• Drawing: A Lifelong Skill
• Learning to Draw: Hand-Eye Coordination
• Basic Drawing: Breaking it Down for Beginners & Children
• Art Field Trip to Picasso Exhibit in 2010 with Art Students...
• Georgia O'Keeffe - Inspired Watercolor Paintings with Children
• Teaching the Color Wheel to Children - Using Watercolor
• My Second Day Teaching the Color Wheel to Fifth Graders at My Daughter's School
• Third Day Teach the Color Wheel to Fifth Graders
• Marble Drawings with Fifth Graders
• Quick Sketches & Value Charts with Fifth Graders
• Introducing Charcoal to Fifth Graders