Basic Shape Versus Detail

Using basic shapes to help you create a drawing.

Activity - Draw something you saw at the academy of sciences. It can be a fish, shark, jellyfish - anything you experienced on the field trip.

When you are finished, cut it out and write your name on the back. I will take all the fish home and mount them on a board for display.

What kind of Fish are you making? What is it called? Did you observe it swimming? How did it swim? Did it wiggle its fins? Did it swish its tail from side to side? Did it move its body in a wave like motion to move through the water?

Let's make a clownfish together:

1. Find a good photo for reference.

Observe the photo. The teacher will ask these questions to guide the student's observations:

• How many fins does the fish have?
• What is the texture of the fish? Is it soft? Prickly? Slimy?
• What shades of light and dark do you see in this fish?
• What colors do you see?
• How big is the fish? What object is about the same size?
• What shapes and patterns do you see?

2. Draw the body (including the tail). First draw the basic shapes that make up the body in pencil. There is an oval, for the body and a smaller oval that is slightly wider at one end, for the tail. I use these basic shapes to help me make the outline of the fish. It should resemble a bowling pin that has been knocked down.

3. Draw the eye. Adding this detail will help you get a better idea of the overall look of your fish.

4. Draw the fins. Use simple oval shapes first, in pencil. Now draw the outline. Do this in marker. You are using your pencil lines as a guide.

5. Decide what type of pattern your clownfish will have, and draw it in. Add the mouth.

6. Carefully erase any pencil lines that you no longer need. Darken the lines you want to keep, or draw over your final lines in marker.

7. Color in your fish. You can try drawing your fish several times.

8. Cut out the fish, and write your name on the back.

Here are more fish shapes. Look for the simpler shapes within these more detailed fish shapes.

Homework: Create a habitat for our fish. Clown fish live in Sea Anemones.

What else did you see in the tanks at the Academy of Sciences? Coral? What colors did you see? Create drawings for the habitat and cut them out to use in our final collage.