Painting of still life continues, with the use of limited palettes of complementary colors to aid the students' understanding of the possibilities and limitations of pigments. Students draw in pencil and ink from closely observed stuffed mammal and bird specimens borrowed from the Children's Museum's Teachers' Resource Link. Proportion, contour line, and the representation of texture are stressed. Continuous Line Blind Contour Drawings. The goal of these exercises is to stress the importance of careful observation.
Concentration is stressed, and drawings are observed for their quality of line and detail.
The freeing aspects of this exercise are visible in the resulting drawings, which are often more lifelike than the students' previous efforts. Proportions of the Human Head. The class in introduced through lecture and exercise to the classic proportions of the human head, and students compare each other's heads and faces to this standard. Portrait drawing, begun in the exercise on continuous line drawing, continues with an emphasis on correct proportion. Having studied what makes all human heads look similar, students how focus on what creates individualization.