The oldest Elementary Art students worked super hard on the grid drawings.

We started by talking about the left and right sides of the brain and how the left side performs more logical tasks, such as science and math.  While the right side performs tasks that have do with creativity and  spacial relationships and art.   You can make art using either side of the brain, but it will flow more easily if you let go of the logic and flip on the right side.  To illustrate this, we practiced an upside drawing of a man in a chair.  The idea being to not think about the fact that it is a man, but to think more about the lines and their relationships to each other.

We took this a step farther, and completed grid drawings.

The students picked out smallish (3 x 3 inches) images from books and then using the grid system enlarged and transferred the images to 10 by 10 inch paper.  While doing this they could only see one little square at a time, forcing them to focus on the spatial relationships.

Once the images were drawn, they erased the grid lines and completed their projects based on whatever medium worked best with their images.

These are so impressive!