In this lesson, students will draw three-dimensional shapes using triangular dot paper. Using an artwork by Josef Albers, students will analyze and shade parallel planes.
Objectives
- We will learn to draw three-dimensional shapes on triangular dot paper.
- We will copy and extend an artwork by Josef Albers.
Assessment
- Participation in class discussions
- Cube and V worksheets
- Prism in a Square worksheet
Time Required
1 hour
Materials/Resources Needed
- Document camera/projector
- Art Image (linked below in the activity)
- Activity pages (7-10)
- Colored pencils or crayons
- Pencil
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
After your field trip to the Asheville Art Museum, have your students talk about their visit. Encourage them to discuss artworks they saw, identifying which ones they liked the most/least and why. Ask them to talk about the studio activity and what they created.
Activity One: Cube and V
NOTE: All pages referenced below are linked above in Materials/Resources Needed as “Activity pages.”
- Project activity page 7. Using a white board or Smart board, demonstrate how to draw a cube on the triangle dot pattern. Provide students with the Cube and V worksheets (activity pages 7–9) and ask students to draw several cubes until the are comfortable with the process.
- Ask students to draw a line of cubes from one edge of the paper to the other edge. Students can use pages 7–8 to explore making lines of cubes going in different directions (horizontal, vertical, diagonal). If time allows, students can use colored pencils or crayons to color a pattern for their cubes, making sure that all faces of one cube are the same color.
- Project activity page 9. Using a white board or Smart board, demonstrate how to draw both of the three dimensional V shapes on the triangle dot pattern. Ask students to copy both examples of V shapes onto their triangle dot paper.
- Next, ask students to draw the V in other positions. For example, the V might be drawn so the top is showing, the right side is showing, or it could be drawn lying flat. If students are struggling, you might show them one or two more possibilities on the board as well.
- This activity could be continued as homework and on subsequent days. There are 24 possible different V shapes that can be drawn!
Activity Two: Prism in a Square
NOTE: All pages referenced below are linked above in Materials/Resources Needed as “Activity pages.”
- Project Josef Albers’ Formulation: Articulation, Folio II, Folder 16. Ask students to describe what they see. If students identify a prism and/or a square, ask them to explain how they know it’s a prism and/or a square. How are they similar? How are they different? Prompt students to notice where the corners of the prism fall along a side of the square and see if they can make a relationship between the lengths of the sides. Hint: the corners of the prism fall one third of the way along the side of the square. The length of one side of the prism is equal to one third of the length of one side of the square.
- Provide students with the Prism in a Square worksheet (activity page 10). Ask students to try drawing a prism-in-a-square images without the “Z” form that is shaded in Albers’ artwork. This may be challenging and they can use a ruler to help them.
- Students can color the horizontal (top/bottom) planes of the prism using one color and the vertical (sides) planes of the prism using a different color.
- Did coloring the planes change the way the prism looks?