Title: Tracing Thoughts: Questioning the Role of Tracing in Drawing
Medium: Drawing
Materials: Color photographs (brought in by students), tracing paper, white paper, pencils, other drawing mediums (chosen by students). Reproductions of artworks that contain traced or copied elements (suggested artists): Henry Darger, Henri Rousseau, Vermeer (for his alleged use of the camera obscura).
Grades: 9-12
Time: 2-4 45-minute sessions.
Learning Objective:
Through tracing color images with pencil and then transferring them onto a new paper where the traced lines can be distorted to create a drawing that is different from itŐs original source, students will learn that tracing involves careful observation and thoughtful editing. By observing and transforming the characteristics of the traced lines students will become more sensitive to the subtleties and nuances that distinguish line qualities. Finally students will decide for themselves the advantages and limitations of tracing.
Motivation/Demo:
Teacher: Do you think it is okay to trace or copy things when you are making art? Is art less authentic if parts are traced or copied? Why do some artists trace or copy images? When was the last time you traced or copied something? Why? (Discuss with the students).
Show reproductions of images that contain traced or copied elements and ask the class the following: Can you tell what parts have been traced or copied? Describe the details that make things look traced? Does the fact that these artists traced or copied images change your opinion of the work?
Guidelines for Activity/Demo:
Each Student will trace a full color image, transfer the image onto white paper, and transform the line quality of the traced image until it no longer “looks&3148; like a tracing. Students may do this by adjusting and distorting shapes and lines, as well as adding and deleting details. Students may achieve this by thickening lines, bending them into curves, making them angular, or any other method they can come up with.
Model the process of tracing and ask the students the following: In a full color image there are so many details how do I choose what to include and what to leave out?
Model the process of transferring a tracing by covering the back of the tracing paper with graphite powder, placing the tracing on a fresh paper and re-drawing the image--this works just like carbon paper.
Model several ways to alter the quality of a line.
Hand out materials.
Independent work:
Assist students individually as needed.
Reflection:
Let us compare a finished drawing with the image that was itŐs source, how are these images different?
Please find an example where the style chosen by the artist has really wiped out almost all evidence of tracing. What decisions did he/she make to accomplish this?