Chiaroscurro
'Chiarascurro' is a character in Despereaux who happens to be a rat in the dark, seeking light.
His name was no mistake on the part of the author. Chiarascurro literally means, 'light-dark' (clear, obscured). https://drawpaintacademy.com/chiaroscuro/
Before we began our own light-dark artwork, we took a look at famous chiaroscurro paintings in history.
I asked the kids if they noticed any similarities in the array of samples.
Light subjects that appeared to pop out on dark backgrounds.
Drawing a line of boxes to demonstrate tonal shading is a valuable (pun intended) art lesson.
The first box is meant to be white while the final box, as black as a pencil can colour.
The tricky bit comes when you have to shade the center boxes to show the progression.
Once the kids completed the first portion of this exercise, they were asked to shade the interior of the masking tape box with the side of their pencils.
An eraser, in this case, was used as the instrument for drawing.
We made note of erasing more or less for tonal value.
Miss C was stuck for a subject, which is a common issue.
I mentioned that in art class, we were always taught to start with a drawing of an egg.
When I turned back around, the above is what she produced. We talked about how the light source appears as if its produced from the left.
Miss O wanted to depict a mouse from the story, so she used her eraser to create an outline. Later she added details (eyes, claws, mouth, nose) with the sharp point of the pencil.