Apple Baskets

3rd Grade: Apple Baskets

3rd Graders explored the works of Paul Cezanne (his many fruit still life paintings). We looked for value, organic shapes and overlapping. We talked about ways artists make apples in a basket look realistic. Overlapping the apples was a concept that most 3rd graders were familiar with, and I think this project was overall very successful. I did some examples of drawing apples in a basket using overlapping and not overlapping and students could instantly see the difference of which one was more realistic. I also drew some various examples of baskets and buckets on the white board, and hung up some posters with basket drawings on them for students to see. 

Students drew a basket with pencil on 12" x 18" black Riverside construction paper. (their paper could be vertical or horizontal. I did have to emphasize drawing the basket pretty big. Some students wanted to draw quite small. Students added apples to their basket. I also let students draw a tipped over basket with apples that had fallen out if they wished. They still had to show overlapping, though. Students glue traced over their pencil lines. Next art class, students filled in with soft pastel chalks. I demonstrated how to create values by tinting with white and how to add highlights. I also demonstrated added the sky first and grass last (so any grass blades would be over the sky and they would not have to color "blue sky" between grass blades). Basket was a free color choice.