Abstract Animals

Capture animals in abstract drawings, finding the geometric shapes that make up animal faces and bodies.

• 1.

  Look at several photographs of animals. Compare and contrast their forms by visually breaking the images into simple geometric shapes. To do this, place a piece of tracing paper over a large, side view of an animal such a horse or an elephant.

• 2.

  With a Crayola® Fine-Line Marker, draw the simple geometric shapes that comprise the animal. An elephant's head and abdomen would be circles, with a long oval for a trunk, and rectangles for legs. Try several different animals.

• 3.

  Tear the edges of construction paper so it looks like a deckle edge.

• 4.

  With markers on construction paper, draw the simple geometric forms that you traced. Combine several simple forms to complete a more complex drawing.

• 5.

  Use Crayola Colored Drawing Chalk to fill in the animal and background. Keep your drawing simple and strong.

• 6.

  Exhibit the works. Ask viewers to identify which animals are portrayed.

Benefits

• Children visually perceive common shapes and proportions in animal forms.
• Children outline animals using the simple forms they recognize, then fill the outline and backgrounds with chalk.
• Children exchange their creations and identify each other's animals.

Adaptations

• Draw several different views of the same animal. Compare views to see if the shapes you observe are similar each time.
• Use this method to draw human forms.
• Compare very different animal forms (turtle/whale, snake/giraffe). Analyze shapes used in each drawing.