Drawing is the art of making pictures on paper using tools such as pencils, pens, and crayons. In Grade 4, we will draw still life compositions and human forms using the smudge technique.
Smudging is a technique of shading. A shading is first made on paper, then a finger or a soft material like a piece of cloth is used to smear the shading to make it smooth and well blended.
In Grade 4, we will use different types of dry media such as pencils and charcoal to show the effects of light and dark.
Value gradation strip
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- How many squares can you see in the strip?
- How many colours can you see on the squares?
- Why do you think some squares are lighter and others darker?
- How can you use a pencil to shade your drawings to look real?
Learning Points
- In drawing, 'value' is defined as how light or dark an image is. Values are organised in a value gradation strip that consist of values ranging from light to dark, with several shades of grey in between.
- Value number 1 is the lightest, and value number 5 is the darkest. The dark value scales are heavily shaded, while the light value scales are lightly shaded as shown in the strip in Activity 1.
- We use dry media to shade values. Examples of dry media include pencils, coloured pencils, charcoal, pastels, and coloured chalk.
- Value gradation effect can be created by shading the image while putting different pressures on the medium, such as a pencil or charcoal, against the drawing surface.
Examples of dry media
Activity 2
Activity 2
- Use a pencil or charcoal to shade a small part of your paper.
- Use your finger to smear the shading.
- How did the shading appear after smearing?
Learning Points
- The smearing you did in Activity 2 is called smudging.
- With the smudge technique, you first create a basic shading on paper. You then use your finger, cotton wool, or piece of cloth to smear it. This smoothens and blends the shading.
- To create value gradation strips, we use different shading techniques. In Grade 4 we will use the smudge technique.
- Which tools did the artist use?
- Brush
- Charcoal pencil
- Charcoal
- Plain paper
- HB pencil
- Paper stump
- How did the image look after the artist smudged it?
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