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People in Action Activity

Figures in Line

Materials:

Pencils, paper, oil pastels & soft lead pencils (6B Maxi Noris)

How to Create Figures in Action:

Provide students with a pencil and paper. Ask them to do some very quick sketches of people in action using lines only. We used to make ‘stick figures’ in this way. We will now use the same technique to draw people in action who look real.

Have a student stand in front of the class with his or her arms by the side and legs together. Use lines only to sketch their body and the position of their arms and legs. How does this sketch look? It is very stiff. Now do a second sketch with the arms out to the side and see that the figure still looks very stiff. Talk with the students and help them become consciously aware that almost any action means that arms and legs bend at their elbow or knee joints. Have the students now take a different position with legs and arms bent in a different pose. Look at the student now. When you sketch them, will the sketch look the same as the stiff ones you made first? No it won’t because their arms and legs are now bent. This makes the figure look more real. Make the sketch and see how different it is to the first ones you made. What makes the major difference? It is that the arms and the legs bend at the elbows and the knees.

Have the student now take up different positions for the students to quickly sketch them in. Have them bend, stretch, appear to catch a ball, appear to be diving into a pool, appear to be jumping for a ball, appear to be jumping over a hurdle.

Look at the sketches. They are figures in action and looking much more interesting than the first stiff ones we made. However do these ‘stick’ figures look like real people? No they do not so we need more skills to make figures in action look real.

Figures in Action using shapes

Provide students with oil pastels and paper. Use a flesh coloured oil pastel on its side to make a figure the same way we made the figures in action above. Now however the figure will be made up of shapes instead of lines. Use one of the sketched figures from above as a reference. Make a shape for the head, a wider shape for the body, thinner shapes for the arms and legs. Remember that the arms and legs bend when they are in action. Your sketches of figures in action are beginning to look more real. Make students aware that all the shapes they make with the side of the oil pastel at this stage will be square or rectangular. Keep practicing different actions. Use the pastel to make the line where each foot will be. The angle of the feet is very important to make the figure look real. Maybe we need to have someone pose again so we can see where the feet are in each action?

Have students select more sketches as reference for more figures in action, or use a student to look at. This time we will make the figure look even more real. Are the arms and legs the same size all the way down? Of course not. They are larger at the top than the bottom. Place your pastel on its side and pull a shape that is wider at the top than the bottom. This will take a little practice to get the wider part in the correct place. Try making bent arm and leg shapes only until you can get the shapes right. Have a student take up some actions, which represent different sporting events that will occur at the games.

Now make a figure in action with arms and legs shaped more realistically. Keep using the flesh coloured oil pastel only and make figures in action using all the skills you have learned to date. Try getting more shape into the feet. Use the oil pastel on its side to make hands and fingers. Keep working until you have a figure in action that you are pleased with. Remake this figure about A5 size 

Adding detail to the figures in action for realism

Provide students with oil pastels, paper and a soft lead pencil (6B Noris Maxi). Work on the final figure in action that you have just completed and are happy with. Use the oil pastels to now clothe the figure in the outfit that such a sportsperson would wear. Make the colour as bright as you can as you are now colouring in with the pastel. The colours must be the real colours of the selected sport. Show any other colours that are on the clothing.

Use the oil pastel to make the hair on the sportsperson’s head. Is there a lot of hair? Will it sit still on the head or will it be moving in some way to go with the action of the figure? Remember that nothing is ever just one colour so light or dark might be added to the hair for more realism.

Line work for detail and decoration

To complete the work, show as much detail as possible on the selected figure using the soft lead pencil. Students should know that a pencil can be used to add detail to an oil pastel drawing by using it in different ways:

To outline shapes, to make patterns on top of the colour, to cross hatch to show tone or shadow.

What detail will you need to add now to make the figure look more real? Pattern lines in the hair? The facial features? Tell students not to do too much detail on the face, as simple lines and shapes look best on flesh coloured oil pastel. Will you outline the body?

Curved lines will be used now to outline the shapes for more realism. Help students realise that it doesn’t matter if they go over or outside the oil pastel shapes.

What detail will need to be drawn onto the clothing? Writing, logos, pattern of stitching, metal parts on shoes, nail details, hair on legs etc. Stress that the more detail that is added, the more realistic the work will look.

NB. This technique can also be done in the area of painting. The same steps would be followed using cardboard pieces (form cuts) and paint instead of the oil pastel. The paint would need to be dry before going over it with a soft lead pencil.

 

© Copyright Zart Art 2009. Activity and teacher notes written and designed by Zart Education.

Key words: Art, craft, activity, activities, children, kids, school art activities, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, People in Action