Looking for a fun sculpture project that combines line and 3D design? This super-successful line sculpture lesson is perfect for both distance learning and for the traditional art room. You’ll need paper, scissors, a glue stick and a cereal box. I’ve attached an instructional video you can share with your students.
Materials
*three strips of colored paper (I just cut Astrobright paper into 1/3s). For distance learning, students could use any paper they have at home.
*scissors
*glue stick
*cereal box/cardboard (or construction paper) for the base
*optional: hole punch
Line Review
The students were familiar with lines (we had just completed my Line Rainbow Fish project).
Guess what? The Eiffel tower is not hard to draw. Our sixth graders drew the Eiffel tower, then created a Paris scene in the style of American artist Marz Jr.
The Art of Marz Jr.
We looked at the Marz Jr. website and noticed that many of his illustrations feature detailed black line drawings of famous architecture, such as the White House, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the New York Stock Exchange.
The focal point is often black line on white, contrasted against a simpler black line drawing on a brightly colored background.
Marz Jr.’s illustration of the New York Stock Exchange.
Materials:
white paper (we used copy paper)
Sharpies
construction paper, 12″x18″ – yellow, orange or light green
scissors
glue sticks
reference photos of the Eiffel Tower and Paris
Day 1: Drawing the Eiffel Tower:
We began by looking at this close-up photo of the Eiffel Tower. I asked the students to look closely at the metal work, beginning at the bottom of the tower. The entire tower is made of metal ‘X’s!
They lightly folded copy paper vertically (‘hot dog’) to create a line of symmetry, then used Sharpie for the directed draw. We drew from the bottom up, starting with the ‘rainbow’ arch, to the first viewing platform, to the ‘legs’, to the second viewing platform, and then up to the top. X, X, X, X……..
Day 2: Create Paris Scene, Cut and Collage
Using iPads, students looked at Google images of Paris. They used Sharpie to draw simple background scenes on colored construction paper, then cut out their Eiffel Towers and glued them on with glue stick.
The project took two 40-minute classes. It was a very successful project with no prep and minimal clean up.
The project was inspired by Marz Jr. projects in this post on the shine brite zamorano blog and this post at Deep Space Sparkle.
Using Sharpies, students draw the outline of the fish as a step-by-step. I tell students to draw a large ‘rainbow’ for the back, ‘smile’ for the belly, and triangle for the tail. We divide the body with a few vertical lines.
Kinds of Lines
Each section is filled with a different kind of line. We use
spirals
diagonal
wavy
zig zag
vertical
horizontal
dotted
dashed
Add SECRET (white crayon) lines
Now for the SECRET! Use the white crayon to add more lines around and in-between your black lines (the white lines are hard to see and therefore ‘secret’). For best results, encourage students to press hard with the white crayon. Tell students you will tell them the secret when we paint the fish.
Day 2: Paint
Paint with purple, blue and green watercolors. Listen to the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the SECRET lines pop out from the watercolor. It is OK for colors to overlap (the cool colors mix beautifully).
by Marcus Pfister (or 
).