Students first mapped out the features and basic shapes of their animals, in order to draw it as realistically as possible. Students carefully observed the changes in tone and used appropriate line techniques to create lighter and darker areas of fur. Dots, dashes, hatching, short lines and cross hatching were some techniques we used. As always, special attention was paid to the eyes, as this is where all character and personality is expressed in our animals.
After our animals were drawn in pen, and all tones were expressed, we moved on to our geometric sweaters. We looked at geometric patterns from various cultures and designs, and created our own sweater using a variety of patters. The rule was that up to half of the sweater must be colored in black, to give us that bold, graphic look which contrasts nicely with the more delicate pen work in our animals. We then chose 3-4 colors to color our sweater. White was left in some areas for added contrast.
Animals were cut out and pasted on subtly patterned deco paper for that added illustration touch.
My students worked so hard on these (and had to do some hand and finger stretching in-between) but it was well worth the effort. They are so gorgeous!
