January - Creating Depth - 2nd grade

Materials:

square paper

smaller paper

colored pencils

crayons

glue

scissors

Discussion: Depth refers to the amount of “distance” projected by a composition. Somethings look the closest - Foreground, then comes the Middle ground and what seems to be farthest away is the Background. Ask them if they can think of ways to arrange objects in a flat painting to achieve a feeling of depth?

1. By overlapping objects within a composition, an artist can create the illusion of depth. Closer objects are in front of other objects

2. Closer objects are bigger

Explain that they will be making a 3-D scene with a foreground, middle ground and background.

Process:

1. Explain how to construct a triangle diorama:

To create a triangle diorama, take a square piece of paper. Fold the paper diagonally, open it and fold it on the other diagonal. Then, cut on one fold to the center. Bring one of the flaps over the other

flap and glue. This makes a little tent shaped space for your scene.

2. Have students fold and cut diorama, then color the background before glueing. Background can be a forest, mountains, a cityscape, outer space, the pyramids etc.

3. Have students create something for the middle ground out of a separate piece of paper. Remember to leave a tab at the bottom that can be glued onto the “ground” of the diorama. Middle ground examples could be a house, a space ship, a car, a tree etc.

4. Do the same for the foreground. Examples could be a person, an animal, astreet sign etc.