This was a quick lesson I did with a Grade 7-9 class. It took 40 minutes to complete. I demonstrated the different qualities of different types of charcoal, then showed the how to shade a realistic looking water droplet.
There are lots of tutorials on Youtube if you'd prefer to show a video.
We used the following types of charcoal: compressed, vine, and charcoal pencils (black and white).
They toned their white drawing paper first with vine charcoal blended out. Then they traced a circle on top (we used plastic lids and yoghurt containers as tracers). Students could do one or more than one. Draw a curved highlight at the top. Add some dark charcoal at the top then blend it downwards in a curved fashion.
Always blend with the shape of the form.
End with white charcoal/chalk pastel to touch up all the highlights.
*NOTE: some students have sensory issues with charcoal, so I always have soft tissues/kleenex available- they just wrap their finger around that.
This is a super messy project and charcoal gets all over the kids and their clothes, so you've been warned! Allow at least 10 minutes for clean-up as the kids take forever to wash their hands at the sink!! I will say most of my students absolutely hate using charcoal and chalk pastels, ESPECIALLY my high school students!
This lesson had a pretty high success rate with students.
It's a good introduction to shading a sphere!
