Van Gogh Gridded Oil Pastel Mural

Gridded, Oil Pastel Mural


Each student was given a section of a famous work of art. I used Van Gogh's "Cypress Trees" because we had just discussed brushstrokes, blending color, and movement.

The students' sections were 6cmx6cm. Using the grid method they transfered this image to a 48x48cm piece of paper. So when everyone was finished and we put the large pieces together we had a huge wall murral roughly 250cm x 250cm

Grade 7 gridded self-portrait

I photographed each student and then we discussed how to properly use a ruler to measure a grid.

A large grid, 2cm x 2cm, is measured onto a large sheet of paper, and a small grid, 1cm x 1 cm is measured onto a small sheet of tracing paper.

Next, students were given printouts of their faces and asked to tape the gridded tracing paper to the photocopy.

Then they were to trace the main shapes of the face onto the tracing paper and transfer, box by box, the lines that make up the basic shapes of the face onto the large gridded paper.

In this way, exact proportions are tediously, but easily rendered.

Finally, the value is carefully built up.

We had many small exercises and discussions about grid-drawing and creating a range of value with blending before beginning this project.