Monday, July 12, 2010

Monster Bikes


I've been following dearada for a few years now. I have been turned on to so much quality work through this source. good variety of artists, locales, and media. I am very grateful to have found her postings online.
Recently she posted about the illustrations of Alex Eben Meyer.
Cool stuff. Interesting finished pieces and he has a fascinating sketchblog. Many of his drawings have a looseness to them that i relate to in my own work.

The pic posted was a bike illustration that he did. Complex shape made through adding on thick and thin lines against a white background. An obvious understanding of the functionality of the parts being added.

Great exercise in drawing to test students' imaginations within limited parameters- black lines & bike parts. A balance between the bike parts and empty parts is key to creating an engaging composition.

I did this with 4th graders. It was completed in one session lasting an hour & ten minutes.

1. intro to Alex's work. emphasizing line, composition, positive and negative space, and imagination
2. pulled up a variety of bikes on my presenter screen so students had references for their drawings
3. drawn in pencil first
4. traced in marker- making some lines thicker than others to create variety in line quality

It's a very open assignment. Students may go many different ways assembling their "monster bikes".

Alex was kind enough to post pics of some student work and give them a shout out on his sketchblog.

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