Sea shell contour line 6th grade

After all that practice drawing shells, it seemed a shame not to squeeze one more project out of it! I bought a giant bag of shells at Michaels for about $10 and had the student choose their own shells and arrange them into a personal still life. At this point my student had already been introduced to contour drawing. I reminded the often to, "draw what you see, not what you think a shell looks like."

Kids had the most problems with the simple shells, like the one in the Shell Gasoline logo. I also encouraged students to draw the shell from the side with the opening. This made the drawings a little more dynamic.

The backgrounds of these are done with tissue paper pieces wet down with a spray of water. After the water dries, remove the tissue paper and you are left with the wonderful "bleeds" the paper left behind. Students cut a matching blue shadow to give the work some depth.

Supplies: pencil, thin black sharpies, a variety of matte tissue paper cut or torn in 1-2 inch pieces, drawing paper, blue construction paper, glue, sea shells for observation