Sometimes you just want to do a quiet, relaxing activity all by yourself. The ingredients you find in your fridge or garden, and kitchen tools you find in the drawers or cupboards can provide you with inspiration and objects for drawing.
Some of the classes of students we teach come to the Project CHEF kitchen to gather a few ingredients we’ll be cooking with that day and some of the kitchen tools we will be using. They take them back to their classroom and set them out in different areas in the classroom. Students silently choose what they want to draw, open their food journal and sketch what they are looking at.
A magical spell comes over the classroom as students really focus on what they are looking at and drawing what they see. You dare not make a sound as creative minds are at work and a calm tone prevails in the room.
Activity Instructions
EQUIPMENT
- Drawing paper or Food Journal
- Pencil
- Ingredients from your kitchen or garden
- Kitchen tools from your kitchen
INSTRUCTIONS
#1 Have a look around the kitchen or in your garden for ingredients that catch your eye.
Gather a couple of them (ask about snipping something from your garden first) and place them on a table, desk, or clean tea towel on the floor.
#2 Have a look in the kitchen
for kitchen tools that you like the shape of and you find interesting to look at (be careful with sharp objects).
Add them to the ingredients you chose.
#3 Get a piece of drawing paper
or turn to a new page in your Food Journal.
#4 Really look carefully at these objects.
Follow the outside edge of each object with your eyes. Are the lines straight or do they curve?
#5 Create a contour drawing of your object.
Contour is a French word that means outline. With a pencil, draw with long, continuous lines the outline, or outside shape, of the object. Look at the object and try not to look at your paper. It will be hard a first but really look at what you’re drawing and take your time moving the pencil. Try to connect what you see with what the pencil draws.
#6 Take a look at what you have drawn. The results can be surprising.
At first the drawings may look a bit funny but the more you try creating contour drawings, the easier it becomes getting your eyes to connect with what the pencil draws.
#7 Looking at what you have drawn, could you add any details or shade in any parts to give the object some depth or shape?
You can trace over the pencil line with pencil lines that are a little darker or even use a thin – tipped felt pen.
#8 Try drawing other ingredients or kitchen tools. You might wish to leave your contour drawings in pencil or felt pen or you may want to colour them.
Curriculum Connections
