The sky is the limit

Golden Gate Bridge, made by Veerle, 12 years old

Welcome, 100th follower!

You need:

1. grey paper A4 size
2. white and black pencils
3. pictures of famous skylines

During a visit to the Museum in The Hague in 2005, I saw an artwork that Escher had made on gray paper. The only colours he had used were black and white. Together with the gray, you do have a lot of colours at your disposal. The Escher drawing I saw then, was the inspiration for this lesson.

Show photos of some famous skylines. Discuss skylines, skyscrapers and remarkable buildings. Ask children to search a skyline on the internet. Print this in black and white and then copy it so that you can see how the shadows of the buildings are (settings light - dark on copyer).Tell the children they are going to draw on grey paper using only white and black pencils. The gray don't have to be coloured, because that's the colour of the sheet. With black the darker parts are drawn, with white the parts that have to be highlighted. Look closely at the photo to see the shades.

Sydney skyline by Adnan, 12 years old