Hidden Safari

The artwork shown below is a drawing that I made for a project called "Hidden Safari." In this project, the class first created a drawing of an animal indigenous to the African safari. We did this by turning our reference picture upside down and drawing this upside down image on 8.5"x11" paper with blue colored pencil. Then, we covered the paper in many overlapping patterns in warm colors. These patterns are meant to distract the eye from seeing the drawn animal. If successful, the animal won't be able to be seen at all until the viewer looks at the art through a special red screen. This is a tricky task to accomplish. There are a few trouble areas to avoid: drawing the contour of the animal to dark and thick, blocking in the patterns, and adding too little pattern.

My idea for an extension project to Hidden Safari is one that uses the concept of warm and cool colors combined with animals in a different way. For this project, the objective would be to match the animal to a color temperature. For example, a picture of a camel in its natural habitat would be red and a picture of a polar bear in its natural habitat would be blue.

First, the teacher would describe the connection between color and temperature. He or she would then describe warm and cool color schemes and contrast. Each student would be instructed to pick an animal and a corresponding landscape. The landscape and animal would be rendered in colors that correspond with the temperature of the natural habitat. These will be drawn and colored with crayons on two separate sheets of paper (The landscape will be drawn on 12" x 16" paper and the animal will be drawn on 8.5" x 11" paper). As in the Hidden Safari project, the students will draw while referring to reference images that have been flipped upside down.

 After the students have drawn and colored the animal and landscape with correct representational colors, they will be instructed to cut out their animals, place (no glue) them in the landscape that they created, and then travel to and place their animal in other people's landscapes. This can create the possibility of a discussion of contrast and also a chance for geographical and scientific integration.