Since the first week of class, students have been asking me, "when are we going to start shading?" It is a valid question for an art class. But I think there are other skills that students must first develop before they can be good at shading. They need to learn to look carefully at what they are drawing. They need to be able to see the lines and shapes in objects. And they need to develop strong hand and eye coordination.

But finally, it is time for my Art I classes to start shading. And once we start we don't stop. It is like opening a flood gate. This week we started learning how to shade value scale in the four different shading techniques (blending, hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling), we began shading 3-D forms (like spheres, cube, cones, and organic forms), and we began working on our drawing of a railroad in one point perspective.

This is what our railroad will look like when we get finished. I will keep you up-to-date on the students progress.