Grade 8 students embraced the beautiful weather to wrap up their nature-inspired art unit with a creative outdoor activity: cast shadow tracing. This simple yet effective technique offers an easy starting point for a painting or printmaking project. The detailed shapes of shadows provide ready-made forms, leaving students free to focus on composition and framing. Using plants and other objects to cast interesting shadows, students placed their paper directly beneath the shapes. They carefully traced the outlines with pencil or charcoal, paying close attention to both the positive shapes and the negative space around them. Back in the classroom, the exercise continued with contour lines drawn in black Sharpie. Students then enhanced their work with a water-based medium like ink or watercolor, using soft brushes and plenty of water to create dynamic and expressive effects.
