8th grade bones

8th graders completed these projects around Halloween. We used a combination of a fake Halloween skeleton decoration purchased from a drugstore, and a few drawing aids. We discussed using color with value. Students were given a sheet of poster board. They had to include a skull, and they could do four other bones of their choosing. They really loved doing the spine! They could draw them out on newsprint first for practice or they could start on the real thing. I talked with them about how to pick out the colors for each bone. We discussed which colors make good shadows and which colors would not make sense together. I had them select a light, medium and dark value in the same color family, and one shadow color. I did multiple shading demonstrations on multiple bones. Students cut out their bones and created a relief on black poster board. We used small strips of black foam core to make the bones pop out at varying heights.