Cityscape Artwork - We Built This City

Thanks to Sarah from @miss_said_said for providing us with this detailed lesson plan for creating her gorgeous cityscape artwork.

Lesson Focus: We Built this City

The lesson focuses on reflection upon built environments. Students draw on colour changes from one to the next to make the skyscape gradient in the background of their picture. Students understand that their environment can be natural as well as built.

Materials Needed:

For the gradient background:

• A3 paper art paper
• Red, yellow, blue, green, orange, pink, purple & white paint.
• Paint brushes

For the cityscape

• Black A4 paper
• Lead pencil
• Scissors
• Glue
• Black pen or crayon for shadow

Steps:

1. Students begin with the A3 art paper page in a portrait position.
2. Students start with warm colours from the colour wheels (red, pink, etc) and paint horizontal thick stripes across the page.
3. Next, students select the colour next to their start colour on the colour wheel and blend the two colours together.
4. Students continue mixing the colours to create a gradient from one colour to the next transitioning slowing and smoothly to create flow.
5. Students continue the process until their A3 page is painted from top (warm colours) to bottom (cool colours).
6. Once students have painted their background, allow to fully dry.
7. Using black paper, students draw buildings, towers, bridges etc. to create a cityscape. Students may choose to draw famous landmarks/buildings but do not have to. Students are encouraged to put windows in their towers to allow for the gradient background to show through.
8. Glue the black paper cityscapes horizontally across the centre of the gradient background.
9. Using a black pen or black crayon, draw the shadow of the building under the cityscape, as if reflecting on water.