We live in a magical place. Our beachside community sits nestled between two major cities and just outside the reach of the sprawl that surrounds. Our children are tasked with learning about local history and community as part of their third-grade social studies work. As an extension, we worked on a captivating project placing Del Mar at the fore.
Inspired by the clean and whimsical line illustrations of Marz Jr., our students endeavored to create a symbolic representation of Del Mar as a beacon of individuality between Los Angeles and San Diego. Collaboratively they decided on using either Torrey Pines or palm trees to represent our town- sensible since the unique nature of our area is embodied in both kinds of trees.
Then we began to learn the essential, but not easy, use of two-point perspective in drawing. Vanishing points, perspectives, and technique were explored as we practiced in our sketchbooks. Buildings were drawn and revised on the edges of the papers, with hidden clues as to the nature of the symbolic representations within each building. Look for the L.A. or S.D. on the images above.
The central part of the paper was reserved for our focal point- the trees as symbols of Del Mar. Building on our three- toned shading and fundamental drawing work used in third grade students animal alliteration artwork and poetry projects, we worked on constructing more textured, nuanced trees to contrast the stark linearity of the cityscapes.
Finally the pieces were put together using complementary color palettes for framing.
In the end the products are striking and represent layers of learning both technical and intellectual. To adults, the symbolism of such a work is obvious. To children, building meaningful symbols is an activity of complexity that helps young minds to become nimble and probing- traits that are valuable throughout life, not only in the arts.
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