Guided Drawing: The Scream

Elements of Art

Color: the visible range of reflected light. Complementary colors are opposite one another on the color wheel. Complementary colors highly contrast with each other.
Line:  the flat path of a dot through space used by artists to control the viewer’s eye movement.  Both straight and curvy lines are used in this work.

Principles of Design

Contrast: refers to the arrangement of opposite elements, or using very different qualities next to each other to create visual interest, excitement and drama.
Movement:  using an element(s) of art to draw a viewer’s eye from one point to another in the composition.

Additional Vocabulary

Abstraction: images that are altered from their realistic appearance: often simplified to reveal only basic shapes, outlines.
Background: the part of a composition that appears farthest away on a picture plane, nearest the horizon.
Composition: the way principles of design arrange elements of art to express a particular idea.
Despair: the complete loss or absence of hope.
Fear:  an emotion caused by the perceived threat of danger.
Foreground: the part of a composition that appears closest on a picture plane, furthest from the horizon.
One Point Linear Perspective: a way to create the illusion of depth (the third dimension) on a two-dimensional (height, width) surface using a vanishing point, horizon line, receding lines that converge towards the vanishing point.

Materials & Supplies

Context (History and/or Artists)

The Scream is the popular title given to Edvard Munch’s The Scream of Nature (painting and pastel work by the same name), painted in 1893.  He was out for a walk overlooking an ocean landscape in his native country Norway and saw the setting sun turn the clouds a blood red color.  He imagined he could hear the clouds shrieking and so painted an imaginary person screaming.  He called this his ‘soul painting’ because it represented his deepest anxieties. An iconic (well-known symbol) work representing fear and despair, it has prompted many imitations over the years.

Advanced Preparation

• Find an image of Edvard Munch’s The Scream to show students.
• Find a photo showing a road, trail, fence, or train track going back to a vanishing point on a horizon line, or prepare a diagram of 1-point perspective using the example above as a guide.

Tips & Tricks

• Generally, work from the left to the right (if students are right-handed, opposite if left-handed) to keep the hand off of the oil pastels, using a piece of clean paper to rest their arm on if it’s over the oil pastels.
• Don’t let students ‘iron’ the drawing by letting it hang past the edge of desk and pressing it with their bodies.
• Some students may find oil pastels irritating to their skin, so have them use an in-between (paper towel, glove, foil) to protect their hand and the pastels.
• Oil pastels have a wonderful capacity to softly blend together when heat (finger smudging) is applied.

Discussion Points

Post and briefly go over the vocabulary words. Refer to them during the lesson.

• What issues might have made an adult like Munch anxious? (Talk about ideas like money, family, social, physical problems. It might even be interesting to know more about life in Norway in the 1890s to better understand what he was trying to say.)
• Is it ok to express negative feelings? (Yes, it’s healthy, as long as it’s not destructive.) Can you think of other artists or art you’ve seen that does this? (Open ended, no wrong answer.)
• What about this work makes it an effective expression of fear or despair? (The man staring at the viewer, his body language, the empty space receding so far behind him.)
• How has Munch used color and line to express these feelings? (The contrasting, unnatural sky colors, the wavy lines, implying dizziness or loss of focus.)
• How is the image abstract? (Very few details, just enough shapes and lines to suggest things.) Would this topic be more powerful as a painting or a photograph? Why? (A painting forces you to see it from the artist’s point of view. It leaves out unimportant things.)
• How is perspective used in this work? (The people in the background are smaller than the Screamer in the foreground. The railings in the background converge to a point on the horizon.) Does this work follow the 1-point perspective diagram we just saw? Does the composition have depth?

What are some things that could make you scream, either from fear, despair, or frustration?  (Spend a few minutes on it, suggest techniques for expressing, like hard exercise, going for a walk, punching a pillow, singing loudly, or ….screaming.)

Reflection Point (Assessment of Learning Objectives)

Students will:

• Observe The Scream while examining how artists express emotions 
• Copy it in a guided drawing
• Use art vocabulary
• Use good craftsmanship 

Instructions for Lesson

1. Demonstrate for the students and have them follow along with the basics of the drawing, lightly with pencil, step-by-step:
   a.) Start with the face, sort of an upside-down pear shape near the middle of the page.
   b.) Draw the curvy form of the body down to the edge of the paper.
   c.) Add the hands, like long skinny bananas along the side of the face.
                          
   d.) Add the elbows that continue from the hands.
   e.) The bridge starts halfway up the left side of the page and continues to the bottom right corner, ‘behind’ the figure. The horizon line should appear to meet the bridge.
   f.) Remind them that 1-point perspective makes the boards on the bridge hand-rail sit closer together in the background than in the foreground.
       
   g.) Lines on the bridge should be straight. Lines holding up the handrail should be vertical, not diagonal.
   h.) Lines in the landscape should be wavy and emotionally expressive.
   i.) Add mouth and eyes for your figure.
2. Allow the students to continue on their own.  
3. Students can add people in the background if they like. The rule: they must be smaller.
4. Students choose construction paper to mount their work on, writing their name on the back.
5. Students can glue their work to a chosen mounting color.
6. Students will add a word or phrase about what makes them scream, on the mounting paper.

References and Attributions

Lesson written by Juliette Ripley-Dunkelberger. Student artwork from Sunset Elementary Archives.

Notes for Educators

21st Century Thinking Skills
Thinking flexibly, persisting, questioning, creating, innovating, listening with empathy, taking responsible risks, observing, making connections, visualizing, sequencing, predicting, comparing/contrasting, determining main idea, finding evidence, problem solving, cause and effect, determining point of view, decision making.

WA State Learning Standards
(VA:Cr1.2.5) a. Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art.
(VA:Cr2.1.5) a. Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches through practice.
(VA:Cr2.2.5) a. Demonstrate quality craftsmanship through care for and use of materials, tools, and equipment.
(VA:Re7.1.5) a. Compare one's own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of others.
(VA:Re7.2.5) a. Identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.
(VA:Re8.1.5) a. Interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed. 
(VA:Re9.1.5) a. Recognize differences in criteria used to evaluate works of art depending on styles, genres, and media as well as historical and cultural contexts. This happens if you compare this style to others.
(VA:Cn10.1.5) a. Apply formal and conceptual vocabularies of art and design to view surroundings in new ways through art-making.
(VA:Cn11.1.5) a. Identify how art is used to inform or change beliefs, values, or behaviors of an individual or society.

Arts Integration Opportunities
Writing: write a paragraph about what makes you scream and why. Or write about why the figure in The Scream is screaming.

Please note:  These lesson plans are intended for non-profit use only. Use of these plans for commercial purposes should give attribution to the Issaquah Schools Foundation and be accompanied by a nominal donation at www.isfdn.org/donate. Thank you.

Donate Now