LS Lowry Inspired Urban Landscape using Perspective

L.S. Lowry was an English artist known for his unique style of painting urban landscapes, particularly scenes of industrial northern England during the early to mid-20th century. His paintings often feature industrial buildings, factories, and people going about their daily lives in a stylized, almost stick-figure-like manner. Click the video below to learn more about him and his style of art.

Once I read about LS Lowry, it inspired me to teach a lesson on him using chalk. I followed the guidelines of a guided instruction lesson below. This was a fantastic lesson to teach leading up to spring break. Yes, it was kind of a one and done lesson. Students seemed to enjoy it and the finished products looked nice. We don't use many lessons with just chalk, so I jumped at this opportunity to do so.

Emmylou's FINE ART Workshops

Objectives:

• Students will learn about the artist L.S. Lowry and his style of urban landscape painting.
• Students will create their own urban landscape artwork using perspective techniques inspired by Lowry's work.

Materials Needed:

• Paper 9x12
• Pencils
• Rulers
• Erasers
• Visual references of L.S. Lowry's artwork
• Colored chalk

Procedure:

1. Introduction to L.S. Lowry: Begin the lesson by showing examples of L.S. Lowry's artwork to the students. Explain that he was an artist who painted scenes of cities and industrial areas in a unique style. Discuss elements such as the use of simple shapes, stick-figure-like people, and the sense of perspective in his paintings. I used the video above. There are several on YouTube that you can see what fits your fancy.
2. Understanding Perspective: Introduce the concept of perspective to the students in simple terms. This lesson for me was on a spiral of another lesson teaching the concepts of perspective. Explain how objects appear smaller as they get farther away and how perspective lines help create depth in artwork. Use simple examples and demonstrations to illustrate this concept.
3. Sketching the Urban Landscape: Have students sketch their own urban landscape scene on their paper using pencils. We followed along with Emmylou. She encouraged them to include buildings, streets, and people, and to consider perspective by making objects farther away appear smaller. This was a nice change from just me teaching. We were all engaged and waiting to learn what the next step was going to be.
4. Adding Details: Once the basic sketch was complete, encourage students to add details to their urban landscape, such as windows on buildings, cars on the streets, and people going about their daily activities. Emphasize the simplicity of shapes and figures, as seen in Lowry's work. Students can add more than the video or not.
5. Chalk: After the sketches are finalized, provide students with colored chalk to add color to their artwork. Encourage them to use bold colors like Lowry's style. Remind them to consider light and shadow to add depth to their artwork.
6. Reflection: Once the drawings were complete, we had a class discussion about the experience. Students were able to reflect on what they learned about perspective and L.S. Lowry's style of painting. We will display the artwork on our Instagram account to showcase the students' creativity.

National Standards Alignment:

• Visual Arts Standards:
• VA:Cr1.1.1: Engage collaboratively in creative art-making.
• VA:Cr2.1.1: Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a work of art or design.
• VA:Re7.1.1: Compare the materials, technologies, media, and processes of the visual arts with those of other arts disciplines as they are used in creation and types of analysis.

This lesson plan provides a hands-on approach for any aged students to explore perspective and create their own urban landscapes inspired by the art of L.S. Lowry, while also aligning with national visual arts standards.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Spring Break to you all, 1969