Geometric drawing - Grades 2 - 4

Freehand drawing is made much more difficult by the use of a mouse. A useful approach to drawing using a computer is to construct your picture from basic goemetric shapes.

After experimenting with the various shapes available to them, the children are asked to recreate one of several printed examples using the computer. The computer programs that are used for this are Paint or Paint Shop Pro v4.0. The printed examples range in difficulty from the geometric head to the portrait of Eric Cartman.

The geometric head. This is the easiest of the pictures. The head, the eyes and the hair can all be drawn using the circle/ellipse tool. The nose and mouth are drawn using straight lines.

Geo Park. The chair has been constructed using rectangles and straight lines. Some of the lines overlap and need to be erased. The sun and tree are easy.

Geo dog. The body has been drawn using the square/rectangle tool. The head, nose, eye, feet and toes are all circles and ellipses. Placing the circles in the right place is a skill that many children find difficult. The ears, legs and tail are all drawn using straight lines.

Eric Cartman. This is the most difficult and has also proven to be the most popular. Cartman's head is an ellipse but parts need to be erased. Curved lines are used. Free rotation is used for the eyes, which we can only do using paint Shop Pro. The top of his hat was drawn freehand.