Sacred Circles and Rose Windows

Sacred Circles

7th/8th Grade

The "circle" is the one constant in all religions and beliefs... be it Native American, Tibetan, Christianity, Hindu, or others. Students were to treat their circle as emphasizing the "inner light" of the human spirit using their hands as the common thread. Materials used were black construction paper and white colored pencil... with the aid of a dinner plate. Students practiced working with shaded values of white pencil on black paper before attempting the drawings seen here. It is amazing how very unique each student's sacred circle has taken form.

More hand art on IAD:

Hands in Art - Over 20 lessons relating to the subject of hands.

Learn How to Draw or Paint Hands - Bunki Kramer offers more information on creating hands.

Surreal Hand Drawing - An art lesson where students draw fantasy hands.

Hand-scapes Pencil Drawing - Students draw hands realistically but create surreal backgrounds.

Rose Windows

7th Grade

Part of the 7th grade curriculum is to study Medieval architecture. Prevalent in the churches of the time period were Rose Windows so we discussed how they were constructed, leaded, and added to the upper walls. Students also learned how many of these windows were constructed in symmetry giving a developed radial design. We decided we would construct our own.

Each student was given some "pie" shapes to design their own symmetry design. Once chosen, they constructed their circle on tagboard, found the center, divided into twelve equal sections, and traced their design to fit into a "pie" shaped area. This pie shape was flipped and traced again. This continued until the circle was complete and formed a radial reflective design. The coloring was done with markers. Each alternating "pie" was done in value or color opposites of it's alternate. Here are some of our "windows."

by Tim W.	by Mel S.
by Lauren F.	by Colton A.
by Alex S.	by Maxine G.

Notice Lauren's "pie" shaped pattern which has been traced around the center point of her circle AND her legend of colors in the corner so she won't forget the colors she is using.

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