Drawing Sculpted Words

At some point in my countless hours of web surfing, I came across this great project idea over at A Faithful Attempt for my Drawing 1 class.  Previously, when I started teaching students about shading in graphite or charcoal I would have them take a strip of paper, twist it, and tape it down to a square base.  Usually, students are able to easily see the variety of shadows that exist on the object.  Then they are required to include the various values on the mini sculpture in a drawing.  I have had the students complete this introductory project in charcoal, graphite, and ink.  But, really, an introductory exercise is all it is.  This time around, I thought I would try the ribbon word idea and it seems the students were more involved in the drawing.  I allowed them to choose the word and the size.  In the end, this little adjustment put a little of the student's personality into a basic exercise.  The only thing I would do different next time is require a minimum width, at least an inch, for the strips of paper.  For some reason, my students right now want to work super small and I found that the thicker the paper, the easier it was to make it look realistic.  Here are some of the finished works:

 

Left: Haven B.  Top Right: Miranda H.

Bottom Image, Left Side: Tian Yin J. Bottom Image, Right Side: Melinda K.