"A Portrait of Someone I Admire"

The 8th grade students just finished a rather lengthy drawing project based on using a grid to enlarge an image. They chose a photo to work from of a person for whom they admire. While drawing, they had to consider areas of value(lights, mediums, dark) and how to show that (shading, stippling, crosshatching). They learned about the variety of drawing pencils and other drawing tools.  The final culminating piece was writing an artist statement about their work. The students wrote very thoughtful and surprisingly profound words about the individuals in their drawings. Great effort was put into these drawings and it truly shows.