A Drawing Contest for Valentine's Day

A Shading Exercise. 
(pin this image only please.)

      This illustration first appeared in the Sunday Magazine of the New-York Tribune in 1909. "Her First Valentine" by Eugenie Wireman is a lovely black and white illustration of a small girl clasping a Victorian Valentine to her chest. 

      I have included along with the original, a digital tracing for teachers to print out for their student's Valentine Drawing Contest. The teacher may wish to project the original on a white board, while his or her students study and try to duplicate the illustrator's shading technique. If only a small group of students wish to participate, allow them to take their entry home and require them to submit a color entry of the sample illustration instead. In either case, you are sure to have some interesting results. This drawing project is best suited to 4th, 5th, or 6th graders. 

      Make sure to offer a nice selection of prizes for those students who complete the competition successfully. A set of watercolors or fine drawing pencils would make and excellent first prize. Coupons to local fast food restaurants or a ice cream shop would suffice nicely for consolation prizes.
      Teachers don't forget to drag and enlarge the digital tracing into a Word Doc. so that students have the largest possible digital tracing to work with. More space in a shading exercise requires more practice and this is the reason for the exercise!

"Her First Valentine" digital tracing.

The restored illustration by Grimm