Day 1In this lesson, students will create stylized and thematic self portraits and attach them into a cohesive piece. This will allow students to explore their personal interests, observe their classmates interests, and see how they fit together as a group. Using pen, watercolor, their personal stamp, and scissors, they will create images of things they like, attach them together by theme, and work together to finish a single artwork. This will allow them to develop craft with basic tools, reflect on the intent and purpose in the design in others work, and envision how community effort can create a greater artwork than individual effort.
Essential Understandings
Artists can use symbols and stylistic choices to express their identity in making collaborative works of art. Learning Target
Students will make a portrait of their table partners in their sketchbook using colored pencil and oil pastel. " I can draw my table partner's face in my sketchbook using graphite, colored pencil, and/or oil pastel." |
Art Focus
Students will know:
Literacy Focus Students learned the definitions of portrait and mixed media. |
Skills
Students will be able to...
Key Concepts
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Emily and Nicole's Class
After sitting down for circle up and expressing their interest in starting a new art project, students stared at the SMARTBoard with baited breath to learn about Faith Ringgold and Dominic Beyeler's mixed media work. Students were surprised that artists combined more than one media to make complex images, especially with quilted material (in Faith Ringgold's work). But students were more familiar with how to draw a portrait, since Brittany taught them how to draw and paint a face a couple of weeks before the CSU/Polaris art classes started. Though the students were intrigued by Dominic Beyeler's watercolor and pen/ink combination, they had some puzzling questions about the style of his portraits.
"Why is that girl's skin yellow?" one student said. "She looks like a Simpsons character."
"Those squiggly lines across the boy's face look like weird tattoos," another student commented. "Are those real?"
Shortly after our conversation about portraiture and mixed media, the students were told that they would be doing a mixed media portrait that would be stitched together with their other classmates' portraits with pipe cleaners to make a class paper quilt--and they would make a paper patchwork border similar to Faith Ringgold's work. But there was a catch: students would be making portraits of another person at their table rather than a self-portrait. The group groaned and moaned about this prompt. They were more excited to make self-portraits, and they were also a little nervous about drawing their partner in a way that would impress them. But the students were good sports and gave the assignment a shot.
After sitting down for circle up and expressing their interest in starting a new art project, students stared at the SMARTBoard with baited breath to learn about Faith Ringgold and Dominic Beyeler's mixed media work. Students were surprised that artists combined more than one media to make complex images, especially with quilted material (in Faith Ringgold's work). But students were more familiar with how to draw a portrait, since Brittany taught them how to draw and paint a face a couple of weeks before the CSU/Polaris art classes started. Though the students were intrigued by Dominic Beyeler's watercolor and pen/ink combination, they had some puzzling questions about the style of his portraits.
"Why is that girl's skin yellow?" one student said. "She looks like a Simpsons character."
"Those squiggly lines across the boy's face look like weird tattoos," another student commented. "Are those real?"
Shortly after our conversation about portraiture and mixed media, the students were told that they would be doing a mixed media portrait that would be stitched together with their other classmates' portraits with pipe cleaners to make a class paper quilt--and they would make a paper patchwork border similar to Faith Ringgold's work. But there was a catch: students would be making portraits of another person at their table rather than a self-portrait. The group groaned and moaned about this prompt. They were more excited to make self-portraits, and they were also a little nervous about drawing their partner in a way that would impress them. But the students were good sports and gave the assignment a shot.
At the end of the lesson, most students finished drawing their partners' portraits in graphite in their sketchbooks. A few students got an opportunity to work with color in their sketchbooks, experimenting with smudging and other mark-making techniques to cover more paper surface and create impressionistic facial features. Here are two students explaining their processes. The student on the left went for a more stylized approach for his portrait, whereas the student on the left used a more realistic interpretation.
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Ben's Class
While the students in the class came in seeming tired - likely from the low pressure weather - they quickly woke up as class started. The prospect of a new assignment excited them, especially a project where they got to draw faces. During the brief demonstration they were energetic, interested, and highly eager to try drawing a portrait on their own.
When they started, they took off in wildly different directions. One table became intrigued with the shape of their features, helping each other determine things such as the shape of their nose or their ears. One student observed that "Everyone's nose starts the same, but it goes out in a lot of different ways!" Another table was less focused on observation and more interested in style. "Look how cool my hair is!" and " This is how blue my eyes are!" rang out in chorus as the students observed and accentuated their favorite facial details.
While the students in the class came in seeming tired - likely from the low pressure weather - they quickly woke up as class started. The prospect of a new assignment excited them, especially a project where they got to draw faces. During the brief demonstration they were energetic, interested, and highly eager to try drawing a portrait on their own.
When they started, they took off in wildly different directions. One table became intrigued with the shape of their features, helping each other determine things such as the shape of their nose or their ears. One student observed that "Everyone's nose starts the same, but it goes out in a lot of different ways!" Another table was less focused on observation and more interested in style. "Look how cool my hair is!" and " This is how blue my eyes are!" rang out in chorus as the students observed and accentuated their favorite facial details.
Some students preferred to work in pencil, trying to get the details just right, but some wanted to forge ahead and add color. One student in particular thought moving on to color was the best idea because " Hair's really hard to draw and its the most important thing, but if you do it in color it doesn't take as much time and it looks better." Many discussions of aesthetics and efficiency were carried out in the class once the drawings had been finished.
Come the end of class, most students felt like they were better at drawing faces. When it was discussed what they would be doing - drawing portraits and piecing them together - they were not intimidated at all.
Come the end of class, most students felt like they were better at drawing faces. When it was discussed what they would be doing - drawing portraits and piecing them together - they were not intimidated at all.