Day 4
In 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 students completed the watercolor portion of their portraits they were asked to use sharpie to outline the major features of the faces. While outlining their portraits students noticed that it made the features of the face stand out more and it looked better this way. This sparked the idea to use the sharpie to highlight details, for example the picture on the left shows a student adding freckles to her partners face, a feature she was unable to show using water color.
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Once students completed their portraits they began decorating squares using patterns (for the border of the quilt) similar to something that you might see on a quilt. Students experimented with mixed media materials such as colored pencils, crayons and markers. The students began to experiment with different shapes and how to arrange them in a design that created a pattern. Many of the students seemed to notice that patterns involved different shapes and colors, some students then began using shape stencils and animal stencils and layering them or arranging them in various ways. Students experimented with a variety of techniques one student drew two that all overlapped each other and used his knowledge of color theory, warm and cool colors to color them in. His first set of circles were red, yellow and orange, he began by putting red on one side and yellow on the other and in the middle where the circles overlapped he put orange. He said " these are warm colors and yellow and red make orange so orange is in the middle".
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Tamara's Class
The final day of the Portrait project began with excited yet distracted students. It was a busy day for them in many of their classes, meaning they knew they would be in for a lot of work.
After instruction on how the quilting process would begin, many wanted to revise their self portraits. One student said "I don't want my actual ears on my picture. I don't like them." and wanted to completely redo his drawing, a sentiment many agreed with. They were given a chance to edit their work as the quilt was made, most spending five to ten minutes on minor edits. For those that were making the quilt, the process went quickly and well - one student determined there was a more efficient way to tie the artworks together than had been taught. " It takes a long time to twist the pipe cleaners, but if you make a shoelace knot its really fast!" Several students tested and agreed, which earned the class a "puzzle piece", a part of the teachers classroom rewards system.
The final day of the Portrait project began with excited yet distracted students. It was a busy day for them in many of their classes, meaning they knew they would be in for a lot of work.
After instruction on how the quilting process would begin, many wanted to revise their self portraits. One student said "I don't want my actual ears on my picture. I don't like them." and wanted to completely redo his drawing, a sentiment many agreed with. They were given a chance to edit their work as the quilt was made, most spending five to ten minutes on minor edits. For those that were making the quilt, the process went quickly and well - one student determined there was a more efficient way to tie the artworks together than had been taught. " It takes a long time to twist the pipe cleaners, but if you make a shoelace knot its really fast!" Several students tested and agreed, which earned the class a "puzzle piece", a part of the teachers classroom rewards system.
After the quilt was constructed, a short discussion was held on the meeting rug. The quilt was hung from the board by the rug, allowing everyone to see it. The art instructor began with a few simple prompt questions - which one captures your attention, which one do you like most, and what do you think about seeing them all together - and allowed the students to speak among themselves.
It was generally agreed that the ones with backgrounds stood out more. " The white backgrounds are just kinda there." observed one student, who later elaborated "The backgrounds with color feel like theres more in them and there's more going on. The white ones are just floating heads." On the subject of the images as a cohesive whole, one student remarked "I wish I made my head smaller. Everyone else's is smaller and mine looks too big." When asked if she had noticed the size of her head while drawing, she said no. When then asked if it was easier to tell what was off or wrong when looking at a number of pictures, she said yes. A student, who had remarked in a previous class that "Art is easier when you draw it out first." made the new observation that "If you look at your stuff you just see what you did, but when you look at other peoples stuff you can figure out what they did and use it in your stuff."
The final section of the conversation came to the fact that it was a communal quilt. Some students wanted theirs to be closer to their friends, some wished they weren't on the far corners. When asked why, one said "It's like how in class you want to be by your friends and with everyone else. I don't wanna be out in the hall, I wanna be in here talking and having fun." Many liked how the quilt was an example of the class and their friends. When asked if they would want one of their own so they could remember their friends, they said no, but felt that having it in the classroom would be the right place for this sort of artwork.
It was generally agreed that the ones with backgrounds stood out more. " The white backgrounds are just kinda there." observed one student, who later elaborated "The backgrounds with color feel like theres more in them and there's more going on. The white ones are just floating heads." On the subject of the images as a cohesive whole, one student remarked "I wish I made my head smaller. Everyone else's is smaller and mine looks too big." When asked if she had noticed the size of her head while drawing, she said no. When then asked if it was easier to tell what was off or wrong when looking at a number of pictures, she said yes. A student, who had remarked in a previous class that "Art is easier when you draw it out first." made the new observation that "If you look at your stuff you just see what you did, but when you look at other peoples stuff you can figure out what they did and use it in your stuff."
The final section of the conversation came to the fact that it was a communal quilt. Some students wanted theirs to be closer to their friends, some wished they weren't on the far corners. When asked why, one said "It's like how in class you want to be by your friends and with everyone else. I don't wanna be out in the hall, I wanna be in here talking and having fun." Many liked how the quilt was an example of the class and their friends. When asked if they would want one of their own so they could remember their friends, they said no, but felt that having it in the classroom would be the right place for this sort of artwork.