General Tips for Using Art Materials with Students

Transcription

General Tips for Using Art Materials with Students
1. Explain project steps before passing out materials.
2. Make sure there are enough art materials for everyone to participate in the activity.
3. Leave enough time (15 minutes) for clean up.
4. Conclude the activity by having students display their completed artwork. This may be
a group art show, pair and share their work with one another, or students present their own
work to the rest of the group.
Created by Ashleigh Grenawalt
Bachelor of Fine Art, Master of Museum Studies, & CA Art Credential
ART KIT #13
Unit Title: Personal Identity (Middle School)
Theme Title: Family – Traditions and Cultural Diversity
Lesson Title: Family Traditions
Assignment: Build a shoebox diorama of your family participating in a family tradition.
Concept: Family traditions make up an important aspect of our cultural identities.
Key Words: Family, tradition, culture, assemblage, painting, and Carmen Lomas Garza (artist).
Art History Connection: Read Carmen Lomas Garza’s Family Pictures: 15th Anniversary Edition (ISBN:
0892392061, Children’s Book Press). Carmen Lomas Garza is a contemporary artist living in San Francisco.
Her work celebrates Mexican American history and culture, while exploring her own Chicana/Xicana
experience.
Materials: white glue, scissors, acrylic paints, brushes, yarn, felt, palettes, tissue paper, drawing paper, and
colored markers.
Recycled materials: shoebox, paper towel/toilet paper rolls, cardboard, and cloth.
Technique: Mixed media sculpture, assemblage, and painting.
Preparation: Have students bring in recycled shoeboxes from home. Refer to laminated artist example.
Project Steps:
1. Read Family Pictures out loud to students while making sure to show them each page of artwork. After
reading, lead a discussion with students to have them talk about family. Ask them the following questions:
•
What does family mean to you? •
Identify all of your family members? •
What is your most memorable family experience? Next have, students decide the family tradition that they want to show in their shoebox diorama. Timing: 1
hour session.
2. Students decorate the exterior and interior of the shoebox to make it look like the specific room where
their family tradition occurs. For example, paint the exterior to look like the outside of their house and paint
the interior to match the wall colors of a certain room. Timing: 1 hour session.
3. Using the shoebox interior as the room’s background, students draw in details of the room such as, the
door, windows, pictures, mirror, fireplace, and etcetera. Timing: 15 minute session.
4. For the middle ground, attach different materials to create the look of furniture. Glue these objects down
to the surface of the shoebox. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. Students draw family members using pop-up paper designs. To do this, students draw a family member
on paper. Cut this figure out with scissors, making sure to leave extra paper below that can be folded
and glued to the ground. Timing: 15 minute session.
Pop-up Illustration:
•
Cut around outline of figure.
•
Fold at the bottom of the figure. •
Glue the bottom flap of paper to the shoebox surface.
6. Students may choose to include other recycled materials to make the figures of their family members.
7. Students glue all the foreground characters and descriptive elements to the diorama surface.
Timing: 30 minute session.
Total Timing: 3 – 4 sessions;
3 ½ hours total.
Shoebox Diorama Illustration:
ART KIT #14
Theme Title: Family – Traditions and Cultural Diversity
Lesson Title: Food is Culture
Assignment: Build a sculptural form representing a food that you enjoy eating regularly at home. Make it
out of newspaper and tape covered with papier-mâché. Show images of food depicted by sculptor Claes
Oldenburg and painter Wayne Thiebaud. Set a table with all the final painted food items to conclude this
activity.
Concept: Food we eat regularly and enjoy together as a family is a cultural experience and sharing food with
a larger group of people becomes a cross-cultural experience, such as international foods day.
Key Words: Papier-mâché, additive sculpture, painting, culture, cross-cultural, food, still life, and Pop art.
Art History Connection: Read Delicious: The Art and Life of Wayne Thiebaud, 2007 by Susan Goldman Rubin
(ISBN: 0811851680, Chronicle Books). Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920) is a bay area painter whose depictions
of food emerged in mature form in 1961-62. Over the next few decades his subject matter broadened to
include the figure, cityscape and landscape, but he continues to draw and paint the food that he grew up
eating and loving. Study the laminated images of Claes Oldenburg’s food sculptures. Claes Oldenburg
(b. 1929) is a sculptor and installation artist who’s originally from Sweden and moved to the United States at
age 7 where he still lives as a citizen. In New York City during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, he became a
prominent figure in Happenings and performance art. At this time, he started producing work about
everyday objects, made from a mix of drawings, collages, plaster, and papier-mâché. Oldenburg has often
been associated with the Pop art movement that emerged in 1962. His food sculptures portrayed as soft,
floor sculpture and hard, plaster sculpture relate to Pop art in their use of American consumer culture as a
source of inspiration. His sculpture depicting everyday objects is now on a much larger scale in the public
art realm.
Materials: masking tape, scissors, brushes, wallpaper paste, palettes, and acrylic paints.
Recycled materials: newspaper and buckets.
Technique: Additive sculpture and painting.
Preparation: Refer to Papier-Mache for Kids, 1991 by Sheila McGraw (ISBN: 0920668933, Firefly Books). Collect a huge number of old newspapers that you will use during this activity. Refer to laminated images
showing different sculptures by Claes Oldenburg and look at Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings in Delicious.
Project Steps:
1. Introduce this activity by talking about students’ favorite meals. Ask students some of these questions: •
What do you enjoy eating? •
Is there a special meal you eat with your family? •
Do you help make it? •
Is it a family recipe?
2. Next, read excerpts from Delicious: The Art and Life of Wayne Thiebaud out loud to
students. Show them all these colorful depictions of Wayne Thiebaud’s favorite foods. Tell
them briefly about his life. For instance, he is 88 years old and lives in Sacramento, CA and
Laguna Beach, CA. He has been painting loving depictions of food since the 1960’s. Ask students if
they have seen his paintings of food at the M.H. de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park or the
Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.
3. Introduce students to the food sculptures by Claes Oldenburg by showing them the laminated copies of
the following works: Pastry Case, I from 1961-62 and Floor Burger, Floor Cone, and Floor Cake (Giant Piece of
Cake) from 1962. Tell them briefly about his life. Such as, he is 70 years old living in New York. He started
producing work about everyday objects, made from a mix of drawings, collages, plaster, and papier-mâché
in the 1960’s. His food sculptures portrayed as soft, floor sculpture and hard, plaster sculpture relate to Pop
art in their use of American consumer culture as a source of inspiration. Ask them if anyone has seen his
public art steel sculpture entitled Cupid’s Span, 2002 situated along the Embarcadero.
Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Now let students know that they will be making a papier-mâché sculpture representing a favorite food
that students enjoy eating regularly at home. Explain that papier-mâché is a French term that means
mashed paper. It is a sculpting method that uses paper and liquid paste. The wet paper and paste material
are molded over a supporting structure. When the paper dries, it hardens to form a stiff shell.
5. First, have students make the support structure using dry newspaper and masking tape. Fold, wad and
crumple paper, while wrapping the paper with masking tape for permanence to create the shape of your
food. Let them know that the three-dimensional form of their food should not be larger than the size of a
basketball or soccer ball. Timing: 30 minute session to 1 hour session.
6. Now have students follow these steps to make their papier-mâché sculptures. The papier-mâché method
involves four steps. (1) Tear newspaper into strips. (2) Either dip the strips in a thick mixture of paste or rub
paste on the strips with your fingers. Use the technique that works best for you. (3) Use wide strips on wide
forms and thin strips for small surface areas. Change directions with each layer so that you can keep track of
the number of layers. (4) Since you’re leaving the papier-mâché over the support structure, then apply three
layers of strips to the surface. Rub your fingers over the strips so that no rough edges are left sticking up.
Leave plenty of time for clean up—15 minutes or more—because this is very messy. Timing: 1 hour session
to 1 hour 30 minute session.
7. Using acrylic paints and brushes make your food item more realistic and lifelike. Try to mix the actual
colors of the food as it looks in real life. Make sure that students use their palettes to mix different colors
before applying the paint to the sculpture’s surface. Have students look at the color wheel diagram to use as
a reference. Show them that red and yellow paint mix to make orange, yellow and blue paint mix to make
green, and blue and red paint mix to make purple. When you mix complementary colors (such as red and
green, orange and blue, and yellow and purple) you get a dull tone, but painting them alongside one
another creates visual tension. This means that the warm color (red, orange, yellow) is pushed forward and
the cool color (green, blue, purple) is pulled back. Timing: 1 hour session.
8. Set a table with all the final painted food items to conclude this activity. Explain that food we eat
regularly and enjoy together as a family is a cultural experience and sharing food with a larger group of
people becomes a cross-cultural experience, such as during international foods day. Ask students to
describe their food item to the group. Ask if this food marks a special occasion or holiday at home? Timing: 30 minute session.
Total Timing: 4 – 5 sessions; 4 – 5 hours total.
ART KIT #15
Theme Title: Neighborhood – Community and Cultural Activism
Lesson Title: Community Collage
Assignment: Learn about the historical collages by the Harlem Renaissance artist Romare Bearden
(1911-1988). Discuss how these collages picture people living in his Harlem community during the 1930’s.
Explain that a collage is an artwork created by pasting cut or torn materials such as paper, photographs, and
fabric to a flat surface. Then look at the award winning book Harlem by Walter Dean and Christopher Myers
to see the way a contemporary artist uses collage and painting to depict the Harlem community today. Next
students make a collage of themselves in their own neighborhood community. Hang the students’ collages
together on a wall to make a community collage mural.
Concept: Communities are made up of people living in a shared neighborhood or that spend time learning
in the same local place, which may be a school or church/synagogue/mosque/temple.
Key Words: Community, neighborhood, collage, Harlem Renaissance, contemporary, and Romare Bearden
(artist).
Art History Connection: Refer to Romare Bearden: Celebrating the Victory, 2001 by Myron Schwartzman
(ISBN: 0613295048, Franklin Watts). Learn about the life and art of Romare Bearden (1911-1988). Although
born in North Carolina, his family moved to Harlem, New York City in 1911. During the 1930’s he began
associating with other Harlem artists at “the Studio” on Canal Street. With the political events of the Civil
Rights movement, Romare Bearden formed an African American artist collective called Spiral in 1963. For
Spiral's first group exhibition, entitled “Black and White,” Bearden proposed to make a collaborative collage
made from magazine fragments with the group members. Although the group collage project never took
place, at this point Bearden started using the collage technique to develop the characteristic style of his
mature work. He began creating small collages and then photographically enlarging them. These
black-and-white images called photomontage projections culminated in his Projections series from 1964-65.
Read Harlem (Caldecott Honor Book), 1997 by Walter Dean Myers (Author) and Christopher Myers
(Illustrator) (ISBN: 0590543407, Scholastic Press).
Materials: lightweight painting paper, acrylic paint, brushes, palettes, glue sticks, scissors, pencils and h
eavyweight painting paper.
Recycled materials: magazines and newspapers.
Technique: Collage and painting
Preparation: Collect additional old magazines and newspapers from recycling area at school. Refer to
laminated artist work examples.
Project Steps:
1. Look at the historical collages by Romare Bearden in Romare Bearden: Celebrating the Victory. Show
students the colorful reproductions of Bearden’s collages about Harlem. Next read Harlem out loud to
students to see that contemporary illustrator Christopher Myer uses the same collage technique as Romare
Bearden to depict the subject of Harlem in his own way. Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Students decide how they would like to depict themselves in their neighborhood community. Give them
possible examples for ways they could do this. For example, they may choose to show themselves alone at
the bus stop, walking their dog, with friends playing a game, riding a bike or skateboard, and so on.
3. Students sketch a simplified image of their composition on the heavyweight painting paper.
4. Students paint pieces of the lightweight painting paper different colors, which once dried, they’ll tear or
cut and then glue to their image. Timing: 1 hour session.
5. Students collect a combination of collage materials—magazine pieces, newspaper fragments, painted
paper pieces, and paints—that are available in the art kit.
6. Students shape these paper materials by tearing or cutting with scissors.
7. Students may choose to cut images of objects and people directly from magazines or create their own.
Have them look for a variety of color shades and textures in magazines. Timing: 30 minute session.
8. The collage technique is the following: apply glue to the back of a paper piece and then attach it to an
area of your image on heavy cardstock paper. Continue this technique until most of your composition is
filled with paper fragments. Timing: 30 minute session.
9. Students should fill in any white areas of the paper surface with color using paint and brushes.
10. Students should arrange their completed community collages together to make a community collage
mural. Have students tape the back of their collage with masking tape and stick it to the wall. Timing: 30
minute session.
Total Timing: 4 sessions; 4 hours total.
ART KIT #16
Theme Title: Neighborhood – Community and Cultural Activism
Lesson Title: Neighborhood Reconstruction
Assignment: Build an area of your neighborhood that you want changed in some way. Show your
redeveloped area in a three-dimensional environmental design affixed to a flat piece of cardboard.
Concept: Three-dimensional representations of neighborhood reconstructions imagined by students.
Key Words: Reconstruction/redevelopment, neighborhood, mixed-media, look-alike/found object sculpture,
and Joan Steiner (artist/author).
Art History Connection: Read Look-Alikes Jr.: Find More than 700 Hidden Everyday Objects by Joan Steiner
(ISBN: 0316713473, 1999/2003).
Materials: colored construction paper, drawing paper, white glue, scissors, pencils, colored markers, crayons,
felt, and yarn.
Recycled materials: cardboard bases, recycled materials (all kinds of things that could be made into a
“look-alike”).
Technique: Mixed media sculpture, mapping, architecture/model making, and drawing.
Preparation: Collect pieces of cardboard to make the cardboard bases. Cut them at least 12 x 12 in. and no
larger than 2ft.
Project Steps:
1. Read Look-Alikes Jr. by Joan Steiner out loud to students. Look at all the unique photographs by this
author/artist who combines found objects into three-dimensional arrangements that re-create everyday
scenes. After looking through these unique images, have students brainstorm about transforming a part of
their neighborhood. Have them consider any area of their neighborhood they would like to change in some
way. For example, suggest that they might want to add a playground to a local park, change a corner store
into an ice cream shop, or place a shelter around a bus stop. Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Students draw a sketch of their neighborhood reconstruction, making sure to include all the main
landmarks and descriptive elements situated in this environment. Ask them the following questions:
•
Is there a main building or a more natural form like a tree? •
Maybe there is a parking lot that they’d like to convert into a skate park or outdoor roller rink. •
Are they converting an empty plot into a recreational area, like a basketball or tennis court? •
They might want to add a new feature to their own homes. Or create a bike path along
their street.
3. Students collect different recycled materials from the art kit that will be made to “look alike” the landmarks
in the reconstructed area of their neighborhoods. Timing: 15 minute session.
4. Students cover a cardboard base with an appropriate material for their environmental scene. For example,
a magazine picture of a street could look like the real thing, fabric would make a soft surface, construction
paper could be cut to resemble grass. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. Students combine different recycled materials by imagining what these simple objects might represent.
6. Students start building their scene with these sculptural objects. They may also want to draw descriptive
elements on paper to create pop-up paper designs. To do this, students draw a car, bike, figure of a person
or pet, and etcetera. Cut this form out with scissors, making sure to leave extra paper below that can be
folded and glued to the ground. Timing: 30 minute session.
Pop-up Illustration:
•
Cut around outline of form.
•
Fold at the bottom of the figure.
•
Glue the bottom flap of paper to the shoebox surface.
7. Students attach all the sculptural elements to
the board surface using glue and tape. This process
should be done in stages so it will take several days
for students to complete their neighborhood
reconstruction
assemblages.
Total Timing: 3 – 4 sessions; 3 or more hours total.
Illustration:
•
•
•
Tree is made from corks and cotton balls.
Rocks around pond are bottle caps.
Bench is made out of straws and sticks.
ART KIT #17
Theme Title: Symbols of Self – Visual Culture and Your Identity
Lesson Title: Cultural Quilt
Assignment: Draw yourself surrounded by your favorite things on a piece of cloth. Connect your piece of
cloth with the rest of the group to make a cultural quilt.
Concept: As a unified whole we are made up of different pieces that are unique and show our cultural
diversity.
Key Words: Quilt, motif, pattern, visual rhythm, pictorial, and Faith Ringgold (artist).
Art History Connection: Read Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach, 1996 (ISBN: 0517885441, Dragonfly Books) and
Cassie’s Word Quilt, 2004 (ISBN: 0553112333, Dragonfly Books). Refer to Faith Ringgold (Getting to Know the
World’s Greatest Artists), 2008 by Mike Venezia (ISBN: 0531147576, Children’s Press), to find out that Faith
Ringgold (b. 1930) is a contemporary artist known for her quilts that combine storytelling and painting to
illustrate African American experiences. Her colorful and pictorial quilts arrange different fabric patterns
with repeating identical motifs portraying African Americans. This technique creates an overall sense of
visual rhythm in her painted quilt compositions.
Materials: fabric paint pens, thread, needles, steel ruler, fabric pens, and fabric scissors.
Recycled material: cloth/fabric.
Technique: Drawing/painting, and sewing/quilting.
Preparation: Cut fabric into 6 x 6 in. square pieces using fabric scissors, ruler and a fabric pen. Refer to
laminated artist example. Timing: 30 minutes.
Project Steps:
1. Read Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach and Cassie’s Word Quilt out loud to students. Hold up each page so
everyone sees the accompanying artwork. Next, have students discuss their favorite things with one
another. Ask them the following questions:
•
What is your favorite color, flower, song, book, movie, or song? •
Do you play sports and have a hobby? •
Do you own or want to own a pet? •
Where do you enjoy going on the weekends?
•
What do you enjoy doing on the weekends? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Students decide on at least two things that will surround their self-portrait.
3. Using fabric paint pens students draw their self-portrait, which includes shoulders, neck and face, in the
center of a square piece of fabric.
4. Next, students draw all their favorite things in the blank spaces surrounding their self-portrait.
5. After everyone has completed their drawn paintings, have students take turns sewing one side of their
fabric square piece to a partner’s fabric square piece.
6. Make sure to loop thread through the other end of a needle so it’s doubled and tie a big knot at the end.
Stitch the needle through the side ends of two different pieces of cloth. Make sure to tie a knot to secure the
stitches.
Illustration:
•
Loop thread through needle.
•
Tie knot at end.
•
Stitch fabric pieces together with needle.
Tie double knot at end of stitch.
•
7. In order to complete the group quilt, each student should sew one side of two fabric square pieces
together. The instructor calculates how many fabric squares need to go up and down and across in order to
ensure the quilt is even on all sides and rectangular in shape. Timing: 1 hour session.
8. After connecting all of your decorated fabric
pieces, see how the repeated identical motif of your
self-portraits creates a sense of visual rhythm
in the quilt.
Quilt Illustration:
ART KIT #18
Theme Title: Symbols of Self – Visual Culture and Your Identity
Lesson Title: Symbolic Self Portraits
Assignment: After discussing the symbolic character of Frida Kahlo’s self portraits, think about things around
you that describe your personality and interests. Include at least three of these things in a painted image of
your face composed amongst these symbolic objects.
Concept: Everyday objects embody meaning and have symbolic value. Historically painters have used
symbolism as a motif in portraits to reveal a person’s character.
Key Words: Symbolism, painting, motif, surrealism/imagery of the subconscious mind, cultural identity,
heritage, historical, and Frida Kahlo (artist).
Art History Connection: Read Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself (Smart About Art), 2003 by
Margaret Frith (Author) and Tomie de Paola (Illustrator) (ISBN: 0448426773, Grosset and Dunlap) and Frida
Kahlo (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists), 1999 by Mike Venezia (ISBN: 0516264664, Children’s
Press). Investigate the personal paintings by the historic painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) from Mexico. She
developed deeply symbolic motifs for her self portrait paintings to portray the inner-workings of her mind,
her cultural identity, and her significant life experiences. These experiences include a traumatic bus accident
at 18 years of age after which she started to paint, as well as her marriage and divorce with muralist painter
Diego Rivera, which was a relationship that began at age 22.
Materials: pencils, acrylic paints, brushes, palettes, and painting paper.
Recycled materials: cups/plastic containers to hold water for painting.
Technique: Drawing and painting.
Preparation: Make sure there are paper towels and containers for water. To gain further knowledge about
the symbolism in Frida Kahlo’s paintings, visit this online resource that discusses five paintings by the artist:
www.pbs.org/weta/fridakahlo/index.html. Refer to laminated artist work examples and color wheel. Show
both instructional materials to students during the lesson.
Project Steps:
1. Read the two books about Frida Kahlo out loud to students. Show the illustrations of her paintings to
students. Point out the symbolic objects in different paintings and ask them what they mean and tell about
her identity. For instance, ask students some of these questions:
•
Why are there portraits and figures of Diego Rivera in Frida’s self portraits? •
What do the animals in her self portraits tell you about Frida’s personality? •
What are the cultural objects that show Frida’s Mexican heritage? •
How many different objects are included in her self-portrait compositions? •
Are they natural objects like wildlife and vegetation or manufactured and cultural objects like
machines, buildings, sculptures, and jewelry? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Have students decide on the three things that they would like to include in their self portrait painting.
These symbolic objects should be very meaningful to them and reveal something about who they are. It
might be their favorite flower or animal, a family pet, a memento from a place they’ve visited, or a special gift
given to them.
3. Using a drafting pencil, have students sketch out their face, hair, neck, and shoulders in the lower and
middle area of the painting paper. Next have students draw their three symbolic objects surrounding their
portrait. Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Students begin painting their self portrait compositions with acrylic paints and brushes. Make sure that
they use their palettes to mix different colors before applying the paint to paper. Have students look at the
color wheel diagram to use as a reference. Show them that red and yellow paint mix to make orange, yellow
and blue paint mix to make green, and blue and red paint mix to make purple. When you mix
complementary colors (such as red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and purple) you get a dull tone,
but painting them alongside one another creates visual tension. This means that the warm color (red,
orange, yellow) is pushed forward and the cool color (green, blue, purple) is pulled back.
5. Make sure that brushes are not left soaking in water because it damages the bristles and causes them to
fall out. Leave time—at least 15 minutes—for clean up. Everyone needs to help clean up.
6. Have everyone discuss their self-portrait paintings by identifying their symbolic objects and sharing what
these things reveal about their identities. Timing: 1 hour session.
ART KIT #19
Theme Title: Advertising – Visual Media and Popular Culture
Lesson Title: Subvertisement
Assignment: Redesign an existing magazine advertisement. Cut out the main elements of the image and
arrange them in a new design. Add other magazine text and images to the new design in order to make
your own subvertisement.
Concept: Learn artistic techniques like collage and appropriation in order to explore how mass media
images and concepts can be manipulated and redefined in a personal artwork.
Key Words: Advertising, spoof ad/subvertisement, product, consumerism, slogan/message, appropriation,
and collage.
Art History/Visual Culture Connection: Read Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should
Know, 2003 by Shari Graydon (Author) and Warren Clark (Illustrator) (ISBN: 1550378155, Annick Press).
Materials: pencils, colored markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue sticks, poster paper, watercolor, palettes,
and brushes.
Recycled material: magazines.
Technique: Collage, drawing, and painting.
Preparation: Make sure you browse the reference book Made You Look and refer to the laminated copy of
the Joe Chemo spoof ad. Visit the Adbusters website to view examples of spoof ads at:
adbusters.org/spoofads/index.php.
Project Steps:
1. Look through Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know with students. Read
sections that are of interest out loud to students. Ask students the following questions:
•
How does advertising influence your life—where do you see advertising (television, bill
boards, magazines)? •
Does it influence what kinds of things you want to buy? •
What ideas are used by advertisers to sell their products? These ideas may involve the
consumer feeling happy, attractive, hip, intelligent, or gaining status and prestige from buying a product like a car, clothes, or Xbox set.
•
How does it make you feel when you don’t buy these things? •
Why do you have to buy something and participate in consumer culture to feel satisfied with yourself and content with your life? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Have students browse through magazine advertisements together and pick one that stands out to each
of them. Have students identify the key messages in the ad they choose. For example, teeth whitening trays
will give you a beautiful smile, a car will make your life extra-ordinary, make-up makes you a goddess and
youthful, buying new clothes makes you unique, alternative, and cool, perfume makes you attractive, playing Nintendo Wii Fit makes you athletic, and so on.
3. Next, have students consider the messages not contained in the advertisement. For example, teeth
whiteners corrode teeth enamel, cars are expensive and bad for the environment, make-up is only surface
appearance and doesn’t change who you are inside, it’s your personality and interests that make you unique
and not your clothes, being athletic requires learning the physical movement and skill of a specific sport, as
well as the social aspects of sportsmanship and working as a team, and so on. Have students look at the Joe
Chemo spoof ad to see how it tells you that cigarettes make you sick and cause cancer. Timing: 30 minute
session.
4. Now have students make their own spoof advertisement using the same ad they just investigated for
meaning. The three basic ways to make a spoof ad are:
(1) change the text of the ad, but keep the same image,
(2) keep the slogan/message of the ad, but change the image, or
(3) change both the text and the image.
Students will sketch out their draft composition on the poster paper to mark the location of text and
imagery. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. Students may use a variety of techniques to create their spoof ad. Using collage, they will cut out the
parts of the magazine advertisement to include in their spoof ad and glue it to the poster board. To fill in the
rest of their composition they will paint with watercolor and draw using colored pencils and colored
markers. Timing: 30 minutes to 1 hour session.
Total Timing: 2 – 3 sessions; 2 ½ - 3 hours total.
ART KIT #20
Theme Title: Advertising – Visual Media and Popular Culture
Lesson Title: Logo this T-shirt
Assignment: Design a personalized logo that includes your initials or nickname by first drawing it on
paper with a black sharpie to create a black and white image. Next, transfer the outline of your logo onto
the top/non sticky side of the transparent contact paper using an x-acto knife to cut around the edges.
Then, remove your drawing from this stencil and remove the bottom paper from the contact paper so it
sticks to your T-shirt. Finally, color in the shape of your personalized logo onto a blank T-shirt using this
stencil and a sponge brush to apply the fabric paint.
Concept: Create your own custom T-shirt with your original “brand” name.
Key Words: Logo/“brand” name, stencil, initials, ligature, positive/negative space, and design.
Art History/Visual Culture Connection: Refer to Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, 2006 by
Meagan Nicolay (ISBN: 0761137858, Workman Publishing Company).
Materials: fabric paint, cardboard, transparent contact paper, sponge brushes, drawing paper, rulers, pencils,
sharpie pens, fabric pens, and scissors.
Recycled materials: T-shirts.
Technique: Drawing, stencil-making, and printing.
Preparation: Have students bring in their own T-shirt that they would like to design with their unique logo.
It should be a blank white or mono-colored T-shirt. Collect cardboard sheets to be used as a supportive
surface when stenciling the T-shirt. Have access to a stapler.
Project Steps:
1. Look through Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt with students. Introduce project by letting
students know that they’ll be transforming their blank T-shirts by adding a personalized logo that includes
their initials or nickname to the T-shirt.
2. Before designing their logo/ “brand” name, have students discuss what a logo looks like. Ask them the
following questions:
•
Where have they seen logo’s (e.g., on flags, signatures, nameplates, shields)? •
What does the logo identify? •
What is the thing that the logo symbolizes? •
For instance, what does Starbuck’s or Nike’s logo symbolize? Let them know that the underlying meaning of the logo is more important than what it looks like. An
effective logo is distinctive, memorable, universal, timeless, and so on. Point out that many logo designs are
simple geometric shapes—lines, circles, squares and triangles.
Make it clear that gang symbols are not allowed.
3. Starting with drawing paper, pencils, and rulers, have students explore their logo on paper by sketching
out their ideas. Have them link the letters of their initials or nickname. Letters that link are called ligatures.
They can try combining lower case and upper case letters or cropping off the bottom or top of the letters.
4. Once they’ve decided on their logo design, have them draw it out on paper using a black sharpie pen so
it’s in black and white only (not grayscale). Remember that the black areas of the design are positive space
and the white areas are the framing negative space of your stencil. This means when paint is applied to the
T-shirt using the stencil, the black areas of the design are where the body of the logo’s blocks of color will be
seen. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. Next, staple the piece of paper with the design to the back of a piece of contact paper (clear book
covering), so that the design is visible through the contact paper. If you can’t see your design on the other
side of the contact paper, then attach your paper to the top of the contact paper. Make sure the contact
paper side is up (as opposed to the peel-off backing). This step is very important because you don’t want
your logo to read in the opposite direction!
6. Have students cut out the black areas of the design on the contact paper (or logo design paper with
contact paper underneath) using scissors. Make sure you save any islands (white parts of the stencil that
aren't attached to the rest of the stencil) so that you can stick them on separately.
7. Peel the backing off of the contact paper, and stick the stencil firmly to the surface to be stenciled. Make
sure the stencil's bum is stuck firmly to the T-shirt, or the paint will bleed. Place a sheet of cardboard
between the front and back of the shirt, so that no paint bleeds through to the other side. With a sponge
brush, cover the cut-out areas with fabric paint using an up-and-down motion. Apply paint with finger
tips when possible, especially first coat. This creates a seal that prevents paint from leaking under and also
strengthens the stencil as you paint later on. Wait until the end of this session to carefully peel the stencil
off. Timing: 1 hour session.
8. After completing your project, lay T-shirt flat and let it dry for at least 24 hours. Allow at least 3-7 days
before washing. Use low heat for drying them.
ART KIT #21
Unit Title: Dimensions of the Environment (Middle School)
Theme Title: Natural Environment – Sustainable Locales and Endangered Habitats/Animals
Lesson Title: Recycled Art Objects
Assignment: Look at the folk art inspired assemblages by Betye Saar and her daughters Lezley and Alison
Saar. Using the same technique of found object and recycled material assemblage create a sculptural
container out of a shoebox to house things that you find are beautiful and wonderful in your local
environment.
Concept: Learn to participate in sustainable art practice by reusing objects that have been thrown away.
Develop appreciation and encourage observation of local environment.
Key Words: Assemblage sculpture, found objects, natural objects, fabricated / manufactured objects,
mementos, folk art, stereotypes, nostalgic, recycling, sustainability, feminism, multiculturalism, and Betye,
Lezley and Alison Saar (artists).
Art History Connection: Read Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar, 2005 by Jessica
Dallow and Barbara Matilsky (ISBN: 029598564X, University of Washington Press). Unlike the folk artists
working in the same craft tradition, Betye Saar (b. 1926) is an academically trained artist. Based in
Los Angeles, her two-dimensional collages and three-dimensional assemblages appropriate an array of
African American visual culture, which includes the stereotyped images of African American figures from folk
culture and advertising, to make politically charged personal comments on society. By the 70’s her boxed
assemblages included African tribal objects and African American folk items to explore the magical and the
mystical. Her mature work of shrine boxes contain nostalgic mementos like old photographs, letters,
lockets, dried flowers, and handkerchiefs while evoking memory, loss, and the passage of time. Her
daughters, Lezley (b. 1953) and Alison (b. 1956) explore assemblage techniques to examine their multiracial
heritage (African American, European, and Native American) and personal identities. Their mixed media
works accumulate layers of found and everyday objects such as old photographs and clothing, and natural
elements like seashells and branches, whereby transforming these materials to comment on issues of race,
gender, and identity. Also refer to Recycled Crafts Box: Sock Puppets, Cardboard Castles, Bottle Bugs & 37 More
Earth-Friendly Projects and Activities You Can Create, 2004 by Laura C. Martin (ISBN: 1580175228,
Storey Publishing).
Materials: acrylic paints, palettes, brushes, masking tape, white glue, and scissors.
Recycled materials: shoe boxes, found/recycled objects—such as cardboard, paper, matchboxes, recycled
cans and bottles, popsicle/coffee sticks, pipe cleaner, shells, sandglass, and stones.
Technique: Assemblage/mixed media sculpture.
Preparation: Have students bring in their own empty shoe boxes. Go for a walk around the school grounds
to collect a mass of found and recycled objects ranging from natural rocks, branches, or shells to
manufactured things like cans, magazines, or containers. You may also bring some things in that you find
closer to home. Familiarize yourself with the Saar family artists and browse through the Recycled Crafts Box
book, which shows other sustainable art projects.
Project Steps:
1. Read excerpts from Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar out loud to students while
making sure to show them a selection of their artwork from the 50 color plate images. After reading
through the exhibition catalogue, discuss the mixed-media techniques found in their assemblage
sculptures. Ask them some of these questions:
•
What is the sculpture made from? •
How many different things are included in one artwork? •
Do you recognize them as familiar objects—things you’d find in your home and backyard?
•
Why is artistic process of reusing old, found objects sustainable—good for the planet? •
What does the work tell you about the artist that made it? Next, have students think about the found objects that they’d like to include in their shoebox assemblage.
2. Students decorate the exterior and interior of the shoebox to transform it into a personal, shrine like
container. For example, paint the exterior and interior with acrylic paints. Mix colors using palettes. Also,
glue on areas of magazine cut-outs and leaves or flowers. Timing: 1 hour session.
3. Using the shoebox interior as a frame, have students design a three-dimensional collage, which is also
called assemblage, using the found objects they collected for the project.
4. Let them know that they can use both the masking tape and white glue to attach these different things to
the shoebox surface. Have students identify the specific objects they included in their assemblages.
ART KIT #22
Lesson Title: History of a Manufactured Object
Assignment: Chronicle the life of your found manufactured object, which could be a pencil, cell phone, or
lipstick, by considering some questions about the product. These questions include: what it is made of,
where do those materials come from, what kind of packaging does the product have, how far is it
transported to reach the store shelf, what happens to the product once you’ve finished with it. Draw a
composition that illustrates the life of your manufactured object using colored pencils and watercolor.
Concept: Consumerism has direct environmental impacts. This activity encourages students to think about
where the manufactured objects they use everyday come from and what happens to these products after
they’re finished using them.
Key Words: Recycling, manufactured object, found object, consumerism, environmental impacts, and
ecology.
Art History / Visual Culture / Ecology Connection: Refer to Trash!: On Ragpicker Children and Recycling, 2004
by Gita Wolf (Author), Anushka Ravishankar (Author), and Orijit Sen (Illustrator) (ISBN: 8186211691, Tara
Publishing). Read Recycling (True Books: Environment), 2002 by Rhonda Lucas Donald (ISBN: 0613516680,
Children’s Press)
Materials: painting paper, pencils, colored pencils, watercolor, brushes, and palettes.
Recycled material: found object.
Technique: Writing, drawing, and watercolor painting.
Preparation: Make sure there are plastic containers to hold water and paper towels. Collect a variety of
manufactured objects that students may use for the project.
Project Steps:
1. Read Recycling (True Books: Environment) out loud with students. Also read excerpts from Trash!: On
Ragpicker Children and Recycling making sure to show students corresponding illustrations. Next, lead a
discussion with students about the environmental impacts of consumerism and product manufacturing, as
well as the benefits of recycling. Ask students what they have recently bought from a shop. Have them think
about the following questions in writing using a piece of binder paper.
•
What is the manufactured object you recently bought? •
What material is the product made of? •
Where do those materials come from? •
How is the product packaged? •
Where does the packaging come from? •
How far is the product transported to reach the store shelf? •
Does use of the product have environmental impacts (such as aerosol hair spray or styrofoam
containers)? •
What happens to the product once you have finished with it? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Next have students think about the chronology for the life of this manufactured object. For instance,
where did the materials that the product is made from begin, how was the product used by the owner, and
where did the product end up once the owner finished with it?
3. Have students lightly sketch out a sequence (from beginning to end) of images that tell the life of their
product with pencil on painting paper. Have them think about different shapes of timelines. For instance,
images could be placed in a linear sequence of rows or columns or in more of a cyclical sequence like a spiral
or circle. Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Using colored pencils and watercolor, have them fill in their under-drawing. Remind them to mix the
watercolor pigments using the palettes and to add water to make the colors lighter and more transparent.
Also remind them to change the water often so it doesn’t get muddy and to not leave the brushes in the
water for long periods. The bristles fall out if you do! Timing: 1 hour session.
ART KIT 23
Lesson Title: Collective Garden
Assignment: Working in the collaborative process of printmaking, students create a collective garden
mural from printing with found natural objects. Press different natural forms like leaves, grass, flowers,
mushrooms, bark, fruit, etcetera onto a large paper surface while exploring different shapes these forms
make, color combinations, and textures.
Concept: Learn basic techniques of block printing using found natural objects to create different shapes and
textures on the paper surface.
Key Words: Block printing, positive and negative space, found object, natural forms, texture, pattern,
random, repetition, collective, and collaborative.
Art History Connection: Refer to Nature’s Art Box: From T-shirts to Twig Baskets, 65 Cool Projects for Crafty Kids
to Make with Natural Materials You Can Find Anywhere, 2003 by Laura C. Martin (Author) and David Cain
(Illustrator) (ISBN: 1580174906, Storey Publishing).
Materials: scissors, water-soluble block printing inks, brayers, plastic board, spoons, large paper roll, hand
held press, and small block printing paper.
Recycled materials: cups/water containers and found natural objects—leaves, grass, flowers, mushrooms,
bark, fruit, shells, and so on.
Technique: Printmaking.
Preparation: Have students collect a variety of natural objects. To do this, go for a walk with them around
the school grounds to find a variety of natural objects—leaves, grass, flowers, bark, fruit, and vegetables—
with different textures. Organize tables lengthwise so that the roll of paper extends across the room in one
large piece. Tape the edges of the paper to the table surface so it doesn’t move around. Have another area
of tables arranged for students to roll out the different colored inks with brayers. Have paper towels and
water containers available.
Project Steps:
1. Read excerpts from Nature’s Art Box: From T-shirts to Twig Baskets, 65 Cool Projects for Crafty Kids to Make
with Natural Materials You Can Find Anywhere to learn about making art using natural objects. Introduce the
Collective Garden project to students. Let them know they’ll be making a collaborative mural by inking a
variety of natural objects with different colored inks and impressing them against the paper surface to
create a colorful, random pattern of repeating textures. Explain that printmaking is a technique that
involves transferring an image or shape from one prepared surface to another. The visual impression
created on the paper surface is called a print. Also, let students know they’ll be making individual prints
using the small block printing paper. Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Students should each have at least one natural object to work with and a few would be ideal. Have
students roll out an ink color on a plastic board using a brayer roller.
3. Next, students should apply this color to the surface of their natural object by rolling the inked brayer over
it until the object’s textured surface holds the ink. Have students press this object against the surface of the
group’s large paper.
4. Have students continue this process until the paper is full of a range of colorful textures. Point out the
balance between the positive space, which is made up of all the shapes created from impressing with the
natural forms, and negative space, which is the white area of the paper surface. Timing: 1 hour session.
5. Let students create individual print compositions using the small block printing paper. They may also try
placing the paper on top of the ink rolled form and rubbing over the surface using the bottom of a spoon or
the hand held press. Timing: 1 hour session.
6. Display the collective garden mural in an area designated by your site coordinator.
ART KIT 24
Them Title: Natural Environment – Sustainable Locales and Endangered Habitats/Animals
Lesson Title: Faux Stained Glass Animals and Landscapes
Assignment: Think about different endangered animals and the habitats where they live. Choose an animal
to include in your faux stained glass design. Determine whether you want a simple or more complex shape,
which would picture an animal in its natural environment. Draw the shape of your endangered animal or
landscape with animal onto the construction paper. Leave the center area hollow because the faux stained
glass design will color this area.
Concept: Draw simplified shapes of animals and discover how layering pieces of color tissue paper creates
new colors.
Key Words: Endangered, habitat, extinct, ecology, sustainable, color mixing/overlay, primary colors, and
complementary colors.
Art History/Ecology Connection: Read Endangered Animals (a Golden Guide from St. Martin’s Press), 2001 by
George Fichter (Author) and Kristin Kest (Illustrator) (ISBN: 1582381380, St. Martin’s Press). Use Draw 50
Endangered Animals: The Step-By-Step Way to Draw Humpback Whales, Giant Pandas, and More Friends We
May Lose . . ., 1993 by Lee J. Arnes and Warren Budd (ISBN: 0385469853, Broadway) as a visual reference.
Materials: tissue paper, transparent contact paper, drawing paper, black construction paper, pencils, rulers,
and scissors.
Technique: Drawing and Collage.
Preparation: Cut sheets of transparent contact paper from the 18 in. x 25 yd. roll. Leave height at 18 in. and
cut width at 24 in./2ft. Students will cut their own sheets again so they’ll have front and back pieces of
contact paper to stick together in order to hold their finished compositions in place. Don’t remove the
backing on the contact paper. Organize the colored tissue paper by cutting the sheets down to smaller
sizes. Keep them together in a container where students can easily reach them.
Project Steps:
1. Read Endangered Animals out loud with students. Make sure to show them the illustrations
accompanying the text. Discuss the ecological issue that by destroying an animal’s habitat we endanger
their lives, which may lead to extinction of the whole animal’s species. Give students a local or current
example. For instance, the oil spill that occurred in the bay in spring 2008 led to tons of birds that had
recently migrated to their seasonal habitat in the San Francisco bay, drowning due to oil sticking their
feathers together. Or that in spring 2008 the U.S. Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, saying that the melting of Arctic sea ice as the
primary threat to the polar bear because their habitat (i.e., where they sleep and eat seals) is the perimeter
of the polar ice shelf. Point out that both cases of animal endangerment are caused by us humans. Global
warming is a huge ecological concern because it destroys animal habitats. Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Have students choose an endangered animal that they would like to depict by referring
to Draw 50 Endangered Animals: The Step-By-Step Way to Draw Humpback Whales, Giant
Pandas, and More Friends We May Lose . . .. Students should first sketch out some ideas using drawing
paper before drawing out their final image on the black construction paper. Remind students that the
center area of the construction paper is where they’ll arrange their tissue paper design. So after
cutting out the animal shape, have them cut out the inside of shape leaving only a 1 in. or less area of
construction paper frame outlining the animal’s shape.
3. Students may want to draw the animal in its habitat. In this case, have students cut out the shape of their
animal, as well as cut out a separate frame of the landscape where the animal lives. They can then place the
outline shape of the animal in its habitat. Just remember that whatever the shape of students’ endangered
animal designs, it must be hollow! Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Before placing their black construction paper frames onto the sticky contact paper, have students explore
arranging colored tissue paper within the outlined shape on the table surface. Show them how overlaying
different colored tissue paper mixes to make new colors. For instance, primary colors mix to make
secondary colors. So red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and blue and red make
purple. Also, show students what happens when you lay complementary colors red and green, orange and
blue, and yellow and purple beside one another. See how the warm colors (red, orange, yellow) are pushed
forward and the cool colors (green, blue, purple) are pulled back. Have students cut and tear pieces of
colored tissue paper to use in their faux stained glass design. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. On the back of their transparent contact sheet, have student trace around an inch from the outside of
their frame shape. They should still have a section of contact paper left over that is large enough to cover
the shape they just outlined. Have them cut out the shape they just traced onto the back of the contact
paper using scissors. Timing: 30 minute session.
6. Remove the adhesive backing from the cut-out shape and place contact paper on the table, sticky side
up. Have students carefully place the construction paper shape in the center of the contact paper then press
gently over all areas of the construction paper to make sure it’s firmly in place.
7. Next, have students arrange tissue paper inside the black construction paper frame. Have students
overlay different combinations of two different primary colors to make secondary colors. Make sure light
can still penetrate the tissue paper. Remember, once they stick tissue paper to the adhesive surface it can’t
be removed without making a mess.
8. Once students have arranged their colorful faux stained glass designs, see if all the tissue paper is sticking
to the contact paper completely. There should also be a sticky edge around the black frame outline so the
shape will adhere to the window. If all the tissue paper is sticking to the adhesive contact paper then the
faux stained glass picture can be applied to a window. Note: If the tissue paper isn’t completely sticking to
the contact paper, this means that another sheet of contact paper needs to be affixed to the other side of
the design to ensure the picture quality.
9. Remove the adhesive backing a separate sheet of contact paper and carefully place it on top of the
design. Then cut the edges of the contact paper to more closely mirror shape, but be sure to leave some
sticky edges so that your creation will adhere to the window.
10. Now place the self-adhesive faux stained glass up in a window and apply some pressure over the entire
surface to ensure that it stays. Timing: 1 hour session.
ART KIT #25
Theme Title: Human Environment – Cityscapes and Urban Society / Cities and the People Living in Them
Lesson Title: My Street
Assignment: Explore the historical paintings by the Harlem Renaissance artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000).
Discuss how some of these images are visual narratives about people living in Harlem at that time. Next
look at the award winning book Harlem by Walter Dean and Christopher Myers to see the way a
contemporary artist uses collage and painting to depict narrative settings. Have students create a narrative
setting describing the street—neighbors, cars, bikes, plants, shops, homes—where they live using painting.
Concept: Narrative paintings tell stories about the people and places shown in its imagery. Students tell a
story about their neighborhood by composing their own narrative image.
Key Words: Narrative, neighborhood, community, urban, Harlem Renaissance, heritage, culture, expressionist, and Jacob Lawrence (artist).
Art History Connection: Refer to Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence, 1998 by John Duggleby (ISBN:
0811820823, Chronicle Books) and Jacob Lawrence (Getting to know the World’s Greatest Artists), 2000 by Mike
Venezia (ISBN: 0516265334, Children’s Press). Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) was born in Atlantic City, New
Jersey. Lawrence moved to Harlem with his mother and siblings at twelve years of age during the
Harlem Renaissance of the 1930’s. He is recognized as a narrative series painter who depicts scenes
documenting African American culture through an expressionist painting style with bold colors. Next, read
Harlem (Caldecott Honor Book), 1997 by Walter Dean Myers (Author) and Christopher Myers (Illustrator)
(ISBN: 0590543407, Scholastic Press).
Materials: painting paper, acrylic paints, brushes, palettes, pencils, and colored sharpie pens.
Technique: Painting and writing.
Jacob Lawrence, read about his life and art in the two books about the artist. Refer to laminated color wheel.
Project Steps:
1. Show students examples of Jacob Lawrence’s narrative paintings from Story Painter: The Life of Jacob
Lawrence and Jacob Lawrence. Talk about the way these painted scenes tell people about his life
experiences. Choose a specific painting to discuss out loud with students. Have them visually analyze the
painting. Ask them these questions:
•
What scene is depicted? •
Where is the setting located; outside of a building, in a church? •
Who are these people; are they family, neighbors? •
What activity are they engaged in together? •
What do you think they are saying to one another? •
What kind of mood is conveyed? Next read Harlem out loud to students while showing them all of the illustrations. Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Have students decide on a scene from their neighborhood they’d like to depict using painting and
writing. It may be an interior setting in their home or outside their house on the street or nearby
playground, shop, or park.
3. Using a drafting pencil, have students sketch out their scene on the painting paper. They should include
all the descriptive elements in their scene—neighbors, cars, bikes, plants, shops, homes—to show
something about the neighborhood where they live. Have students write out text in an area of the
composition to tell a short story about the scene. Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Students begin painting their narrative compositions with acrylic paints and brushes. Make sure that they
use their palettes to mix different colors before applying the paint to paper. Have students look at the color
wheel diagram to use as a reference. Show them that red and yellow paint mix to make orange, yellow and
blue paint mix to make green, and blue and red paint mix to make purple. When you mix complementary
colors (such as red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and purple) you get a dull tone, but painting
them alongside one another creates visual tension. This means that the warm color (red, orange, yellow)
is pushed forward and the cool color (green, blue, purple) is pulled back. Have them study the pure color
palette used by Lawrence and try to match his high-intensity hues in their own painting.
fall out. Leave time—at least 15 minutes—for clean up. Everyone needs to help clean up. Timing: 1 hour
session.
6. Once the paint is all dry, have students go back over their text using the colored sharpie pens so that their
writing stands out and is legible. Have students read their paintings out loud to the rest of the group.
ART KIT #26
Theme Title: Human Environment – Cityscapes and Urban Society / Cities and the People Living in Them
Lesson Title: Cities of the Future
Assignment: Assemble a building or structure that could be constructed at least a century from now in the
future. Display these constructions together as a group to create a futuristic cityscape.
Concept: Students learn about geography and architecture by looking at contemporary cityscape skylines
(e.g., San Francisco, Dubai, New York, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, etc.) along with imaginary structures
and buildings made from recycled materials.
Key Words: Cityscape, skyline, futuristic, global, found/recycled objects, and assemblage/mixed media
sculpture.
Art History Connection: Read Look-Alikes Around the World (Look-Alikes), 2007 (ISBN: 0316811726, Little,
Brown Young Readers) and Look-Alikes: The More You Look, the More You See!, 2003 (ISBN: 0316713481, Little,
Brown Young Readers) by Joan Steiner.
Materials: white glue, masking tape, scissors, acrylic paints, brushes, palettes, and colored construction
paper.
Recycled materials: found/recycled objects—such as cardboard, paper, matchboxes, recycled cans and
bottles, popsicle/coffee sticks, and pipe cleaner.
Technique: Assemblage/mixed media sculpture.
Preparation: Collect a variety of recycled materials that could be made into a “look-alike”. Have students
bring things in from home as well. Compile laminated images of contemporary skylines from around the
world.
Project Steps:
1. Read Look-Alikes Around the World (Look-Alikes) and Look-Alikes: The More You Look, the More You See! by
Joan Steiner out loud to students. Look at all the unique photographs by this author/artist who
combines found objects into three-dimensional arrangements that re-create everyday scenes. Point out all
the different types of architecture to students. Have them identify the different objects used to
recreate these buildings and structures. Next, show students the laminated images of contemporary
skylines from globally located cities. After looking through these unique images, have students decide on
the type of futuristic structure they’d like to build for the project. Remind them that this is a building that
would be constructed at least a century from now in the future.
2. Have students gather all the found/recycled objects they’ll use to construct their building/structure. Have
them determine the function of their building in the future. Ask them if it will be a residence or building of
commerce. In what city is their building located?
3. Have students fabricate their futuristic buildings using all the provided construction materials. They can
attach different pieces by wrapping tape around them or gluing them together. As the final step, have
students paint the assembled form to make it look like a whole and finished structure. Have them use the
palettes to mix different colors with the paints. Timing: 1 hour 30 minute session.
4. To conclude the project, have students display their constructions together as a group to create a
futuristic cityscape. Timing: 30 minute session.
Timing: 3 sessions; 3 hours total.
ART KIT #27
Theme Title: Mental Environment – Surreal Environments
Lesson Title: Perceiving Everyday Experiences Differently
Assignment: Investigate the surreal paintings by Rene Magritte (1893-1967) to learn about the Surrealist
tradition of juxtaposing things in a way that would not normally be seen together in real life. Have students
pick two things and combine them together in an image making sure to change the scale of at least one of
those things.
Concept: Our everyday environment is transformed in our dreams, memories, and imaginations. Paintings
visualize these surreal perceptual experiences.
Key Words: Surrealism, subconscious, psychology, dreams, Magic Realism, illusionistic, juxtaposition, and
Rene Magritte (artist).
Art History Connection: Read Rene Magritte (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists), 2003 by Mike
Venezia (ISBN: 0516278142, Children’s Press) and Imagine That!: Activities and Adventures in Surrealism, 2004
by Joyce Raimondo (ISBN: 0823025020, Watson-Guptill Publications, Inc.). Learn about this artist’s life and
work. Originally from Belgium, he became part of the Surrealist group of artists in Paris from 1927–30, after
which he returned to Brussels. The dreamlike and strange subject matter of his paintings, combine
disassociated objects with unrelated words in order to question everyday relationships and develop
new meanings.
Materials: painting paper, pencils, acrylic paints, brushes, and palettes.
Technique: Drawing and painting.
Rene Magritte, read about his life and art in the two books about the artist. Refer to laminated color wheel.
Project Steps:
1. Read Rene Magritte (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) and Imagine That!: Activities and Adventures
in Surrealism out loud to students. Show them reproductions of his Surrealist paintings. Have students look
closely at the paintings while explaining that although they look realistic (that is, things look detailed and
almost photographic), the fantasy elements and dreamlike imagery are characteristic of the surreal style in
Surrealist painting. Point out the naturalistic color palette used by Magritte and explain that this technique
exaggerates the surreal arrangement of otherwise realistic objects. Ask students some of these questions to
generate group discussion:
•
What makes this painting look like a dream?
•
How is it funny, scary, or confusing? •
What objects are juxtaposed (placed together) in
this composition? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Have students think about the way their everyday environments are transformed in their own dreams,
memories, and imaginations. In the tradition of Surrealist painting, students start to imagine a pictorial
scene where things are juxtaposed in a way that would not normally be seen together in real life.
3. Next, students decide on two different things to combine together in their painted compositions. Make
sure that students change the scale of at least one of those things. Timing: 30 minute session.
4. Have students use pencils to sketch out their surreal scene on painting paper making sure to include all of
the pictorial elements in their composition. It’s up to students whether they include text, but make sure that
it changes the meaning of the corresponding objects. Timing: 30 minute session.
5. Students begin painting their narrative compositions with acrylic paints and brushes. Make sure that they
use their palettes to mix different colors before applying the paint to paper. Have students look at the color
wheel diagram to use as a reference. Show them that red and yellow paint mix to make orange, yellow and
blue paint mix to make green, and blue and red paint mix to make purple. When you mix complementary
colors (such as red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and purple) you get a dull tone, but painting
them alongside one another creates visual tension. This means that the warm color (red, orange, yellow) is
pushed forward and the cool color (green, blue, purple) is pulled back. Encourage students to depict the
pictorial elements in their compositions using the natural, true to life color tones of the actual objects.
fall out. Leave time—at least 15 minutes—for clean up. Everyone needs to help clean up. Timing: 1 hour
session.
7. Have students share their surreal paintings with the group by identifying the objects in the composition
and explaining why they changed the scale of an object a certain way and so on. Timing: 30 minute session.
Total Timing: 3 – 4 sessions; 3 ½ hours total.
ART KIT #28
Theme Title: Mental Environment – Surreal Environments
Lesson Title: Trompe l’Oeil Street Art
Assignment: Create an optical illusion, by drawing a three-dimensional form coming out of the ground
using chalk pastel. First look at chalk artwork by contemporary chalk artists Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner.
See that both artists utilize trompe l’oeil, which means “trick the eye,” and anamorphic painting, which is
meant to “deceive the eye,” techniques to draw extremely realistic imagery that looks three-dimensions
when viewed from a certain angle.
Note: get permission from the school principal before doing this project.
Concept: Our perception of art is influenced by where it’s situated—in a gallery, museum, library, your
home, or on the street. With footpath chalk painting, the two-dimensional image on the pavement blends
with architectural surroundings to become part of an optical illusion that looks three-dimensional.
Key Words: Trompe l’oeil, anamorphic painting, optical illusion, visual perception, realism,
three-dimensional, pavement/street art, chalk artists, Kurt Wenner (artist), and Julian Beever (artist).
Art History Connection: Read Optical Illusions in Art, 2003 by Alexander Sturgis (ISBN: 1402706502,
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.). Make sure to cover the parts on trompe l’oeil and anamorphic painting.
Refer to Now You See It, Now You Don’t: The Amazing World of Optical Illusions, 1998 by Seymour Simon (ISBN:
0688161529, Harper Collins Publishing). Kurt Wenner is an American who has been street painting his
anamorphic visual illusions with chalk and pastel since the early 1980’s. Wenner adapted the anamorphic
painting seen in early Renaissance frescoes, which gave three-dimensional illusions of space and form to the
two-dimensional ceilings of buildings. Using the same anamorphic technique, Wenner creates
three-dimensional compositions on the ground that need to be viewed from one perspective. Likewise,
Julian Beever is a chalk artist from England who has been creating trompe-l’œil chalk drawings on pavement
surfaces since the mid-1990s. He uses the same projection technique called anamorphosis to render his
images so they have an illusion of three dimensions when viewed from a given direction.
Materials: large outdoor chalk pastel, drawing paper, colored soft pastels, large brushes, and dust masks.
Technique: Drawing.
Preparation: Refer to the laminated copies of chalk artwork by Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever. To gain
further information about the artists, visit their websites at
www.kurtwenner.com and user.skynet.be/J.Beever/. Go outside the school and find an area suitable for
carrying out the activity, such as the playground.
Check with your school administrator and site coordinator before you begin the activity.
Project Steps:
1. Read Optical Illusions in Art out loud to students. Hold the book open for students to see the images
accompanying this text. Make sure to show them the historical examples of anamorphic and trompe l’oeil
painting in this book reference. Next, show students the laminated images of contemporary illusionistic
street artwork by chalk artists Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever. Ask students some of these questions:
•
Does the image look three-dimensional? •
Is this optical illusion believable? •
Do you think it would be flat if you were to touch it? •
How does the chalk art change the scale of its surrounding environment (do things look smaller or larger)? •
What image would you draw to make it look like it was coming out of the ground? Timing: 1 hour session.
2. Using drawing paper and colored soft pastels, have students experiment with optical designs. Let them
try to make a three-dimensional looking realistic image or create a more abstract optical illusion. Have
students refer to Now You See It, Now You Don’t: The Amazing World of Optical Illusions to learn about abstract
optical illusions that play with color contrasts, repetition of lines, and simplified geometric shapes.
3. Have students choose one of their designs to draw on a larger scale outside. Timing: 1 hour session.
4. Before beginning the activity outside, make sure that students are wearing their dust masks to prevent
them from inhaling the chalk dust. Have students spread out over a designated area of the playground.
Make sure they have their colored pastel drawing to refer to during this process. Using the large outdoor
chalk pastel, have students draw their optical illusion on an enlarged scale. They can blend color areas of
chalk using the large brushes. Students can clean the edges outlining the shape of their chalk art using the
same large brushes. Invite the rest of the after school program to come and see the chalk illusions.

General Tips for Using Art Materials with Students

Transcription

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