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8/25/2015 0 Comments

First Days of School 2015

Student curators, goal statements and an elephant parade are just a few ways we've started off to a great year in art class!

Each class began the year using my new Curator Board. The bulletin board in my classroom has been transformed into a gallery wall, with several empty frames. Throughout the year students will be curating their own work, the work of their peers and the work of famous artists.

4th Grade:
Fourth grade students are currently learning about art from India. We've practiced drawing elephants from a distance and close-up. Students drew an elephant from the side and a frontal view. We looked at images of elephants in India, and noticed the bright decorations used for celebrations.

We watched the following video from the Elephant Festival in Jaipur:

Students will create two elephant paintings. The first is a close-up elephant portrait, and the second is a landscape painting featuring a side-view of an elephant. Students will decorate both elephants with designs inspired by elephants from India! Here are my teaching examples for each project:

Students have started drawing their elephant portraits and I am thrilled with how great they look so far!

While students were drawing, I read to each class the book, Same, Same but Different, a story of an American boy named Elliot and his pen-pal, Kailash, from India. The book encourages readers to acknowledge our similarities and appreciate our differences!

5th Grade:
Fifth grade students started the year off learning about artist, Kehinde Wiley. Wiley creates contemporary portraits inspired by the poses in traditional Baroque paintings. Students will select their own Baroque pose for an altered photograph project and create a unique overlapping pattern inspired by Wiley.

We watched the following Kehinde Wiley interview to learn more about the artist:

I asked students to write a goal statement regarding what they hoped to learn, produce, or achieve by the end of this project. The goal statements were written on the student's unit newsletter which will go home to parents shortly.

6th Grade:
Sixth grade students are studying Medieval artwork. Recently, we've been looking at rose windows from Medieval architecture. Each student will create a radial design featuring symbols that describe their own interests and personality.

Each class watched the following video to learn more about the history of rose windows:

Each student has been sketching ideas for their rose window-inspired artwork on paper. The final project will be done on a round piece of cardboard. They are creating some really amazing designs!

Here are examples of what students have accomplished so far!

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10/6/2013 3 Comments

UPDATED: Kehinde Wiley Photo Project

Over the summer I visited the Milwaukee Art Museum with my family. I was thrilled to see a painting by one of my favorite artists, Kehinde Wiley. While I was a graduate student at Illinois State University, I taught a Wiley-inspired photo lesson to a mixed-age level group of kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal. The project was so much fun, and the kids' photographs were incredible.

After seeing Wiley's work in person at the Milwaukee Art Museum, I was inspired to develop a new art lesson. I think a Wiley photo project with my students will not only be a fun activity, but will help introduce portrait composition before we begin our first unit of study, Baroque artwork.

Many of the poses in Wiley's portraits are inspired by great history and portrait painters of the past.

Below are side-by-side comparisons:

After Pontormo's "Two Men with a Passage from Cicero's 'On Friendship'"

After Sir Joshua Reynolds' "Portrait of Samuel Johnson"

After Hans Holbein the Younger's "Portrait of Simon George"

On the first day of this lesson, I introduced my sixth graders to Wiley's paintings with a matching game. Each student was given a printed image of either a Wiley painting, or a classic painting that inspired his work. Students worked together to find the corresponding image from one of their peers. Once all the pairs were matched, the class described the artworks and identified similarities and differences.

Below is a video we watched to introduce the artist:

On the next day of class, I presented students with Baroque portrait paintings. Each group had several different images on their table. The portraits featured various poses. Each student was instructed to select a pose from a Baroque painting to imitate for their own portrait. Peers began photographing one another with a digital camera. The portraits were taken in front of a white background. While students waited for their turn to use the camera, I demonstrated basic portrait drawing techniques in preparation for our next project.

On the third day of this lesson, students were asked to pay close attention to Wiley's backgrounds. I asked each class to describe his use of pattern and overlap. Although I originally planned for students to use patterns similar to Wiley, I changed my mind and let each student create their own unique design.

On the fourth day of class, students began working on the finished project. Each student received his or her own photograph in black and white. They began adding a background, using colored pencils. They filled their composition with pattern behind, around and in front of the figure, inspired by Wiley's use of overlap to create an illusion of depth.

Students worked on their projects for a few days and then participated in a class critique. Students were asked to provide their peers with feedback, complements and suggestions for improvement. We talked about how to critique an artwork by: observing, analyzing, interpreting and judging.

Below are examples of the student's artwork (Images are cropped for privacy)