Rhythm & design with acrylic, inspired by multicultural fabrics

Gessoed masonite (9x12)

Acrylic Paint

For the raised parts:

Mat Board scraps & cardboard squares - glue gunned 

This lesson focused on the PRINCIPLES of DESIGN, 

and specifically RHYTHM. 

It was also a wonderful way to introduce the kids to acrylic paint. 

Resource for rhythm:

I can't say enough great things about this post from the Helpful Art Teacher. 

And I HIGHLY recommend showing the short video to your students if you are trying to get across how to abstract nature or create designs that are inspired by an object but shouldn't look like the object. (I used this resource for an eighth grade abstracted nature project.)

For this project:

I supplied students with the following list of keywords and they did google image searches. 

They could google as they pleased, and had to find

three sources of inspiration before creating their design. 

Indian block printing, Adinkra printed cloth, Kente woven cloth

Mudcloth from Mali, javanese batik, Tapa cloth,

Quilts of Gee's Bend, Quilts by Eleanor McCain

They planned their design out in pencil. 

It had to be inspired by their three sources convey rhythm and repetition. 

Raised painted shapes were optional,

and I did my best to deter them from creating a centered design. 

For IPAD teachers!

My students created a slide show illustrating their inspiration and process in Explain Everything. 

I had them save each slide as an image and email the images to me. 

Then I popped all of the slides into imovie so I have a slide show of their design process to display at the art show. 

Here is one great example:

4 part still life project - middle school

4 Part Still Life Exploration with 8th grade

on 18x24 paper split into 4 9x12 sections

Students chose their still life object.

It had to be bigger than their hand with limited text.

I steered them away from stuffed animals and fuzzy/furry textures. 

I would absolutely do this project again and keep the order in which I introduced the parts. 

This was wonderful for differentiation-

it allowed all levels of students to learn a lot, better their skills, and feel comfortable. 

1. Realistic pencil drawing of the entire object with shading. 

(2-3 class periods)

2. In the style of Romero Britto. 

(3 class periods with introduction/quick slide show)

Students must zoom in on the object, with the option to abstract it. 

Using marker they broke the section down and filled it in with bright color to make it pop. 

(toaster abstraction)

3. Collage

(3-4 class periods depending on type of collage they chose, with slide show)

Students could choose the composition for this section- with the option to zoom & crop or showcase the entire object. 

I showed LOTS of examples of different types of collages. 

They could choose their materials- I suggested magazine cut outs, newspaper, or tissue paper. 

They had to include a background. 

4. Acrylic painting

(2 class periods with introduction to painting/demonstration)

This was the final section of the four.

Students had to look at their image as a whole and figure out what type of composition was needed in order to make the entire paper feel balanced. 

Most of them have never used acrylic paint before. 

Color options and backgrounds were up to the them. 

Students decided if they wanted to paint the object in colors true to life or not.

Suggestions if you are limited on time:

- you can cut down squares & stripes ahead of time

to collage for stripe or checkerboard backgrounds

- select the objects ahead of time and limit the objects they can choose 

More finished examples to come!

paper sculpture & artist inspiration resources

I will preface this with that I did this lesson with both FIRST and FIFTH grade. 

The same artist inspirations and slide show were used. 

I added one advanced step for the fifth grade. 

Other than that it works well with any age. 

Part 1:

Paul Klee inspired oil pastel shapes 

painted with tempera

**5th grade used this as an opportunity for practicing color mixing- they learned to mix all 16 color wheel colors as they filled in the shapes. 

Part 2: Intro to Sculpture

**See my slide show that prefaced this step below.

Students cut out a "base" by cutting up their painting. 

Then they cut strips from the scraps and I had other paper strips

that they folded and curled to create an abstract sculpture. 

I tell tales of many artists, show slide shows, and lead inquiry based discussions based on works of art. I I know some teachers are more trained or more inclined to do this and for some teachers it causes anxiety. I am often asked how I lead a discussion based on an artwork. 

Many of my strategies are based on VTS and Project Zero's Artful Thinking teachings. 

Here is an example. Hope it is helpful!

(Plus if you are not familiar with Ryan McGinness's work definitely take a look!)

Intro to Sculpture Slideshow:

This was the image I started with. I know it is a public art sculpture in Florida but unfortunately I have no more information about it. 

However, it is a great image to begin with.

Questions to prompt discussion:

How big do you think this sculpture is and why? 

What does the sculpture remind you of?

What do you notice or what stands out about the sculpture?

Where do you think the artist got his/her ideas?

 

 General questions to be answered before continuing:

What is a sculpture?

What materials can be used to make a sculpture?

As you look at the images of art works consider different ways a sculpture can take up space.

Artist 1: Dale Chihuly

Material: Glass 

 What does the artwork remind you of? 

How does the material and/or color affect you as a viewer?

  

Artist 2:  Liz Miller

Material: Paper

What is similar and different about this artist's work compared with the last? 

 

Notice the details and repetition when you look at her paper cutting up close: 

 Artist 3: Ryan McGinness

Materials: Acrylic on acrylic

A great example of a 2-dimensional artist transforming into 3-dimensional work. 

What do you see?

What does it make you wonder?

(2-D example above and 3-D examples below)

Braque & Britto ... post number 1

I began to map out a still life/observational drawing lesson inspired by Romero Britto, then I went to the Met in NYC about a month ago and had the most amazing discovery.... George Braque's "The Studio".

Braque's painting had the same use of outline and broken up space that Britto uses in his work. 

The craziest discovery- when I was doing research on the artists I found out that Braque died in 1963 and Britto was born in 1963-- how weird is that?!! 

"Braque and Britto"... the words just flow together so easily, it was meant to be!

The above images are slides from the power point I created to introduce my students to the work of Romero Britto, George Braque, still life art, and pop art. I will post the entire power point for use soon. 

I am in the middle of doing this project two ways with my fourth and fifth graders. We are almost finished and it has been really successful. 

**We began by doing CONTOUR drawings of three objects (a tall glass bottle, and two different pitchers).

Then the students traced them with black crayon. 

Version A (grade 4):

Students broke up the space in the BACKGROUND first - using the way Britto breaks up the space through out his pictures and filling in with patterns. We used black crayon to outline and Crayola Oil Slicks to fill it in. 

Version B (grade 5):

Students broke up the space throughout the entire composition and took overlapping of lines and spaces into consideration.

The students are filling in the OBJECTS FIRST. 

We are doing a study of analagous colors- 

and each object was filled in using one trio of analagous colors. 

Here is my analagous color chart-- my mantra is 

"Analagous colors are THREE COLORS IN A ROW, JUST LIKE WINNING TIC TAC TOE".

You'll never forget it...

Stay tuned as our project continues!!... :)