Portraits with Picasso

“I paint things as I think them…not as I see them.” Pablo Picasso

Teaching from Picasso is one of my favourite strategies. Students of all ages seem to appreciate the simple lines, abstract representations of reality and the bold colours. Not to mention the layers of meaning and interesting contexts that in which his paintings are established.

 Anyway, grade 4 is a fantastic year to introduce Pablo Picasso at greater detail. After a short presentation on cubism and a time with a few interactive websites dedicated to teaching about Picasso, we explored synthetic and analytical cubism. Students then converted their own portraits into cubist designs...

Grade 4 oil pastel portrait

 Grade 4 oil pastel portrait

We completed these picture with either watercolour or oil pastel. Kids loved learning 'secret techniques' with the materials. With oil pastels, I recommend:

1. Smudging and blending- using fingers or cloth to smudge the colours together
2. Scratching - using a toothpick to scratch our colour and create intricate designs

Drawing techniques

My grade 7 art class are learning drawing techniques, such as cross hatching and stippling.

After practicing the techniques they were required to magnify (through gridding) and copy an image....

 Grade 7 pencil drawing

 Grade 7 pencil drawing

 Grade 7 pencil drawing

I am really happy with the results however....next time I am going to do the unit differently. This took a long time and students were frustrated with the detail required. A less complicated image may serve the students just as well and teaching from established artists and student creativity (rather than purely technique base) is always my preference.

Magnification inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

My grade 6 art class began the year with magnification. I started with the concept of still life drawings by displaying a single flower in a glass jar. Other than the fantastic opportunities to teach drawing techniques and perception (such as showing reflection, how the stem appears through the glass, recognising curved and straight lines, etc), it is great introduction into magnification.

Students then selected an area that they wanted to magnify...

Presenting Georgia O'Keeffe's beautiful paintings is good at this point. Students are fascinated with how her paintings can be interpreted in a variety of ways....we know that they are generally flowers but could they be an erupting volcano or a mysterious forest, etc.

 'Music - Pink and Blue II' Georgia O'Keeffe

Many students at this age level are started to beleive they can't do art, they are not good a painting or drawing, so I only give one simple instruction for their painting project.

1. Show gradients in your painting - a variety of hues of the same colour. Why? It gives depth and reminds the students about mixing and blending colours well.

 Grade 6 art work

 Grade 6 art work

Together the paintings were bright, cheerful and examples of simple abstractions. Very effective introduction into the year!!

More paintings...

Portraiture

I started the year by teaching portraiture. I think it's my favourite topic. I always have some many ideas and never actually do all of them.

In Australia I loved browsing the pages of 'Lets Face It'; a book that celebrates the Archibald prize winners (The Archibald Prize is an event where artists are invited to submit a portrait for national competition - highly pretigious).

Craig Ruddy with his portrait of David Gulpilil.

 

Cherry Hood

This year I have decided to start with small workshops that explore the features of the face. I will present a different material for each feature so that way students are exposed to materials and processes as well.

First worksop was the eye with acrylic paint. They all did a good job. It always surprises me that when you focus on one feature at a time, students are able to do work far above expectations.

The students seemed to enjoy the acylic eye workshop so we continued to explore different eyes in different materials; felt tip pen and ink wash.

More photos for final products to come....

Elements of Art

I have seen a few projects with learning and remembering the elements of art but this would have to be my favourite....

Work from grade 7 student.

The students were told to stand up, hold your pencil and shut your eyes. At this point, I love the atmosphere in the classroom. These kids live for something out of the ordinary.
They are allowed to feel the corner of the page with their fingers and hold the page in place with their other hand. That's all.
I put one minute on the stop watch.
'Okay when I say go I want you to draw big sweeping lines across your page. Don't try to make it look like anything just draw.'
For that one minute there was absolute freedom in the classroom. It was wonderful.
Anyway that is how we have come to our outline.

Each box represents a different element. This assignment was produced alongside art terminology and understanding the elements.


You can easily see colour, line, tone and texture. Space was supposed to show negative/positive space and 3 dinmenional space (bottom, second to right). Shape is bottom second to left.

Work from grade 7 student.

Teaching Evaluation

6 Thinking Hats

The following images are from grade 7 students. I am just starting to encourage them to evaluate each unit of work. They are still working through the process of evaluating but some students have presented the assignment in fun ways. I thought it was a great way of making a written art project more artistic.

Lino Printing

My grade 8 students are being introduced to lino printing. The concept of a teacher allowing students to use sharp instruments amused quite a few to the point of blood (literally) so I would suggest to begin with the following rules:
Allows cut away from yourself.
Do not cut too deep, cut in layers (deep cutting causes you to lose control of tools).

For the teacher: I have found that heating lino blocks are good whereever possible. It softens the rubber.

 

Students began their project by finding an image online of a person they admire or an object that they appreciate (flower, basketball, etc). Students were required to sketch the outline of the image and then paint or colour (with markers) blocks of black. It was difficult to convey to them that they are not sketching with shading (espeically those wanting good marks).

A portrait inspired by Bob Marley.

 Yes, it does get messy. I admire all the talented art teachers out there that can seem to teach art and keep a tidy art room. Though it is my personal mantra to say, 'Íf you're not a little bit messy, you're not really doing art.'

I think this might have been one of the highlights of art this year (for the students anyway); using the printing press for the first time. Of course you don't need a press for lino printing but it gives a beautiful finish and the students are entertained pretending to by captains at a ship's wheel as the feed the lino block through.

More finished projects to come...