MS: Lichtenstein Portraits

Middle School students drew self-portraits in the style of American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. They learned that by isolating and enlarging a comic strip panel, Lichtenstein was both making a parody of comic books while also elevating mass-produced visual commodities to fine art. Before the lesson, I had students bring in props and take pictures for them to trace. For their skin and hair, they colored over a sheet of Ben-Day dots, a printing process seen in old comic books. Lastly, students adjusted their facial features to look more stylized and traced everything with black marker.

MS: Word Portraits

Tommy

Daniel

Amelia

Robbie

Middle school students drew their self-portraits made of words that reflected their identity. We first looked at how different artists used symbols, color, or mark making to communicate a message about themselves. Then we focused on John Sokol, an artist who draws famous people out of their own words. We discussed how text, whether it's a book we read, a poem we write, or lyrics we listen to, can reflect who we are. Students laid tracing paper on top of their photographs and gave their portraits form with carefully chosen text (a brilliant idea from Megan Ellis who did this project with Hope high school students!). To give the portraits dimension, students divided a strip of paper into thirds and practiced going from the darkest value to the lightest value, layering text for the darks and using little to no text for the lightest. They really didn't need my help after this point. I am so impressed by their drawing skills and personal investment in their work. I heart all of them!

Raffle Items

Lampshade design with UE1 wire portraits. They were arranged digitally and printed on a semi-transparent fabric.

MS students designed a Chinese Zodiac themed chess board. They made the characters out of clay and painted them with acrylic paint. I'm amazed at how well they turned out! The photos above only show in-progress work; I never got to document the final completed board.

Josef

Katie

Ella

Amelia

For the past couple of weeks, students and I, as well as other teachers and parents, have been collaborating on art items for our Top Hat raffle fundraiser. Each class did their own project. UE2 students painted portraits of themselves in the style of Amedeo Modigliani, a French artist who was known for his elongated and pensive faces. When they are complete, they'll be transferred to wooden coasters. We first discussed how Modigliani stylized his paintings with the abnormally yet elegant long necks and noses, their calm and tilted postures. I taught them how to mix a basic peach color that they adjusted to their own skin color. For the background, students mixed earthy tones like Modigliani's palette. I love how they're turning out!

One of LE's project was to make animal pillows. Students traced an animal stencil onto a fabric of their choice, cut them out, and designed the animals' features with buttons and other fabric. They needed a lot of help sewing, but thanks to the parents and Quest staff they turned out beautifully! Their other project was to decoupage wooden birdhouses out of tissue paper~ lovely:)

UE: Self Portraits

Sofia

Max

David

Brooke

UE: Wire Portraits

Max

Matthew

Palmer

Jordan

Julia

Violet

I wanted to teach students how to do portraits in wire because it was a different medium from graphite, but similar in line quality. We first drew our faces while I demonstrated on the board. It was difficult without mirrors, but they used their hands to feel their features and I think it was helpful to draw them as a class. Then, I showed them Alexander Calder's work as inspiration and students sculpted their portraits in wire. As a way to transition from drawing to wire, students traced their portrait with wire (see Violet's in-progress work) while figuring out how to connect them so that it was all in one form. I think they look really Neat! (BTW, students used colorful wire, but the colors came out awful with my camera so I'm showing them b/w).

Alexander Calder

LE: Patterned Portraits

Steffy Andreev

Nick Kosco

Elizabeth Thompson

Cooper Cardone

Jack and Cooper

This lesson was about patterns and how the patterns we wear can reflect our personality and style. Students pretended to be detectives and carried magnifying glasses to identify patterns in the classroom and practiced drawing them in a repeated design. Then students chose patterns that expressed their personal interests and drew them on their own portrait. I think they came out very well! I see some apparel designers in the making...