This is a fun filler activity which teaches children in the 7-10 age group a lot about perspective, line, pattern, composition and colour palette. This is a power point resource where the students can talk about the different artworks featuring the same subject matter - a cup and saucer on a table with a wallpaper/decorative background - before embarking on their own. As you can see in the artworks on show here, there is a basic structure but the students are free to interpret it individually. A high success rate on this simple yet complex activity and AMAZING display afterwards which cannot help but boost artistic confidence.
In this unit of work, presented step by step on a power point, students will create a collaborative artwork inspired by Bruegel's painting. They will initially study the painting, comparing and contrasting children's games in 1560 and children's games today. There is also an opportunity to research how children play their games throughout the world. Following this, students will take photographs to gather images of children at play and from these they will select the figure(s) they wish to draw. Ultimately the class will put all the figures together on a background they have designed and created making a stunning piece of collaborative art.
I did this project with a group of keen basketball playing 9-10 year-olds, most of whom had a very sketchy background in art and really lacked confidence. So, I tried to infuse their sporty confidence into their art lesson and it worked really well and they loved doing this project. The project started with them photographing each other playing basketball so that immediately piqued their interest, then we used the action figure for the first part of the collage which was a drawing based on their photograph. This is a nice quick mini project that should take 4-5 hours of class time but is a great way of teaching basics in figure drawing, composition and collage.
This unit of work runs for approx 8 hours of lessons and is aimed at 9-11 year-olds. Using creature descriptions from Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass as springboards, students create drawings, paintings and models from their interpretation of the text, culminating in a pop-up book style artwork which helps develop Design Technology skills. Included are exemplars from my class.
This unit of work was another massive success for my 13-14 year old students in which everyone produced highly competent artworks and really enjoyed the straightforward process. Even those who normally struggled with drawing were in their comfort zone here as Hundertwasser has his philosophy of "embracing your mistakes"! The three artworks will probably be completed in about 8 hours of art lessons, more or less depending on the students. We made a lovely display at the end which we called A Hundertwasser Extravaganza - much admired!
My 12-13 year-olds loved this project because it was all about food which was the perfect subject matter for them... straightforward shapes and vivid colours. We looked at the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud and discussed how he uses shadow and light and his status as the grandfather of pop art. Students will produce two coloured pencil artworks, two acrylic paintings and a ceramic cup cake with a removable top over the course of approximately 10 hours of class time. I've included photos of my students' creations.
In this short project aimed at 12-14 year-olds, students learn about hue and working on a large, exaggerated scale. The project is in three parts - drawing, painting and clay - and takes about 10 hours of lesson time. (The clay can be omitted for a shorter project.)