Pop Art Collage - Group Project

The more you read the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.  
~ Dr. Seuss





You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.  
~Dr. Seuss

Pop Art Collage

This project was inspired by collage artist Michael Albert. We cut cereal and snack boxes then reconfigured them onto a piece of cardboard, adhering with glossy acrylic polymer. When the collage was complete we brushed on a layer of polymer which adds some protection, keeps the pieces in place and add a little shine.


Project length: The individual collages take about an hour to an hour and a half, including 5-7 minutes talking about the work of Michael Albert.

Materials:
- Gloss medium acrylic polymer (a plentiful supply is in the community room).
- Cereal or snack boxes. Normal thickness recommended. The large Costco boxes are much thicker and were difficult for the students to cut.

- Paintbrushes. The flat ones seemed to work better.
- Small cups, one for each student with about 2 tablespoons of polymer.
- Thick cardboard to put the collage pieces on. We used a 6x6 in size. A larger cereal box size may have taken too much time and felt overwhelming to some of the students.

We watched a 5 minute video from the artist's website, and I checked out his book, An Artist's America, from the library to show additional examples.

Pointillism (Georges Seurat)

Georges Seurat:   zhorzh ssörah   ö = like the O in word, zh is a very soft SH sound, ss = sharp S

   The Siene at la Grande Jatte; 1888

Georges Seurat was a painter who was interested in shape and pattern, but he approached these things in a very unusual way. He was the developer of a very scientific way of painting known as pointillism. He used tiny dots of pure color when side by side, give the viewer's eye a chance to blend the color optically, rather than having the colors readily blended on the canvas. This was also known as divisionism.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of
la Grande Jatte; 1886

I decided to use Pacific Northwest birds as our subject matter so the students could learn about birds they might see in their backyard, and because we didn't have enough time for a landscape painting. We had photos of several birds and some pointillism examples that I found on the internet. 

GeorgesSeurat.org

Project length: 60-75 

minutesAudience: 1st-6th Grade, adjust the paint applicator and subject matter to fit the students' ages
Materials: All available in the Community Room cupboards
- Paper
- Paintbrushes, detail round or pointed round (or Q-tips, small round wooden sticks, etc.)
- Liquid tempera paint
- Examples of Seurat's work (there is a Seurat folder among the artist folders in the cupboard)






 

Wassily Kandinsky, Squares with Concentric Circes

This project could be done with any grade level. For younger children it helps to have the paper already divided into sections or squares. I used a yellow colored pencil to draw the lines that separated each square. Folding the paper into sections could also work, but I found it actually would have taken longer to do that, and the paper didn't lay as flat as I would have liked.

We used the tempera blocks from the art cupboard. I've never used this type of tempera (also known as tempera cakes) so wanted to try it. Just add a little water  (similar to watercolors).

Another option is to have each student make one concentric circle, then arrange them in rows like Kandinsky's work.

Here's an example of the project I presented to the class: 

Self-Portraits with Paul Klee color blocks

Two fifth grade classes looked at few of Paul Klee's paintings done with block colors and a self-portrait. We talked about the paintings a bit and how Klee used color to express himself, his emotions and ideas. We also examined this project as illustrated on the following two web sites:

Two links where I found this project:
--http://thetalkingwallsmurals.blogspot.com/2013/01/paul-klee-inspired-self-portrait-lesson.html
--http://www.teachkidsart.net/self-portrait-workshop-paul-klee/

Five links to sample Paul Klee works:
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee#mediaviewer/File:Paul_Klee_1911.jpg
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee#mediaviewer/File:Red_Balloon.JPG
--http://arteascuola.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/08-00571.jpg
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee#mediaviewer/File:Paul_Klee,_In_den_Häusern_von_St._Germain.jpg
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee#mediaviewer/File:Senecio2.JPG

Self-portrait lesson:
I drew a large face divided into halves and fourths, talked about how each eye is 1/5 of the width of your face, the nose is 1/5 wide, sides of mouth end below pupils, ears are same length as between eyes and bottom of nose, etc.
Similar, but more realistic, to this link:
http://kiokreations.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/How-to-draw-face.jpg

How to:
Then I showed them how to draw a face with the correct proportions and let them use their small whiteboards and erasable markers to practice face shape, features and proportions, while I drew on the large whiteboard.  Then we moved to watercolor paper and pencils and mirrors, to sketch themselves with simple lines.  Students traced their pencil lines with a black Sharpie, then choose 12 pre-cut tissue paper squares to place in a grid on their drawing.  The teachers and I misted the artwork with water from spray bottles.  Students used paintbrushes to smooth the paper down and spread the water evenly.  They could remove the tissue paper within a couple minutes, or leave the tissue paper to dry, at which point it falls off or is easily loosened.  Done!  I purchased Spectra tissue paper that is supposed to allow the colors to "bleed" in a watercolor effect, and cut the squares with a sliding paper cutter.

Materials:  watercolor paper, pencils, mirrors, Sharpies, tissue paper that "bleeds."
Time:  1+ hour, but could be adjusted depending on time available.  Could do less instruction time on Paul Klee and/or on how to draw a face. 

Texture Rubbings

In the completed project above, the green quadrilateral and lower right red triangle are window screen, above the red triangle is a purple shoe print, the bottom central black section is fabric lace, the central pink triangle is a texture plate and the left central purple triangle is a leaf. 

I created this design to encourage students to try many different textures and colors, but plain white paper works too. Darker crayon colors seemed to show up better than lighter colors, such as yellow or pale pink. 

Project length: 45 minutes
Audience: 1st Grade
Materials:
  -white copy paper (not card stock or construction)
  -peeled crayons (large supply in the art cupboard)

  -textures, such as a leaf, fabric lace, mesh/screen. There are also wonderful texture plates in the art cupboard (plastic sheets with ridges in many designs). Be creative or experimental... The bottom of your shoe might make a good rubbing pattern. 

Hubble Space Telescope Chalk Pastels

Hello again from Mr. Reardon’s class! This month, we learned about the Hubble Space Telescope and interpretted its images using chalk pastels. It was awesome.

We started out by talking about the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope does not merely see the visible spectrum far beyond what humans can see, but it can also see the near ultraviolet and near infrared spectra. So the colors and formations captured by the telescope are infinitely diverse and colorful. I brought some print outs of the photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. We talked about the vastness of space, the shapes of galaxies, that nebulas are made of gas (giggle), and that those tiny white spots in the photos are stars, just like our sun. The images are so amazing, and they were to be our inspiration for making art!

Well, the perfect medium for interpretting these incredible photos would be chalk pastels. Chalk pastels can be transparent or opaque. Depending on how we use the pastels, the color they may be hard and intense, or they can be soft and subtle. And, we get to use the pastels on black paper, which is the perfect canvas to emulate deep space.

I showed a few techniques for using the pastels. Like, drawing a dotted line to lightly sketch the composition. Or using the torn edge of a paper as a mask to create a hard edge. I also demonstrated that when we smudge the color, it softens its appearance. When we leave the color pure and untouched, it is more opaque and sharp. I encouraged them to not cover the entire sheet of paper with color; the black paper will help us represent the vastness of space.

Finally, we discussed that chalk pastels are messy, and that's why we covered their desks with paper. Mr. Reardon asked them to please roll up their sleeves.

Then we got to it...

It was a deep space free for all. I encouraged them to experiment with opacity and blending colors. Try to remember that there is energy and gravity in these space formations, so there should be spots of intesity in their compositions.

Many students completed more than one drawing. It was a good time.

I sprayed the pictures with clear coat fixative to help prevent smearing. I'm actually not sure if that was a good idea, because now they stink! Hopefully, they'll air out soon and we'll be able to hang them in the hall this week.

You can really see the inspiration in their interpretations.