Studio Art: Cubist Superheroes

Well, I can officially say that this 5-year teacher has made a rookie mistake...she has spread herself too thin this year.  Between the business of being a K-12 teacher in one building, being on a scheduling committee, the negotiations team for our new contract, being on a report card committee to revamp report card comments, working the extended day program after school, AND starting a new business venture this year, I have reached a point where I have taken on too much.  Unfortunately, my blog has suffered because of it. :(

These are some of the cubist superheroes that my Studio Art classes completed this year.  We finished these in the middle of February, and since done a printmaking project, soon to come.  You can check out the objectives of this project, which are the same as last year, on this previous post.  Again, we used the coarse pumice and modeling mediums to create actual texture on our canvas. 

Similar to last year, the students that were extremely successful at this project were the students who had a hard time with the realist projects, and the students who favor the realism projects, struggled with this project.  Next year, I'm going to change up the subject matter for this project...I just haven't figured out what it will be yet.

Studio Art: Cubist Superheroes!

I am SOOOOO excited to share these paintings!  My Studio students did an AMAZING job on these and I'm so happy with them!  Everyone really tried their hardest, and even if they didn't necessarily do a full cubist representation of their superhero, they definitely put a lot of time and effort into these paintings!

I have shared this project on the SmARTteacher website so you can head over there to find the note page I used for Picasso, the rubric and objectives for these paintings, and my powerpoint that I created and used (though it is in PDF format because it's so large I couldn't upload it to the website).  I also shared some progress photos in an earlier post...

But without further ado...here are the finished paintings students have handed in!  Once the rest finish, I'll share those as well in a future post!  Students have spent a total of 10 days on these, from start to finish.  We spent one day discussing Picasso, a day drawing out our superheroes, 1-2 days adding acrylic modeling medium / acrylic coarse pumice medium to create texture on our canvases, 2-3 days painting backgrounds, and 3-4 days painting the superhero itself.

Again, here are what the project guidelines were:

Project Guidelines: 

☐ You must choose a superhero or villain to depict in the cubist style. 

☐ Your painting must depict the subject from at least the waist up. 

☐ The subject needs to take up at least ¾ of your canvas. 

☐ You must use full color and value in your painting. 

☐ You must show knowledge of the cubist style: 

~ Multiple view points 

~ Use of geometric shapes 

☐ You must unify your background with the subject.

I will say that this project was a struggle for some students...the students who like everything to be perfect!  It's ironic...a lot of them were complaining that doing the observational drawings were hard...I figured the cubist paintings would be easier because (a) I let them draw from a picture and (b) they were supposed to break their figures down into geometric shapes... Now, I know the cubism style wouldn't necessarily be easier (it's usually harder to do something simple so well) but I figured they'd be more apt and able to be able to simplify their characters...either way, I still think they did a great job fulfilling the guidelines of the project!

Studio Art: Superhero Progress

Here is some of the progress on our Picasso/cubist inspired superheroes.  They're turning out so awesome I can't help but share the in-progress photos!  It's looking like these paintings are going to take just about everyone a full two weeks of class time to complete, which is pretty awesome in my mind because it means they're all taking it seriously!

As I said in my last post, we started our painting by using the acrylic pumice and modeling gel to create texture.  Thursday and Friday last week, the students worked on painting their backgrounds.  In both classes, a few finished up their backgrounds today.  About half started onto their superhero's body today.  These students will have a quiz on Wednesday about the painting portion of our 2-D unit and then will have until Friday to complete these paintings.  I can't wait to be able to hang them in the hallways!

Studio Art: 2-D Media Unit: Painting! (If Picasso Painted Superheroes...)

Last week on Friday, we started the second portion of the 2-D media unit, which happens to be painting.  On Tuesday, we talked about what paint is made of, the three different water based paints versus oil paint, and painting surfaces.  We also started to dive into the art criticism process.

Then, on Tuesday this week, we talked specifically about Picasso and cubism.  I gave students an additional note sheet that had notes for Picasso, as well as the objectives, checklist and rubric for the next project..."What if Picasso painted a superhero?"  Before beginning this, I showed them the Superhero Series by Mike Esparza, which is a direct idea steal from Pinterest.

The students are REALLY enjoying this so far.  Here are the project objectives and the checklist I gave students with their rubric:

Project Objectives: 

By the end of this project, I will be able to… 

1. Describe the characteristics of cubism. 

2. Discuss how life events affected Picasso’s artwork during his three artistic periods. 

3. Create a cubist representation of a super hero using acrylic paint. 

4. Identify the order in which a painting should be constructed in. 

Project Guidelines: 

☐ You must choose a superhero or villain to depict in the cubist style. 

☐ Your painting must depict the subject from at least the waist up. 

☐ The subject needs to take up at least ¾ of your canvas. 

☐ You must use full color and value in your painting. 

☐ You must show knowledge of the cubist style: 

~ Multiple view points 

~ Use of geometric shapes 

☐ You must unify your background with the subject.

What's ironic is that the students were starting to complain at the drawing assignments because they were having to draw realistically and use lots of value...now they're complaining that it's too hard to try and intentionally draw their superhero unrealistically!  

So far we are two days into this painting.  On Wednesday students had to draw out their superhero.  Some struggled, and some did quite well.  I encouraged them to simply break down their figure into basic shapes, and then to move body parts to be where they aren't...turn an eye ball sideways, put an eye in the middle of the forehead, put the mouth on the side of the mouth, etc.  I also pushed the idea of the multiple view points, which is a little bit harder of a concept for them to grasp, I think.

I then also introduced the students to acrylic gel medium, which was new to them and actually new to me.  Last year, when I was grading post-assessments with another fellow art teacher, one of the projects she did used these gel mediums to give texture, and I loved it!  I bought a large jar of the modeling paste and then three each of the coarse pumice and fine pumice gels.

We applied the gel medium using paint knives...

My painting is on the left.  I gave students a demonstration today on how to paint by blending colors on the canvas instead of in their paint palette.  A few students started painting their backgrounds today.

This was just a quick preview of these projects...tomorrow I am taking a day off for my 34 week sonogram.  I anticipate that the students will start finishing these up by Wednesday and Thursday next week.

On a side note, the Art 7 students have finished their first tag, but after I hung my brick wall today at the end of the day, I forgot to take a picture of it to share!  That will have to wait until Monday!

Clay Picasso Faces

On Thursday before Spring break, my first class of 3rd graders finished their clay Picasso faces.  This essentially turned out to be a 4-day project, but I'm pretty sure next year I could squeeze it down to a 3-day project instead.  Here's my previous post about building the faces.

I love the one on the right!  Such a cool ear and funny mustache!