Art Here and There

Grade 5 Line Project/Exhalation

About the same time as the Grade 6’s at St. Michael were wielding umbrellas, I had this class pantomime blowing/spewing/singing/laughing/calling:  exhalations!  As with the other class, I photographed them in two different poses, suggesting they think about the character of what they were portraying, for that would translate into the mark making they might use.

The photos were enlarged and photocopied, and then I set them to work.  They were each given a partially completed line template – ideas for different lines/doodles or even graffitti.  I had them fill in the blanks with their own ideas, and then set that aside as a possible ‘bank’ of ideas.

If one could see the lines or shapes coming out when a person shouts or even whispers, or vomits  (some of the boys went quickly to that), what would it look like?  Would the lines be curvy or angular and darkly rendered?  What might a song look like?  What colours might there be?

May I say that they LOVED this?!  Armed with Sharpie markers, one drawing was to be black & white, and the other coloured.  It was sooo interesting to see the different ways they took it, and how students working at some tables influenced each other.  One student is blind, and she and her assistant came armed with sticky-backed foam sheets to be cut and strips of plastic puncheed in Braille.  When I asked her what was written, she told me they were describing her family: lovely!  Some of the girls around her took a liking to the foam sheets, and incorporated some into their own pictures.  I loved the moment when Emily asked Julia what she thought of Emily’s drawing, and after investigating it with her hands, Julia pronounced it “Good!”

These caught the attention of many students that visited the Art Room in the weeks following – I think they were wishing they had had the chance to do this project in their classes too!

PS>  With the exception of my own son’s work, I have cropped the finished pieces to protect the identities of the students.

Fall 2010 / Grade 5 Line to Doodle Self Portraits

After their first line project with the stylized animals, the grade 5’s took their line templates onto a new project.  I photographed each student against a white wall in a close head shot.  Using high contrast and enlarging the photocopies, I created their starting points.  Each student got their large portrait copy and a Sharpie marker.

1st & 2nd Sessions:

I demonstrated how they could now take those line ideas/doodles/graffiti and use them to illustrate a ‘what if?’.  What if their hair went crazy?  What if their hair became a doodle?  I showed them how to draw out the lines already in their hair and extend them into different patterns.  The caution was to integrate the two, so that the lines do not look like a headdress or a helmet, or merely an ornate background.

As they began to put pen to page, I became aware of a few students’ reluctance to ‘play’ with their own image:  worrying about what others might think.  It helped that most students threw themselves into it, so that energy won the day eventually.  As the drawing progressed, individual encouragement was needed to get at a more seamless integration of the lines and the hair.  Blonde hair required different line qualities than brunette.

After some initial hesitation, the students really began to have fun with their crazy doodle hair …

3rd Session:

To take the students a bit further in these self portraits, I copied their drawings and gave them 4 each to work with.  We looked at the work of Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse, specifically his portrait of Mme. Matisse “The Green Line”.  We talked about abstraction, and then they got to work with bright coloured Sharpies.  I directed them to colour each face in patterns differently, thinking about the artwork they just saw.   By this time, they had no problem playing with their image.  Woo hoo!

This project got a lot of buzz from all who saw them, and pride for those who made them!

Andy Warhol