Blacklight Coral Reef Lesson

Just as Newsweek publishes a story on the disappearing reef, my students endeavor to paint in the blacklight, focusing on coral reefs.the project starts with coloring pages of coral reefs as reference, so students can see the shapes of coral, tropical fish, etc.  Here are a few of the pages they used.

Next, students used fluorescent tempera paints to fill in the animals, coral and sand.  Regular black and blue tempera was used as outlining and water.  

Regular Light

Blacklight

Regular Light

Blacklight

Four Freedoms Posters

The Four Freedoms Poster Project is based on the artwork of Norman Rockwell.  The artwork of Norman Rockwell is based on the 1941 State of the Union Speech by FDR.

Commonly known as the Four Freedoms Speech, Roosevelt outlined four essential human freedoms in the speech.

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation Ca healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."—Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941

Students start by studying this speech and the following oil paintings by Rockwell that ended on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, and then as a poster series for the War dept.

The assignment is for students to design, draw, then paint a poster that illustrates one of these four freedoms.

Expressive color animals

 Our current project is expressive color portraits of animals. The plan is to send it to Art to Remember, a fundraising company so we can buy more art supplies! We are looking at the artwork of Franz Marc as inspiration.

Franz Marc, a German Expressionist, was a founder of the "Blue Riders" group and had wonderfully expressive portraits of animals.  My students investigated several of his works, including "The Large Blue Horses" from 1911.  

  Students then use classroom resources to draw realistic pictures of animals: books and packets on how to draw animals. We talked about blending colors, and using them to shade light to dark.  Student then paint the animals in with expressive colors.  The company then prints their artwork on different objects for profit.

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After we finished this project, I sent them to the company, which does all the organization, (probably realizing their clientele and contacts are right-brained art teachers) they send directions, mailing labels, all the works.  They scan the students work and print out personalized order forms, so parents can see what their child's work will look on lots of different products.

I think that the students really enjoy seeing their artwork on such a professionally printed form, even if they do not order, its a great experience for all.

Selfie

We are starting our self portrait project.  Since the word of the year for 2013 was "Selfie"  I thought this was an amazing resource.  We are looking at the work of Kehinde Wiley, New York artist who puts hip hop artists and people off the streets in the same poses as European master portraits from centuries ago.

Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine

Jacques-Louis David- Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Wiley's Version of Napoleon crossing the Alps- 2005

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley

The artist Kehinde Wiley himself

Students pose for the photo, I print it out, they trace on transparency, put on projector and get large format.  add crazy backgrounds, and paint.
Kehinde Wiley works big, so we did too: these are 18x 24 inches!  Took us a month!