Contemporary Pictograph Collages Inspired By Ancient Cave Art and Illustrator Eric Carle

Transcription

1 This project gives students a chance to combine hand-building clay methods with weaving. Curriculum/State Standards Art Criticism 1. Describe works of art using appropriate vocabulary. 2. Compare and contrast media and techniques observed in works of art; pictograph and petroglyph. 3. Interpret works of art. Art History 4. Examine historical/cultural context. 5. Contrast works of art from historical and cultural perspectives. 6. Discuss materials, processes, purposes, and functions. 7. Differentiate the use of materials and techniques in varied times and places. 8. Justify historical/cultural reasons for making specific works of art. Aesthetics 9. Engage in aesthetic inquiry through various aesthetic issues/topics. 10. Discover the purposes for works of art. 11. Debate the necessity/importance of a work of art. Production 12. Apply geometric and/or organic shapes. 13. Apply complementary color schemes. 14. Depict visual textures in 3-D media. 15. Plan work with a selected emphasis. 16. Create artworks related to Enduring Ideas; symbolism in art. 17. Create a collage with found objects. Overview This project gives students a chance to explore and analyze cave art from 17,000 years ago and create an animal collage using found objects. Emphasis is placed on two main components: designing a silhouette of an animal using cellophane, and creating texture by tearing, folding, crunching and twisting various colors of plastic grocery bags. Objectives The students will describe works of art using appropriate vocabulary. The students will compare and contrast media and techniques observed in works of art; pictograph and petroglyph. The students will interpret works of art. The students will examine historical/ cultural context. The students will contrast works of art from historical and cultural perspectives. The students will discuss materials, processes, purposes, and functions. The students will differentiate the use of materials and techniques in varied times and places. The students will justify historical/cultural reasons for making specific works of art. The students will engage in aesthetic inquiry through various aesthetic issues/ topics. The students will discover the purposes for works of art. The students will debate the necessity/ importance of a work of art. The students will apply geometric and/or organic shapes. The students will apply complementary color schemes. The students will depict visual textures in 3-D media. The students will plan work with a selected emphasis. The students will create artworks related to Enduring Ideas; symbolism in art. The students will create a collage with found objects. 5 GRADE LEVEL 3-4 PERIODS $428 TOTAL BUDGET school supplies. changing lives. THIS WINNING PROJECT IDEA SUBMITTED BY: Anita Gail Trower-Coll Sunrise Acres Elementary Las Vegas, NV

2 Materials one picture of a petroglyph 12 Crystal Art prints of Lascaux Cave Art teacher s example A book illustrated by Eric Carle with his collages at least one picture of a petroglyph H/O of animals and symbols one per student manilla paper pencils erasers packets of Stix 2 Anything Double-Sided Punch Adhesive Sheets 4-1/8 x6, 6 sheets black masking tape 60 yard rolls 3M 72- yard rolls of 3/4 transparent tape 100 ft. rolls of red transparent cellophane 100 ft. rolls of green transparent cellophane sheets of Dura-Lar Clear Adhesive-Backed.005 mediumweight Film cut to 4 x 6 inches 9x12 manilla paper 500-sheet re am 4x6 plastic or paper bags for collage pieces transparent Scotch Tape x 5 index cards found objects-cardboard for backing and a variety of colored plastic bags and similar plastics scissors-metal blades Readiness Activity Vocabulary and symbols pictograph petroglyph collage Eric Carle complementary colors geometric shapes organic shapes overlap emphasis patterns texture Introduction: (The enduring idea portion is from our art curriculum) Symbols in Art (building knowledge) Rationale: Symbols Humans throughout time and in all cultures have developed and used symbols in order to communicate. Symbol such as logos, icons, pictures or objects can convey complex ideas without language. Artists use such symbols in their artwork to convey meaning. Key Concepts: Symbols Symbols are developed in all cultures can be specific to geographical locations can represent people or events can help us communicate messages can be interpreted differently can be misunderstood can vary in importance can support survival can persuade can influence what we value can be combined to create Language Art Criticism, History and Aesthetics portion 20 min.-25. min. 1. Ask students to look at pictures of cave paintings in silence for one to two minutes. [Explain that they will use the elements of art and principles of design to describe the artwork including types of lines (thick, thin, curved, straight), shapes(organic, geometric), value(ranges from light to dark), of space (flat),form (3D shading), patterns(same shape, same size), textures(bumpy, smooth, rough), color (monochromatic,earth colors), and contrast (high, low)]. 2. Ask Students to describe the elements of art in the pictures beginning with I see... Use prompts if necessary to cover the above criteria. For example, What kinds of textures do you see? 3. Ask students to ask questions beginning with I wonder.. or I predict Point to a picture containing a petroglyph. Ask students to compare and contrast this picture with cave paintings. 4A. Ask students to explain how pictographs and petroglyphs differ. A pictograph is an additive process where the artist creates an image using paint on a rock face. A petroglyph is a subtracted process where the artist carves out and removes rock to create an image. 4B. Discuss cave paintings and painting techniques. When do yo think these images were created? How do you think these images were created? How do you think they made the paint? What do you think they used for tools? The first paintings were cave paintings that date back to over 17,000 years ago. Several of these paintings can be found in a cave at Lascaux, in France. Ancient people made paint from combining dirt and clay with binding materials such as spit, animal fat, vegetable juices, urine, water, and blood. Rocks and clays gathered from the earth were broken down to make earth paints such as yellow ochre, red ochre, and umber. Black paints

3 were made from grounded bits of charcoal and burnt bones whereas mineral calcite was grounded to make white. Painting tools included fingertips, plant materials such as moss and twigs, bird feathers and horse hair. Sometimes hallow bones were used to blow paint through to create an airbrush affect. 4C. Why do you think these paintings were made deep inside a cave? Do you think they have a purpose, if so what purpose? 5. Discuss purposes of petroglyphs. Petroglyphs were made by chipping away the dark surface of the rock to reveal the lighter rock lying beneath.. Some designs include spiral and circles. Until recently, no one knew what these symbols might mean. Can you predict what they may mean? Remember they are on rocks outside day and night. Today, they are believed to be calendars that revealed the best times to plant seeds and have seasonal ceremonies. Some petroglyphs show of animals, people and waterfalls that may suggest what was near by at the time. Petroglyphs were made using two techniques. To make sure their figures were well drawn, the artists lightly chipped away a preliminary outline. Then a hammer-stone was used to remove the boulder s surface. Softer rocks such as sandstone worked the best for these methods. Strategies/Activities 1. Prepare for Readiness Activity. Complete an example of project to show students. Display pictures of cave art and a picture of a petroglyph. Have a children s book illustrated by Eric Carle ready to show students. 2. Complete the Readiness Activity (approximately minutes) 3. Prepare for Culminating Activity. Precut 4 x 6 pieces of cellophane--one red and one green for each student. Find or draw symbols of animals that students can use for guidance when drawing their animals. Silhouettes work the best. 4. Complete the Culminating Activity. 5. Display Art and Evaluate the artwork. Culminating Activity Art Production 20 min.-25 min. (remainder of class) 1. Explain to students that they will be creating a pictograph using using contemporary materials, which includes plastics such as acetate, Stix 2 anything double-sided punch adhesive sheets, plastic bags and color sheets of cellophane. 2. Students will create a collage similar to the way Eric Carle, the famous illustrator, uses cut paper to make collages. Eric Carle has won the prestigious Caldecott Medal, awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. A collage is made up of cut pieces of paper glued together to make a picture. 3. Show one of Eric Carle s books that has animals and discuss how he cuts the shapes and combines them together to make an image. What shape does he utilize most? How is the head formed? Does he use one piece of paper or more? How many shapes does he use to make a leg? How many shapes does he use to make an entire animal? If you were to choose a symbol to represent your personality, what would you choose and why? 4. Hand out animal and insect symbols with meanings. Go over symbols with students. 5. Ask students to choose a symbol that best matches their personalities. 6. Hand out 5 x 7 manilla paper for students to draw their symbols. Ask students to draw images large and to decide what shapes they want to cut out to make their images. Week 2 Finishing Drawing, preparing cellophane, and cutting out shapes Materials: teacher s example, animal symbols H/O, pencils, erasers, precut cellophane 4 1/2 x 6 inch pieces in red and green, Stix 2 anything double-sided punch adhesive sheet 4-1/8 x 6 sheets, scissors, small paper bags to put pieces in, black permanent maker to write names on bags. 1. Recall and recap on week before. 5 min. 2. Pre-cut red and green cellophane into 4 x 6 pieces. 3. Introduce the unusual materials they will be using. Hand out one sheet to each student: red cellophane, green cellophane, Stix 2 anything double-sided punch adhesive sheet 4-1/8 x6, pencils, erasers, scissors and the symbol drawings students did last week. 4. Place the adhesive sheet in front of you. Demonstrate how to cut off approximately 1/4 off the top and one side of the adhesive sheet so that there will

4 be a better chance of laying down the cellophane over the entire adhesive sheet. Peel off one side of adhesive sheet. 5. Take the green cellophane and hold it up over the adhesive sheet to match up the corners and lightly place it on top of the adhesive and smooth. Do not be concerned with air bubble and wrinkles because it will look like creases in the rock. 6. Turn adhesive sheet over. p7. Take off backing and hold the red cellophane over the adhesive to match up corners and lightly place it on top of the adhesive and smooth. Red and Green are complementary colors when they are placed next to one another. They fight for attention and appear brighter than by themselves. What color do they make when combining them together? (brown) 8. Show and discuss how Eric Carl combined shapes to make his animals and people. Notice how these shapes are not just geometric shapes, such as circles, squares, etc. They consist of mostly organic shapes, rounded and curving shapes found in nature. For Instance, you might cut out the head and body as one piece, and draw each leg and foot separately. The legs could overlap the body to create a darker brown. If you are drawing an animal with a main, the main could overlap the body to get a darker brown. Have fun exploring how you might overlap the colors to add more emphasis to your symbol. Emphasis is where you want the audience to focus on more than the rest of your picture. 9. Finish drawings symbols if students did not finish last week. Add simple geometric patterns to the sides or top such as circles, squares and triangles to help frame two sides your picture. Your patterns should be the same size shape that is repeated and spaced evenly apart. 10. Place cellophane over drawing and use pencils to draw the shapes they want to cut out. Notice that the pencil will not draw on the cellophane but will it make a light crease. 11. Cut out shapes along creases and arrange shapes together on top of drawings to see how they look. For your patterns, use red and/or green cellophane separately to add more color. 12. Hand out plastic sandwich bags and permanent markers. 13. Write names on bags with permanent markers and place shapes inside at the end of class. 14. Ask students to collect different colors of plastics and plastic bags to form rock formations for next week. Week 3 Cutting, Twisting, folding, scrunching, and overlapping plastic bags to create texture. Materials: student drawings and plastic bags, red and green cellophane, scissors, 3M transparent tape, transparent scotch tape 1. Recall and recap from week before. 5 min. 2. Tell students that today s main focus is on texture. Students will be combing plastic bags together to show textures. A texture is the way the rock looks and feels. The texture should be as large as students drawing paper. The texture will be the background. 3. Demonstrate and guide how to cut, twist, fold, scrunch and overlap various colors of plastic bag to create texture. Show how to use transparent tape on ends of twists. 4. Explain why and how the plastic bags need to taped on the back so the tape will not show. The front side will be stuck down to the plastic sheet next week. All of the pieces will have to be added to this in one class, so it is imperative that students finish these previous and present steps today for next week. 5. Demonstrate and guide how to tape plastics on back to fit paper size. Have students pair up with a partner when adding tape to the back of their rock textures. The twisted and smaller plastics can be placed in their plastic bags and stuck to the acetate next week. Week 4 Combining and sticking the collage together on selfadhesive backing. Stix2 Anything Clear Adhesive Foam 1/4 Square x 1/32 Materials: student drawings, plastic bags with cut cellophane, variety of plastic bags brought in by students, scissors, 3M transparent tape, black masking ( to wrap around finished acetate to frame it.), cardboard backing either the same size of acetate or larger to make a border 1. Quickly recall and recap. Students must be done with all previous steps in order to combine their collages together. 2. Pass out Dura-Lar Clear Adhesive-Backed.005 mediumweight Film (instruct students to not take off the backing.) 3. Also pass out student drawings, plastic bags, and plastic rock formations.

5 4. Guide and demonstrate how to place drawing beneath Dura-Lar Acetate film and tell students the part they lay down first will be their symbols. What they want to show in its entirety should be laid down first (ie. one front and back leg that is front of the body). Once it is laid down you will not be able to move it so add pieces with care. 5. When done with animal, add patterns and then add background. Once background is stuck down, use black masking tape to wrap around edges to frame the picture. 6. Pass out 4 Stix2 anything clear adhesive foams to each students and stick foams in each corner on back of artwork. Attach the finished art to cardboard backing and write full names on back. 7. Optional: attach cardboard to back with glue to make artwork stand up. Week 5 (If necessary) Finishing touches, writing a brief paragraph (3 sentences or more), and 30 second presentations Teacher s example, Student s artwork, drawings, plastic bags, 3M transparent tape, cardboard backing, Stix2 anything clear adhesive foam 1/4 Square x 1/32, black masking tape, pencils, erasers, and 3 x 5 index cards 1. Direct and guide students as they will write brief paragraphs about the symbols they have chosen and describe how it relates to their personalities. The paragraphs should be at least 3 sentences. Allow time to finish their artwork if necessary. 35 min. 2. For the last 15 min. of class, students will share finished projects with whole class and give brief oral reports on how the symbols they have chosen relate to their personalities. Evaluation Method Students will write a brief paragraph about the symbol they have chosen and describe how it relates to their personalities. 10% Students will give a 30 second verbal presentation on how the symbols relate to them as they describe their artwork. 10% Students will create a collage that should include a pattern and recognizable symbol that represents their personality after examining Eric Carl s collages. Artwork should be ready to be on display by Fine Arts night in April % Students will receive an Excellent for completing the above criteria with a 90% or above. Satisfactory will be given to those that complete 70-89%. Non-satisfactory will be given to those that are 69% or lower (extremely rare).