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Pieces of Me Collage Portrait
Lesson Plan, Grades K-12, Art, Social Studies, Roylco
Description
For several centuries, collage has been the ultimate method of bringing together shapes, colors and materials to form complete works of art. The process of collage encourages the young artist to explore a whole new realm of creativity and coordination. It also helps the artist begin to learn the importance of positive and negative space as well as spatial organization with shapes. For this collage we will use the Big Box of Art Materials from Roylco® to assemble a colorful portrait collage with dimension. This project will also provide students with the opportunity to share something about themselves, and get to know their classmates.
Objectives
- Students will successfully use a wide variety collage materials to create a self-portrait.
- Students will begin to understand positive and negative space as well as relationships of colors.
- Students will learn to focus on composing artwork with shapes to build a better understanding of image composition.
Supplies Needed
Roylco® Big Box of Art Materials 309726
Standards
CONTENT Standard #1: Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes.
CONTENT Standard #3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas.
CONTENT Standard #4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and culture.
CONTENT Standard #5: Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others.
CONTENT Standard #6: Making connections between the visual arts and other disciplines.
Instructions
1
The day before you plan to start your classroom collage project, ask students to bring a photo of as a reference for their self-portrait.
2
Cut heavy cardstock to the size you would like to have your student collages. Hint: Larger is better in collage. Try to start with 11" x 17" or larger.
3
When you are ready to begin the collages, allow students several minutes to study the picture they brought from home. Tell them to start picking out large shapes they can see within the image.
4
Ask students to start drawing their portrait in pencil onto the cardstock. It is important that you ask them to draw entire shapes rather than lines. For example: ask them to isolate their head and shoulders as a single shape and draw it on their sheet. Then they can begin to pick out the next shape to draw.
5
When they finish drawing in pencil and they are satisfied with their drawing, give them a black marker to trace over the pencil outlines. This will make the collage process easier as they progress.
6
Open your Big Box of Art Materials and lay them all out on a table. Ask the students to look at the shapes in their drawing and begin to pick collage elements for those shapes. When they are ready to start the collage, give each a bottle of white glue.
7
Have them start with one shape at a time. If they choose to fill that shape with beads, have them lay out the beads to fill the shape. When the shape is full of beads, pick one up at a time, apply glue to the bottom and place it back into the shape. Continue until all beads have been glued.
8
For shapes that will be filled with colorful paper, leather, foam sheets and other flat objects, you will need a template to cut from. This is where the black outline will come in handy. Give the students several sheets of tracing paper. For the shapes they want to fill they simple need to trace the shape onto the tracing paper and cut it out. Then they can lay the template over the flat object they want to use to fill the space and trace. Once they have traced the template they can cut the shape out and glue it to their collage.
9
Lay mosaics and other objects into the shapes on the collage that you want to fill and simply trace a line onto the overlap with a pencil. Then cut the overlapping mosaics and glue them down. Then glue in the rest.
10
Student will continue these processes until they have completed their collages. Make sure you allow the projects to dry and cure overnight. Then display these colorful collages around the classroom! Allow each student to present and explain their collage to the class!
