Silhouette Lesson Plan

Teacher: Emily Dusart

Grade Level: Middle School/ Grade 8

Lesson Plan Title: “Feeling the Space of Your Place” A Mixed Media Collage

Brief History and Background: Ever find yourself in a place/environment where you feel strongly connected to a particular emotion, positive or negative? As you remember back to this specific place do you become more aware of the feelings you had while you where there? I was inspired to create a lesson where students would engage in a small exercise that allows them to think back and feel themselves in a particular “place. ” While they are there, I will ask a series of questions to jog their memories and help create a clearer, more substantial recollection of their feelings in this “place.” Afterwards they will create an art piece of themselves in there “place” based on their feeling and emotions. Their life size silhouettes will be the subjects of their artwork. The background of the artwork will convey their emotions and feelings of their place through a mixed media collage using found objects and different art materials and techniques. The power of color will also be explored in regards to how colors can often represent specific emotions and moods. The students will use color in their backgrounds to help portray their feelings/emotion of their place.

Standards:

NETS:
1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology

National Standard for Visual Arts:
NA-VA.9-12.1 UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING MEDIA, TECHNIQUES, AND PROCESSES
NA-VA.9-12.2 USING KNOWLEDGE OF STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS
NA-VA.9-12.3 CHOOSING AND EVALUATING A RANGE OF SUBJECT MATTER, SYMBOLS, AND IDEAS
NA-VA.9-12.5 REFLECTING UPON AND ASSESSING THE CHARACTERISTICS AND MERITS OF THEIR WORK AND THE WORK OF OTHERS


Goal: To create a life size silhouette of yourself within a chosen “place”/environment. The background of your art piece will convey to viewers the emotions and feelings you have when you are in your “place” using found objects and different art materials and techniques.


Objectives: Students will create a work of art that allows them to freely express a particular emotion or feeling they have when they are in a particular place with a found objects and materials. They will learn what a silhouette is and why artists use them to create art and express a particular mood or feeling. Students will explore how color can be related to a particular mood or feeling by incorporate the appropriate colors into their artwork to convey the mood or feeling of their place.

Resource Materials/Visual Aides: Examples of collages and silhouettes, worksheet on feelings of place exercise, PowerPoint on artists who create silhouettes, drawing, PowerPoint on color and how it correlates with feelings and emotion. Color/mood reference sheet handout.

Supplies/Materials: computers, large roll of paper for life size drawings, pencils, clean, empty wall for drawing silhouettes, proper lighting/overhead projector, found objects, scrap paper of all kinds (newspaper, tissue paper, old art materials, construction paper) Acrylic paint, watercolor paint, pen and ink, paint brushes, water containers, glue sticks, paper towels, any props for incorporating into students silhouettes

Teacher Preparation: Power point on silhouettes, collages, create handout for small exercise on Place, gather found objects and scrap art material for collages, create teacher example of silhouette, prepare paints, brushes, clean up procedures, search Internet for websites on silhouettes, set up area in classroom for students to trace each others shadows for the silhouettes. Create lesson handouts, evaluation forms.

Teaching:

Step 1- Day 1 Introducing to the students what a collage is/ Internet and examples/ Class discussions on why artists create collages & materials used to create them.

Step 2- Day 1 In groups or by tables, students will create a collage that represents their table as a whole using scrap materials from the art room. They will present the collages to/the class and discuss how they went about creating the artwork and why they choose these images to represent their group.

Step 3- Day 2 Show students basic silhouette exemplars/ ask students to think of silhouettes they have seen throughout their lives/ present a brief slideshow of artists who create silhouettes as their artwork

Step 4- Day 2 Students use the Internet and find three examples of silhouettes. I will have some students share their examples and as a class we will talk about the meaning of the silhouette in the context of the artwork.

Step 5- Day 3 Introduce title/ handout explaining the lesson (create a life size silhouette of yourself as the subject of your art piece.) The background of our artwork will be created as a mixed media collage of different art materials.
Step 6- Day 3 Ask the students to think of a place in which they have a strong emotion or feeling connected to the space of the place/walk them through this/turn down the lights and ask them to remain quiet/ask a series of questions to stimulate their thinking /How does the space around you make you feel? What kind of emotions do you have? What is the environment around you look like? Is it dark, bright, cloudy, etc? How does the air and the ground feel beneath you? Is the space where you are loud, quiet, and are there any scents in the air? Are you indoors or outside? I will be as descriptive as possible in order for the students to best recall their feelings in their place. How do these physical senses make you feel emotionally? What is on your mind when you are in this space? Are you angry, bored, calm, relaxed, happy, sad, overwhelmed, and anxious, etc?

Step 7- Day 3 Pass out a handout/students complete worksheet/participation grade.

Step 8- Day 3 Go through the process of how to create your own individual silhouette working with a partner/ask for a volunteer to help with the demo/go over the expectations and appropriate props to bring in to use for next class when we trace each other’s silhouettes.

Step 9- Day 4 The students will be working in pairs today to create their silhouettes; they may use white paper or black paper depending on their preference.

Step 10- Day 4 Present creating their mixed media collages for their background of their silhouettes in order to represent the emotions they feel in their places/ demonstrate various ways in which they can create their backgrounds/demos on printing techniques with paint and found art materials such as bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, plastic wrap, etc. (Also, how to incorporate found objects into their artworks.)

Step 11- Day 5 PowerPoint on color and how color can portray a specific mood or feeling/ handout for them that gives examples of colors and common emotion/feelings associated with it/go over appropriate sizes and shapes of paper they will be using depending on the size and shape of their silhouettes/begin working on creating their backgrounds for their silhouettes.

Day 6-10: Students will continue to work on the assignment/Day 10 we will regroup to present our projects to the class and to fill out our reflection statements about the project.

Critique/ Evaluation/ Assessment: The form of the critique for this project will be ongoing. I will monitor students’ progress and check in with them as they continue to work on their silhouettes and their collages. The evaluation will be in the form of a presentation to the class of their artwork how they explain their piece? Does it represent their feelings in their Place? They will also prepare a short, one paragraph reflection describing their artwork and what they might do differently next time around.

Time: 10 classes, 45 minutes each.

Budget: Small budget where most of the materials and supplies consist of found objects and recycled scrap paper, old newspaper, tissue paper, cardboard, etc.

Vocabulary: Silhouettes, Collage, Mixed media

Safety Concerns: Properly cutting material with scissors may use the glue gun to attach objects. Will go over safety procedures as well as overall safe behavior in the art room.

Bibliography/Reference: Silhouette PowerPoint presentation. Text: Colors For Your Every Mood by Leatrice Eiseman. Capital Books, Inc. Sterling Virginia. 1998.