Monday, August 30, 2010

i and the village.

Marc Chagall made incredibly vibrant and passionate art work for many years. One of my favorites is called "I and the Village".

Based on memories of his past, he created a scene that draws you in through scale, arrangement, and color.
In this lesson I introduce or revisit elements such as complementary colors and contour lines. Students use their actual selves and lives/imagination as the subject matter. The surreal nature or memory based nature of the project is emphasized by rotating the entrance of the main characters.

The painting also may introduce students to the use of portraits and landscape as subjects in art.

1. draw a guided self portrait of themselves based on memory on one side of the composition
2. rotate the paper 180 degrees and draw a profile portrait of  an animal you have had or would like to have
3. draw line connecting the two profiles and create an upside line drawing of your home or neighborhood
4. add complementary colors to main elements to emphasize contrast
4a. I have had students color with textured plastic underneath teir paper to introduce them to the concepts of actual and invented texture too

I have done this lesson with 1st grade classes for a couple of years, but it could be adapted to numerous grade levels by altering the media and increasing the amount of detail of the student work.


2 comments:

  1. These paintings are very luxurious and I would like to say that the first grader's work was very similar to Marc Chagall's work. Good job!

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  2. Nicely laid out lesson. Thanks for the tips!

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