skull symmetry.

Last week, I started my shape unit with my second graders and we focused on geometric shapes and symmetry in art.

Before starting, we reviewed how we used line in our previous 2 projects- to make shapes with contour lines and to make patterns.

We started the lesson by looking at some sugar skulls from Day of the Dead celebrations and talked about what the holiday is and how a lot of the skulls have symmetrical designs. I then showed them an illustration by British artist Supermundane and we identified symmetry and geometric shapes in his work.

We drew out our abstract skull designs on watercolor paper together. At each step, students had choices- what geometric shape head, what geo shapes would the eyes and nose be, what patterns would they add to different parts of their design?

We traced all the parts with a black sharpie and then added a couple more patterns with white crayon to create some patterns in white, too.

We painted the drawings with watercolors. I emphasized that they should use a little bit of color and a lot of water to make light colors, so their designs wouldn't get lost under opaque colors.

This project took up the whole hour, so this week, students are completing an exit slip that has them comparing their new project and this one:)

it's a bird! it's a plane! it's a... supermundane?!

Supermundane is a way cool artist, illustrator, designer, and art director making his living over in England. His real name is Rob Lowe. A few years ago, I did a project inspired by his work with my 2nd graders and I thought it would be fun to revisit his work again with the older crowd. His work is a great example of unity in art and since that's one of our 5th grade standards, well, it's a pretty darn perfect fit together:)

We looked at a few images from his website and talked about how he often repeats line over and over (the unity part). We also noticed that he creates variety be changing up his patterns, changing colors, and changing the amount of space in between lines. Students picked up on how darker colors come forward and the lighter colors recede into the background. I mentioned that Supermundane's work can look like a very elaborate doodle that they might do in the margins of their notebooks while learning about something else.

The 5th graders were to then use his work as inspiration for an original skate deck design that focused on unity. They each created 3 band-aid size sketches of possible designs, not the whole patterning, just the basic shapes that would be used to break up the design into interesting parts. I had them share why they were going to chose one design over the other 2 with a neighbor. I emphasized that the reason couldn't just be "this design is cool". They needed to identify what made that design cool.

Students made 6 x 18" paper decks, drew their compositions lightly in pencil, and then added patterns to each part with colored sharpies. There was a ton of variety in these projects. A lot of different approaches to the same problem.

When the deck designers were done, they erased their pencil lines and completed an exit slip about the project. I'm going to pick a few of these and have the kids do their designs on real wooden decks. I've been using this as a carrot for on task, respectful behavior while making a unique design:)

more mundane...

I was curious to see what our 5th graders would do with something like Supermundane's vocabulary of line, pattern, and color, so I let let them have at it.

The older students were just as impressed with the repetitive detail of super's images as the younger ones were. After mentioning that Super had been written about as "the king of the repetitive doodle", we discussed what doodling actually was. Some interesting repsonses to that question, as well as plenty of examples on the nametags students have in my classroom:)
Image construction was the same. The things that changed were the color of the support, the color of the sharpie marker, and the use of construction paper crayons for the other line work. Only 3 changes, but their visual impact was considerably large.

I enjoyed seeing some of the students taking on more elaborate base shapes to fill with patterns.

The drawings were also larger. We went from 9 x 12" to 12 x 15".

I changed the color of the support after seeing the below image that Supermundane created a couple of years ago. There is still a sense of depth in the image even though there isn't the stark contrast between black and colored lines like there is on a white support.

not just mundane...

Supermundane!

Rob Lowe (aka Supermundane) is a typographer, designer, illustrator, and all around creative guy living in London, England. He is also the creative director of a cool children's magazine called Anorak that I have always wanted to get for my kids, but have never actually pulled the trigger on. :)

His designs, type, and illustrations have a wonderful hand drawn quality to them. They ring of spontaneity. His manual creations served a an interesting contrast to the the computer generated work of Dante Terzigni who was the inspiration for the last project the 2nd graders completed.

Also, even though Supermundane's shapes are often flat, he like Dante, creates a bit of 3d space because he often pairs shapes outlined in black with shapes outlined in a lighter color. This contrast of dark to light sets the black shapes forward and the lighter ones behind them.

When we were looking at images from his website students identified that the compositions were often set into large, simple geometric shapes. These big shapes were not outlined, but stood out due to the lines in the image ending along the edges of the big shapes. Students also noticed that some shapes and lines burst out of the bigger shape to make the design a bit more interesting.

When we got started drawing, students drew out a large shape of their choice. I emphasized pressing lightly, so that the lines were there as a guide, but should not show up in the final drawing. I then modeled how to start with their Supermundane inspired "doodle". I started with a small shape and then continued to add onto and around it. I talked about the need to keep lines close together to give their drawings enough visual intensity. After getting about half way through  the big shapes with black marker, students were then allowed to switch to one or two more colors to add variety and space to their designs. 

Many students really cruised along with this project. Since students didn't really have to make their drawings "look like" anything real, a number of my students with high frustration level were really able to succeed. Some needed reinforcement to add more lines inside of patterns they had added, or to take their lines all the way to the edges of the large shape they were filling.