Jim Dine Valentine's Day Lesson

I had something else planned but decided to go with hearts for Valentine's Day, and who better to look to than Jim Dine?
I started with a quick background into the why of pop art - how Expressionism and then Abstract Expressionism had made art into more of an elitist thing. The kids got a kick out of that and compared it to the "Emperor's New Clothes." Might be on to something there. I felt like it was a necessary background into why big paintings of everyday things would be any kind of a big deal. We flipped through some images by Warhol and Lichtenstein and then watched this short video introducing Jim Dine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7SWRa1gvfc



With the first group, we drew an outline of the heart with a black oil pastel and then experimented with wet-into-wet technique inside the heart. I love seeing kids experience the fun of that for the first time! Then we did wet-onto-dry outside the heart. It was a fun, laid-back project that they mostly enjoyed. However, next time I wouldn't use liquid watercolors because they got diluted and one student didn't like the loss of color. The same student was disappointed in the results but I tried to stress that today it was the experimenting that was more the focus, not the result. Sadly, some kids'll never buy that. Reminds me of a younger, perfectionist version of myself before painting helped loosen me up a bit!

With the second group, I decided to use this second image as our inspiration instead. We started by drawing the heart in the middle with oil pastels, trying to make it look 3-D with shadows and highlights. Then we painted the background with watercolors. I showed them how they could leave a thin line between the squares if they didn't want them to bleed into each other at all or how they could, using wet-onto-dry, allow them to brush up against each other and blend just slightly. It was fun to see the different results!

Roy Lichtenstein lesson

(My daughters' projects)

I was really excited to give this new-to-me lesson a try! For whatever reason, I haven't ventured much into Pop Art in my teaching before. Roy Lichtenstein seemed like a great place to start. I had the book as a reference and to show examples, but we also watched a short YouTube video to familiarize ourselves with the artist and artwork. These were both appropriate for kids: Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein and Diagram of an Artist. A rotating easel?!??! I want one! We discussed the characteristics of his work (primary colors with white and black bold outlines, dots, strong lines, comic/advertisement inspiration), and the why behind his recognizable style. Then we got to work!

I took a photo of them (taken the previous day so we wouldn't waste time) and encouraged them to make a face that expressed some emotion that could inspire a good word bubble later on.

After I'd printed the photo, they outlined the essential parts with a black pen. I pointed out that Lichtenstein kept things simple, leaving out unnecessary details. The younger class needed some help with some of their harder facial features, and I encouraged the older class to take their time.

(My example done of my son)

We then put a piece of tracing paper on top and traced the lines they felt worked. My younger class in particular was blown away that they'd turned themselves into look-alike cartoons. They also found it to be totally hilarious. Wasn't our quietest day but they were loving it! I ran their finished tracing paper drawings over to the copier and copied it onto white card stock. Then they got to paint. My 3 year-old even did a pretty good job, don't you think?

I had them do dots for all skin, with the option of dots, stripes, or solids for everything else. I pointed out that if their hair was red, the skin shouldn't be red as well. I provided Q-tips for the younger class, but showed the older ones that they could use the wrong ends of the smaller paintbrushes to make even smaller dots. I think they turned out great!

Oh, and I sent each of the students home with a comic strip and challenged them to, as an extra assignment, recreate one of the frames. Like Roy Lichtenstein would do, I encouraged them to simplify and focus on the essential details that would allow it to stand on it's own as a "work-of-art" instead of a "common" comic. I'm excited to see what they come up with!