Studio 4

This week we posed as third graders and made portraits. We did this by choosing a number of different descriptions for a person and then transferring that into a portrait. The teacher named off a series of different features, that make up a person's face, and we had to write down which one we wanted to use for our portrait. These included such features as: young or old, age, gender, mood, hair color, hair length, hair texture, color of eyes, shape of face, shape of eyes, and facial expression. Once we wrote down each feature that we wanted for our portrait we were to draw it in pencil. The next step of our art project was to lay a piece of translucent paper over top of our portrait and color it with magic markers. We then received a thicker piece of white paper, almost like a piece of cardstock, and we had to dampen that with water. Finally, once the paper was entirely damp we had to transfer it from the translucent paper to the white dampened paper. We did this using what resembled a black rolling pin. Once we lifted the translucent paper we were able to see our finished product. The materials that we used, for this project, include a sketchbook or drawing paper, 2B graphite pencil, small free-standing mirrors, water-based marker sets and multicultural markers, 8.5X11" (heavy gauge), overhead transparency film, atomizer (alt: empty Windex bottle), blotter paper (alt: paper towels), newsprint, brayers, 8.5X11" white cardstock or set of oil pastels and while 9X12" drawing paper. I decided for my character that he was going to be a 27 year old male with short brown hair that was stringy. Just as well, he had blue rounded/oval eyes, a rounded face, and be smiling because he was happy. 

The National & State standards are as follows: 

LT: Uses words to describe character.

AC: Uses descriptive language (adjectives) to tell about age, physical attributes, and emotion in art and own characterization.

LT: Illustrates descriptive words.

AC: Uses shapes, lines, and detail in character sketch and final portrait to represent ideas.

LT: Uses sketch to inform portrait.

AC: Repeats and refines ideas from sketch in final portrait.

LT: Makes a color portrait.

AC: Transfers line and color from transparency film in mono-type or blends and layers pastel colors for invented character. 

This art project definitely connects to the National and State standards because everything we did in this project is listed in the above state standards. We used descriptive words to describe a character, illustrated based on these descriptive words, used the descriptive words that we decided on to sketch out portrait, and transferred the portrait that we made in mono-type or blends to create our final project. I definitely think that connects well with third grade students because at the age of nine and ten they need a descriptive outlet. They are at a point where they can think in a more imaginary way which is exactly what this is. They have these descriptions but no real picture to go off of for their portrait. They will have to use their imagination and the descriptions that they have picked to create someone. The only issue I could see, in this art project, is for the children that this does not work out for. I feel if they forget a step or just mess up in some way that this will seriously upset some students. Obviously you cannot avoid a project so that if it doesn't work out it won't be an issue. However, I feel if you were to do this project, you would need to give your students ample opportunities to complete it. By this I mean you need to allow your students to make these mistake and redo the project until they've completed it how they should. All in all, I really enjoyed this project.