Portraits made Eeea-sy

Art class SUCCESS

Easy self portraits for ages 10 and up

I wanted my art class to delve into portraits…..but did want to deal with forty + children whining about how HARD it was…so – I did something tricky.  At the end of one class, I took a picture of each child on my phone. (Like the pretty little artist above.)

Then, at home I uploaded the photos to Word and used the artistic effects tab to create black and white images like the ones below ….

Now the fun begins…after having each child “find their face”  I instructed them to “cartoon themselves”
They could finish their bodies, color in the features, turn themselves into whatever they want.

Guarantee none of the boys in my class look “quite” this tough….actually a clean cut little boy did this cartoon – awesome.

This one is missing his head ….but I didn’t catch a shot once the head was attached… darn!

I loved the cowboy look for the boy below…

They had so much fun with this project that everyone wanted to do it again the next week – so we did…

Each one was so unique and they were all engrossed in making something special. – Just the attitude I love to see in class!

April 1st starts the A to Z blog challenge – I will be blogging daily here and on my main blog Sylvie Says... everyday in April…. consider that fair warning!

only in art class

I love teaching art, but my lessons and my penchant for personifying inanimate objects sometimes brings out the oddest phrases. I am glad the hall monitor knows me, otherwise some of the following comments, commands and questions would have alerted the powers that be a long time ago. 

Things I have heard myself say in art class

-stop already, you aren’t making any sense-

1. grab your head off the shelf
2. now just push your head on the nail, make sure it goes all the way through the back
3. you could put a family in your shoe, or play a soccer game, it could be a guinea pig… 
4. switch bodies with your neighbor
5. pigs do not eat bacon
6. squash the bird, squeeze it until it is the right size
7. take off your shoes
8. I do not want to see Bambi on the wall
9. sure, blow up the whole town as long as you keep drawing
10. see these scissors, I better not catch you erasing
11. fill your head with words
12. find your face
13. stand on your toes until the bell rings
14. the milk could be evil… a container of sour milk antagonizing the fridge inhabitants
15. is that a dead dog in your pool?
16. who’s thinking of cows?
17. because your mama doesn’t love you
18. hey sports central, can you segue to the art teacher for a moment
19. whoa, you aged thirty years
20. no need to be human, put hands on a blender and make it your friend

There are many, oh so many more. Odd things tend to fall out of my face while teaching. Most of it makes sense in context, er….some of it.  But I should explain #17. That was unfortunate. I was eating an orange and a piece of dark chocolate for lunch. The hot coffee in my thermos and the book on my lap made it all perfect. I was happy – but this happy, life-is-good-I-am-surrounded-by-goodness moments brings out a dark sarcastic side. When one of my students saw the chocolate wrapper, he whined, said if you get chocolate, why do I have to eat a stupid egg salad sandwich?   This led to incident #17.  He took it the way it was intended (as a joke) and laughed after his eyes got big as saucers, but I wonder how far that comment went….

I considered explaining each one, but it is probably best if I just leave it to your imagination. Actually, it is best if you just forget you ever read this……thanks.

~*~*~*~*~*~* Make a List and Title It ~*~*~*~*~ GBE2 Week #44 ~*~*~*~*~*

 

 

Wordless Wednesday – Seagull edition

I took a seagull on our winter camping trip. Not any seagull, this is a rescue. One of my art students made this lovely bird last year and left it in the storage closet. When I reunited the two after the paper bird spent a long, hot summer next to the boiler room – he said “Just toss it.”  

Instead, I vowed to haunt him with the bird until he graduates, er…actually I just took Mr. Seagull on vacation with my family.  

Set him amongst his kin – 

         who ended up being camera shy – or perhaps intimidated by Mr. Seagulls innate beauty.

Slightly creepy shot of my son

and that concludes Mr. Seagull’s adventure

 – he is now perched on top of my bookcase – 

until Ben’s graduation, 

I think a cap and gown would be adorable…

 muhahahah…..

*~*~*~*~*

~I also think I completely missed the point of “Wordless Wednesday” -yet again~

relax, it’s just art – or maybe Die Hard episode 413

There was a story that came out last week that I cannot stop thinking about. – here’s a portion of my little write-up about the case….

“Last week a dad was arrested when he came to pick up his daughter from preschool. It seems the picture the little girl drew caused the teacher concern. The four year old drew a picture of a man with a gun. When asked about it, she told the teacher it was “her dad, getting the bad guys and monsters.”

The teacher did not like what she saw, so she called Family and Social Services. When the dad arrived at the school to pick up his daughter and his other children, he was handcuffed, arrested, and strip searched. According to the Calgary Herald, the police were apparently searching for the gun depicted by the girl. They then went to his house and searched for the weapon. What they found was a single toy gun.” 

The gun in question was not even a realistic-looking gun, it was clear plastic and wait, I probably have one lying around…. 

Anyways, let’s recap here, a four-year old girl drew a picture of gun.
Her teacher freaked out – called social services and the police…
Dad was arrested
House was searched
Nothing found
What?  that was just a picture?  oh, sorry for damaging your reputation dad..
But that’ll teach your little girl from ever drawing anything, ever again – maybe she can stick to coloring, within the lines of course, with teacher-approved colors, and plenty of supervision…
 (sorry artist/art teacher ranting)

It was a gun, drawn by a four-year old…not this lovely creation by an 11-year old in my class
– for the record, this rifle or semi-automatic thing was not part of my lesson plan… but since
“my main two rules” for my class include

*Pencils must be moving if they want the privilege of talking throughout the hour*
*No erasing, or I cut off their erasers*

Maybe that last one induced violence… ?  oh well, no matter. NO erasing or I pull out the BIG scissors. 

 The gun in the little girl’s picture was not firing at anyone, no one was being threatened, buildings were not being blown up,  heads were not seen “accidentally” rolling across the bottom of the page….babies were not being set on barbeque grills and dogs were not jumping into empty pools… and the leprechaun did not have a pot of gold fall on his foot….

.

No, the girl drew a picture of her dad holding a gun to fend away the monsters and bad guys. Or maybe she just didn’t know how to draw a hand, sometimes it is just easier to put something in its place, a purse, a cookie, a gun…

I would like to have seen the picture that caused so much concern from the teacher. I’m sure her intentions were to simply protect the child from perceived danger, but then again, a lot of parents have guns in their homes…for protection, for hunting, b/c they are Vietnam vets (like my dad)

Just because a child does not draw rainbows and butterflies does not mean they are from a bad home, or have evil intentions. It could be meant to shock onlookers, or be an attempt at humor.

One of my classroom helpers mentioned how refreshing it was to see that even the “good families” at the school had kids with a slightly disturbing streak when it comes to their art work.

Like the boy in my class who thought it would be funny to draw a beard on his cartoon baby and then draw a barbeque grill underneath.
 

He titled his masterpiece “Bearded Baby Barbeque.”

Now, this is not a boy who would harm his baby sister, nor was this image part of his memory bank, but it simply made the table laugh. 

Come on, do these fellas look like they are planning the adventures of a cute puppy or making plans to tell the sweet story of a lost kitten who finally finds her way home?  No, their story involves lots of unnecessary violence and chase scenes…sort of like Die Hard.

I always say Die Hard was written by an eleven year old boy.  Seriously, a semi-truck being chased by a fighter jet and numerous helicopters. Complete with computer hacking en route and a collapsing highway…no panic, just snarky comments throughout….then of course, jumping out of the falling truck onto the wing of an airplane and of course, surviving…

Uh huh, my boys could do better. and have.

No need to call social services, I say, place a call to Hollywood, pronto!