Cut Paper Self-Portraits

I don't know about you, but I cannot throw a piece of paper away unless it's smaller than a jelly bean or chewed up and spit up. I think as art teachers, we art "gifted" with the ability to see possibilities in just about everything, so it feels likes a crime to throw something away if it could be used for another purpose. It might be some kind of hoarding disorder actually: everything I use, I'm always thinking, "that would be perfect for this project" or "I'm sure the kids would love that!". The other day, I was buying hummus and made my decision based not on flavor or brand, but on yes, the container!(It was a beauty, my friends... it had three deep wells!) Ok, I think you get the picture!

So, my paper scrap box was overflowing and starting a nice little trail on the floor, as if it were trying to reach up to us to beg for it's use! Something had to be done and quick! It was time for Matisse to teach these kiddos how to use scraps! 

    

          

  

To introduce Matisse, I found this neat interactive website, that I walked through with the kids to point out how he uses color and pattern. The kids loved that Matisse made his paintings with the intention to make the viewer feel as if you were sitting in a comfortable armchair. 

For this lesson, we first drew our self portraits making sure to draw everything in bolder shapes that could easily be cut out. Next, we cut apart our drawing unto three parts: hair, face and neck, and body. We then traced those three pieces onto three different colored scrap paper and reassembled to create our colorful self-portraits. I tell the kids that anything they want to add to their piece needed to be made out of paper, which is definitely a challenge! They also were instructed to consider the background of their pieces. 

I just adore how the personalities of each child shines through in these self portraits!

  

 

 

 

      

 

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

Words About Me

For this project, 3rd grade learned about the artwork of Jasper Johns(no lunches, unfortunately). I don't know if this will work, but I used this video to introduce Jasper Johns. Silly! :) We looked at his artwork and talked about his use of symbols to represent his ideas. We discussed why he would use common symbols that we use everyday as his subject. One student said that because letters and numbers are so common to us, it's like our second language. Brilliant! I think it's really important to have the kids think of others' thought processes(metacognition).

Students picked three or so adjectives that describe themselves to use as a blueprint for their artworks. We talked about how powerful words are in our lives and how they shape and affect the world we experience.

We measured our papers to create three equal sections(on a 9x12 sheet of paper, mark at 3" and 6"). We then wrote out our words, making sure to have the letters touch the top, bottom and sides of section. Each letter should also touch each other. Using markers, we colored in each shape that the letters made. To finish off our designs, we used silver sharpies to outline our words.

I absolutely love these colorful self-portraits! It was so interesting to see what words kids choose to describe themselves. It taught me a lot about who the kids are and more importantly, how they see themselves. It led to some great conversations!

Some great words: creative, hyper, silly, writer, caring, fashionista, muslim, and last but not least, eater...he must have heard about Jasper John's lunches! :)