Modigliani Inspired Self Portraits

For this project, we talked about the work of Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani was an artist in the early part of the last century. He was born in Italy and worked primarily in France. He was known for his stylistic portraits that featured elongated necks and heads. There was a certain endearing quality to them.


 Our task was to create a self portrait using the style of Modigliani. Using these parameters, students worked to recreate themselves with Modigliani style characteristics using oil pastels on black paper. Oil pastels have a very nice quality on black paper. Students have to think about how each color choice is affected by the color of the paper. Some blending with 2 or more colors may be required in order to achieved the desired tone and quality. I think the art enrichment students did a great job answering this "art problem". Each one is different...no two are alike.

Group One Portraits, Oil Pastel on Black Paper

Week 13- Catching Up and Starting to Brainstorm

As often happens this time of year, some students have missed a class or two so this week we had those students finish up their Giacometti sculptures.  Those who were done, did some more work on their charcoal portraits and began to brainstorm for our next project.  So, basically we had 3 or 4 different things going on at once today in art enrichment class.  Some kids were just painting the black layer on their sculptures, some were finishing up the gold/bronze layer of paint, and others were adding shading and highlights to their charcoal portraits.

Mrs. Luker and I didn't want to reveal too much about this next project, but we did tell the students that it will be a video to be shown during the Spring Arts Show.  We asked students to come up with their favorite memories of Plain City Elementary and write them down on a large piece of paper taped to the chalkboard.  

Next week we'll talk  more about the direction and content of the video and do some more brainstorming.  See you next Wednesday!!

Week 6- Drawing Realistic Portraits

This week we did a 180 degree turn from our abstract masks and learned how to draw a realistic face using charcoal pencils.  We talked about the structure of the face, the shape of the face, how the eye line is half way down the face, then the nose line half way from the eye line to the chin, and then the mouth line half way from the nose line to the chin.  We talked about how human faces can vary and no two faces are alike, but normally the structure of the face is the same for everyone.

We also talked about shading, value, light and dark and how to show dimension in the structure of a portrait.  I think the kids did a great job with these!

Next week we'll start a long term abstract sculpture project.  See you then!