For this project, the 8th grade students from Lincoln Middle School were challenged to create a self-portrait inspired by Picasso. After a activity about and discussion on Cubism and Pablo Picasso, the students used Photo Booth on the school computers to take a self portrait. They were encouraged to used the tool that modified how their heads look. After that, they edited their photos in GIMP (an awesome and free editing program), using a program that eliminated the colors in the photo. This separated their portraits into shapes.
The photograph helped students find shapes and cut them out of paper they painted. To assemble the portrait, students glued layers of different shades, tints, and tones. It was great because students also learned about a monochromatic color scheme, mixing paint colors, and what shades, tints, and tones are.
When I have students doing self portraits, they often want to make themselves look beautiful. Did you have students resistant to making themselves look distorted? Just wondering...
ReplyDeleteI had the some problem with some students (especially the girls).
ReplyDeleteBefore starting this unit I spent I day talking about Picasso and Cubism. I had the students examine cubist portraits and write down their observations. We then looked at the history and meaning behind cubism (obviously looking at Picasso).
I thought that a collage would be fun because you actually are taking small parts and assembling a larger work of art (a cubist idea), and because Picasso is one of the first people who used collages.
Before they started cutting the paper I had them take a picture of themselves using Photobooth on the computer. I required that they took at least 2 pictures of themselves using the normal camera settings. Then I required that they took 2 pictures of themselves using a distortion setting - this would change their face shape by stretching it, making parts bigger, etc. They then edited their photos in GIMP with the "posterize" tool. This broke down their photo into about 5-7 colors, making it easier for them to recognize shapes.
These are wonderful......very expressive and "non pretty"!
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