Artist: Amedeo Modigliani

Medium: Oil Pastels

Reason for Lesson: To explore the artisit Amedeo Modigliani and to create a self portrait of themselves in his style. 

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes to find samples of his work to share with the class.  Read and understand  who the artist is and why he created art the way he did. 

How to Prep: Gather materials and study and learn about this artist.  Gather some of the artists own work to show the students on an overhead.  Create a sample of your own to share with the class. 

Materials: Oil Pastels and black construction paper

Instructions to Lead Lesson: 

As a class we discussed the artist Amedeo Modigliani, born in Italy he discovered his passion for art at the age of 11.  I think it's fun to point out that Amedeo was the students age when he developed his love of art!  

When Amedeo was 20, he moved to Paris where he grew as an artist.  He was known for painting and sculptures in modern style by mask-like faces and elongated form.    Amedeo had very little money, often trading his art at restaurants for meals.  In 1917 he created a painting of himself.  At the age of 36 he died of tuberculosis.  Within the last 10 years the paint he created of himself, sold at an action in New York for $68.9 million.  Within that time frame, an additional painting sold for $40 million.

A Snowman in Perspective

Perspective in Art
Medium: Tempura Paint

Reason for the Lesson:  This lesson discusses that although we see objects in their entirety what if we could only see 'part' of the object or we're looking at the object close up.  What form would our art take if we could only see part of the object?

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Classroom Time: 50 minutes

Materials: Blue construction paper, pencil, sharpie, red, green, white, black, orange tempura paints.

Preparations: collect materials. Do some research on perspective in art.

Instructions for Leading Lesson
Start lesson with a discussion about PERSPECTIVE in art. Ask a student to define perspective. Definition:  'looking at a subject from a different angle or direction'

Using the subject of a snowman, most students (even adults) want to draw the three circles of their snowman and get on with it.  Talk about taking a close up look at a snowman.  Ask the questions: what do you see if your snowman in directly in front of you?  We may not see the bottom part of the snowman but his face would appear very large. How big would his nose be? Would you see his entire body or just part of it?

After discussion, instruct the students to draw the body shape, from the mid-part of the middle circle to the head.  Depending on grade level...show them step-by-step show how to draw the hat, scarf, nose, eyes and buttons.  Pass out tempura paint and shown how to property use the paint brush and other tools to create their ‘close-up’ perspective of the snowman.

The children were quite impressed with their new found knowledge on perspective.  The artwork you see here is a result of this lesson!

Credit: Deep Space Sparkle