We are standing on the bridge of our own paintings!
Claude Monet and the Impressionists are my very favorite and I really enjoy sharing that love with my students. This project is a special one. We end up having two works of art when we are finished!
After learning a bit about Monet's life we use acrylic paint to create a painting inspired by one of his Japanese Bridge paintings. Except for part of the water, students use qtips to give the painting that quick Impressionistic feel. I encourage the students to remember to paint like an Impressionist - worry about the impression of the trees, bushes, water, and flowers instead of painting details (the qtips really help with this).
This took a couple class periods. During one of them, I set up a "green screen" (big piece of bulletin paper - next year I'm going to invest in green fabric!) and had the students pose as if they were on the bridge of their painting.
This helped me remove the background using Keynote's Alpha tool. From there I combined the student image with a digital image of their painting. Then students touched up the bridge with paint to make it look as if they were behind the front railings of their bridge.
In one of my buildings, we wrapped up this fun project by creating a tissue paper water lilly to put up with our paintings.
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| Draw out a lilly pad on a green paper |
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| Use 8 layers of tissue & accordion fold |
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| Attach a pipe cleaner & spread out layers of flower |
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| Poke into lilly pad & twist in back |
It put a smile on my face listening to the reaction of the other students as they came down the hall to lunch or to the Art Room. "Oh Cool!"
One 5th grader said, "Those are great - are we going to do them?" I told him - sorry that's one of my 3rd grade lessons. He responded with "That's not fair! We didn't have you for 3rd grade!" --Made my day and the aches from going up and down the ladder putting the display up so worth it!
I love that idea that they create they own painting of this famous painting and they are on the picture as well! Great use of the green screen! The students must have love it!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome lesson! Kudos to you for all the extra work you did for these but the whole display looks amazing! Will remember this one :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments Joelle and Anne!
ReplyDeleteMonet would be proud of these artists and see their loved walking by Japanese bridge. A very original idea to introduce your students on site. Thanks for sharing. Sorry I did not know English, I used the translator. A hug and see you soon.
ReplyDeleteGràcies per visitar el meu lloc! És una gran connexió amb els professors d'art de tot el món. M'encanta la lliçó de libèl · lula al seu bloc! Traductor Google és meravellós!
DeleteThese are amazing! The colour mixing is so sophisticated! I love the addition of the photo on the bridge. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments Miss!! The use of qtips really helps student create those quick impressionistic blends of color and they loved being able to be in their painting.
DeleteBeautiful art project. Love this!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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ReplyDeleteThe water lillies were made using tissue paper stacked, accordion folded, secured with a pipe cleaner, then opened up. Students used a full-sized pipe cleaner folded in half and twisted around the middle. This created a "stem" on the flower that could be poked through the construction paper lilly pad (poke with pencil first to make it easier for them). Then twist the pipe cleaner sticking through the back around in a coil. This could be taped with masking tape to secure it even more.
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ReplyDeleteAwesome, love the feedback added from the 5th grader. :)
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