Patterns and portraits
This is an easy at-home art lesson that students can do on both personal and school equipment because every site used is free and includes no downloads or creating accounts! If the website has a block, my suggestion to students was to use the free app for smart phones or my modification suggestion is for students to photograph a pattern in their own homes to use as a background instead.
Overall, the lesson teaches pattern, portrait and composition. The lesson uses renowned artist, Kehinde Wiley. There is an opportunity for a deeper investigation of his incredible and profound subject matter (which is worth AT LEAST mentioning) or merely using him to discuss patterns, self-portraits and how to arrange a composition.
Students are expected to create a pattern on external website This Is Sand and use it along with a photograph of themselves to create a Wiley-esque composition. There are many adaptations and modifications listed within the sources provided which acknowledge students access to technology and materials.
Step-by-Step
1. View the power point presentation and the provided (below) YouTube Video and demonstration videos (as needed)
2. Go to This Is Sand website
3. Select "play now"
4. Use the color wheel in the upper right corner of the screen to change the color
5. Use mouse/track pad to click and and hold to fill the screen with sand
6. Once the screen in completely filled with your sand pattern, select the check mark in the upper left corner and select "download"
7. In Pixlr, create a new document by choosing your sand download. Set aside.
8. Take of photo of yourself OR a photo of a drawing of yourself
9. Email it to yourself or save to your google drive
10. Create a new layer in Pixlr and open your self-portrait
11. Using either the wand or the eraser - remove the background of your portrait
12. Arrange portrait thoughtfully atop your pattern design and be able to explain pose and pattern decisions.
13. Download and submit for grade
Learning standards
E.4: Communicate a basic Idea through a simple composition
OR
K.2: Investigate a new way to communicate ideas
success criteria
I will have this completed when I have created a pattern (on This is Sand) and have used Pixlr to add my portrait on top (to create a thoughtful composition)
Artist Inspiration
Kehinde Wiley
Wiley is a formally trained traditional painter who has taken it upon himself to re-evaluate who should be portrayed in more traditional depictions of fine art. The portraits he creates are normally focused on Black culture and representation where there has historically be very little.
He has several series of this but typically chooses his models at random off the street and poses them and paints them in front of patterns to create more interesting compositions and center the focus on the model.
Lesson Resources
Kehinde Wiley YouTube Video
Pixlr Demonstration Video (No Audio)
student examples
