5th and 6th Grade Art

We began a new project in art this week. The students are creating a portrait using precisely cut colored paper. This project is focusing on several elements, including color theory, pop art, self portraits, control of tools and higher craftsmanship skills. Each student had their portrait taken with a camera using high contrast lighting. The students then created the overall shape of their face using either grey tones, realistic tones or creative color use for their skin and hair color. The project focuses more on value differences than color, so the portraits are all very unique. The students use exact-o knives to precisely cut the shapes of all the shadows and details of their portrait and glue them carefully in place. If the tools are not used safely, the students have to use scissors to cut all the paper pieces. This is a wonderful project that I have taught for several years and I am excited to see the results from this group of artists.