5th grade - Henri Matisse Fauve Portraits - 15 Dec 2011 - Day 5

 5th grade has entered into a group of Art History lessons where we talk about 5 different artists, study their mature works, and then use the elements of those works to create our own small versions.   We touch on the works of Picasso (as a primer), Mondrian, Seurat, Matisse, Cezanne, and Escher. 

This is our set on Matisse.   We talk about Fauvism, what it means and why he painted like that, what that style did to the art world of the time, then we look at "The Green Stripe" and I introduce proportion of the human face.   This is particularly difficult since we spent the first part of this school year on Cartooning (where proportion was not focused on at all :) )

Students spend a full class measuring, studying their faces, and trying to draw themselves using what I call "The rule of halves"  to place the features in the correct spots.



Next comes the first day of painting -Tables are given their color (6 tables, 6 colors of the basic color wheel) plus it's opposite, and black and white to give them some options in shading and values.  red-green, orange-blue,  yellow-purple.   Here's what the class did so far.......