Frank Big Bear portraits

Fourth grade students looked at the art of Minnesota native artist Frank Big Bear of the White Earth Reservation. We watched this video ( http://www.mnoriginal.org/episode/mn-original-show-206/frank-big-bear/   )and discussed his grid like style, we also looked at his use of complimentary colors to make his art bold and stand out among other artistic styles. Students practiced drawing a face with a grid pattern over the face, and around the head. 

Students used colored pencils to fill in each grid space, they outlined the facial features to make them easy to see.

White Line Print- Foam Printing

Third graders have been working on printmaking for the last few weeks, when it comes to print, it is one of my favorite subjects to teach.  I love seeing the students figure out how printing works, the image turns out backwards, the transfer of images from the printing block to the paper always is fun to watch.  Students started out with a small sheet of paper, on the paper they were to draw two images of winter activities.  Winter activities are things like snowman, snowball fights, sledding, skiing, hot cocoa, hockey, ice skating, etc.  After students draw a winter activity, they pick one and are given a piece of foam to carve their design into.  Using a pencil, students trace over the image into their foam printing block, after tracing the paper, they make their carve marks deeper using the pencil.

Students tape their carved foam plate to the table, then center a larger piece of white paper over the top, the larger piece of paper is taped to the side to create a hinge, and keep the paper in place for the printing process.

(Student centering paper over printing plate)

(Tape Hinge)

When the paper is taped, students begin by coloring on top of the foam plate with markers, it works best to do a small area at a time, (the longer the marker sits out on the foam before the transfer, the harder it is to transfer to the paper)

(Student adding marker to the printing foam)

After coloring on the foam, the student folds back the paper and pushes down to transfer the marker to the paper.

When the paper is lifted, a reverse image appears!

Prints are signed and numbered with a pencil