David Hockney Beach Umbrella

I wanted the final summer school project to be well--summery.  I don't know what feels more like summer than the beach.  Students learned about artist David Hockney. We looked at the evolution of his artwork from 1950 until now.  I've always loved Hockney's Beach Umbrella painting, the simplicity with the color is quite pleasant.  After looking at some of his landscapes we decided to combine that style with his beach/swimming pool paintings.  We drew the umbrella together, using colored pencils students colored the umbrella however they chose.  Then using crayon students used lines and patterns in a "Hockney-esque" manner to fill in the sand and water.  Using liquid watercolor students filled in the remaining white spaces.  For a final finishing touch students were able to put down a clear gloss coat and sprinkle sand over the beach area.  

Jasper Johns takes Flag Day and 4th of July

This project was originally done incongruence with Flag Day, but I found it fitting to share on the 4th of July.  The community where I teach is very military oriented as Offut Air Force Base is located here.  The majority of my students have some sort of military tie so they always love doing these patriotic type lessons because they are excited to give it to a family member that is or was in the military.  

What better artist to talk about other than Jasper Johns?  

Students were to pick out 6-7 words that described "who they are." They found and spelled the words using magazine clippings, giving the project a sense of identity.  

I gave students this prompt: "If the President of the United States asked you to create a new design for the American Flag what would it look like?"  Using sandpaper students pressed hard and colored with crayon to create the flag.  We used a faux-encasutic technique by ironing the sandpaper on top of the white collaged paper.

Students were then asked to write the reasoning and meaning behind their new design.  In the end, they created two pieces of art one from the sandpaper and the second from the wax crayon transfer onto the white collage.

 See the inspiration for this lesson here.