Finding your place in art history - pixel Palette - art projects

Arts & Activities, Jan, 2003 by Lauren Parmelee Murphy

What better way to spark students' interest in art history than to have them literally jump right into a painting? The fifth-graders at Hillview School selected their favorite masterpiece as a self-portrait environment. Using Adobe Photoshop[R] cut-and-paste techniques, they combined a scanned image of the artwork with a digital classroom snapshot that was posed to fit the composition.

Merging the two images is a simple task. With the mouse, an outline is drawn around the student's face or figure on screen in the digital photo. This portion of the photo is then moved over and dropped into the painting. The face or figure is enlarged or reduced to scale and the color is adjusted to harmonize with the tones of the painting.

Other "tricks of the trade" can be utilized, such as transparency adjustments and spray-painted or cloned touch-ups. Adobe Photoshop is user-friendly and easy for students to grasp. To help them get the hang of it, I posted step-by-step instructions for each maneuver on the wall behind the computer.

Notice that is the singular form of the noun: computer. Yes, you can do this with only one computer in your art room. It helps to introduce the assignment at a time of the semester so that each student gets one full class period to set aside the current project and enter the world of "cyber-art." Children who need help are assisted by the previous artist. Thus, you have a domino-type chain of students teaching students. This leaves the art teacher free to concentrate on the task at hand.

Upon completion of the assignment, each student wrote a short statement explaining why he or she selected that particular work to personally enter. Everyone relished the search as much as they enjoyed the finished results. Our media specialist, Barbara Scanlan, was a terrific help, assisting students in their art-history search and later helping them type up their statements.

When the finished results were displayed in our hallways, they caused quite a stir! Students, parents and visitors to the school all paused for a chuckle and to read about these self-portrait masterpieces.

Best of all, creating these blended images unites the lives of the students with the lives of the artists on a subconscious level. It ignites in the kids a deep curiosity about the story behind the artworks. Several students went on to voluntarily research the life and works of their artist. Technology and art history complement each other beautifully, don't you think?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* use critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills to research, select, analyze, imagine, decide, organize, apply, synthesize, create, evaluate and explain.

* access and use information and technology to solve problems and produce products.

* develop visual-arts literacy in the form of increased aesthetic awareness, creative production experience, cultural and historical knowledge, refined perceptual sensitivity, technical skill application, eye/hand coordination, application of visual design principles, critique process and communication skills.

Lauren Parmelee Murphy, is a K-5 art teacher for Hillview Elementary School in Pompton Plains, N.J.