Seeing 2020
Seeing 2020
Voice: adding emotion and mood to our work
Drawing the face unit
approximately 2 blocks, or 3 - 4 hours
Goals for this project
Understand how time, place, and context can influence art
Discover how art can be used to communicate mood, story, and emotion
Utilize the skills you have learned regarding how to draw a face
Essential Standard: Visual imagery influences understanding of and responses to the world. VA:Re 7.2 VA:Re7.2.6
Overview: Art can create an outlet for us to express our thoughts and emotions and a platform to influence others by the stories that we tell. Art, and artists, have a powerful venue for creating social impact. Many people have commented that 2020 has been an interesting and challenging year. Each person has been touched in different ways by the global pandemic, the nation-wide protests, and a variety of other events. In this project, you will use the human face, color, line, and other images to communicate your feelings about 2020.
Activity 1: Journal entry. Writing can help us to go deeper in our thinking and create messages with deeper significance. For this assignment, you will write a minimum of a half page entry answering at least 3 of the following prompts. Be sure to include the prompt in your entry. (about 20 - 30 minutes)
What were some of the biggest events for you and your family in 2020?
In what ways has Covid-19 changed your life?
What are you most looking forward to "getting back to normal"?
How have the nation-wide protests about racial equity impacted you and your family?
What positive things have happened to you and your family in 2020?
What were you able to learn about life, your community, your nation, and/or your world this year?
If you could change schools into a "perfect system", what might that look like?
Who helped you to get through challenges you may have faced this year?
Are there specific things about your life, your community, your country, and/or your world that you wish you could change?
Some sample sentence starters:
Some of the biggest events for my family this year have been.... They were important because...
Throughout this year, I've learned...
Activity 3: Search for themes and overlapping thoughts between your journal entry and your empathy map. What items do you see overlapping or repeating? How can you use those things to design your project? What theme is most interesting to you, or gives you the best images? Can you include more than one theme in your piece? What items might you want to draw or include in your piece? On a piece of sketch paper, make a plan. Draw a loose sketch of what you might include in your project, including themes, subject matter and ideas for color. (10 - 15 minutes)
:Activity 4: Decide what type of media you are going to use. Are you going to draw everything in pencil? Will you add color with colored pencil, construction paper, watercolor, magazine cut outs, marker? What mood (or moods) do you want to convey in your piece? Hopeful? Frustrated? Angry? Worried? Happy? How will this impact the colors that you use or the lines that you create? You will find supplies in the room that are available for your use and are disinfected between classes.
You might want to watch this short video on collage for some ideas on your composition. You are not required to collage.
Project: Combine your ideas and thoughts into a piece that conveys your experience of 2020.
You will use a 9 x 12 piece of drawing paper. (You may have larger paper if you'd like, but it will be harder to transport to and from class.)
You must have a hand-drawn face somewhere in your piece.
Use color and line to enhance the mood in your work.
add text, drawings, and images to convey your message
Fill the page--white background should not show
Turn in: Find the Seeing 2020 slideshow under "Voice in Art/Faces". Add your work from activities 1- 3 to the slideshow, along with a photo of your finished project, and an artist statement.