Art with Shapes

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Teacher-facing slide. Use before class to open any lesson materials you will need. This slide can be skipped when presenting to students.

Notes

This slide includes quick links to today’s lesson materials.

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For our final lesson in this expedition, you’ll work with a partner to choose an artwork and recreate it using simple geometric shapes. You’ll decide which details matter most, plan the steps you use, and explain some of the choices behind your artwork.

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Teacher-facing divider slide to help gauge lesson pacing and highlight the main parts of Day 1: Warm Up (5 min), Whole Group Instruction (10 min), Geometric Abstraction Activity (25 min), and Closing (5 min). This slide can be skipped when presenting to students.

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Imagine that you had to create a cat using only basic geometric shapes. What shapes would you need? Maybe circles, triangles, rectangles, ovals, or lines. Make a quick sketch showing how you could break a cat into just a few basic shapes. You don’t need to add every detail.

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Compare your sketch with someone near you. Did you use the same shapes? Did you choose the same details to keep? Even though we all started with the idea of a cat, we may have simplified it differently. That’s one of the interesting things about abstraction: we make choices about which features are important enough to keep.

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Invite 2–3 students to identify a feature they considered essential for making the image recognizable.

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Today we’ll look at how artists simplify existing images, practice turning complex artwork into basic shapes, and then begin creating our own geometric artwork with a partner.

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We’ve used abstraction throughout Fractal. Abstraction means simplifying something by focusing on its most important features and leaving out details we don’t need.Think back to Lichtenstein’s bull. As the image became more geometric, we could describe more of it using simple shapes, lines, colors, and locations. Today you’re going to do that same kind of thinking with another medium.

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We can use algorithms by manipulating code blocks or we can write out steps in a detailed way where others can reproduce the artwork. By looking at an algorithm we can start to understand a creator’s technique. We can then use that technique to make something new.

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Artists and programmers can also reinterpret the work of other artists, this is sometimes called remixing. A new version does not have to reproduce every detail of the original. An artist can keep some recognizable features while changing the shapes, colors, materials, or style. That gives us another useful word: representation. A representation communicates an idea or subject without needing to include every detail.

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Many of Adam’s portraits are large format, done in oil and pastels. Subjects are often drawn from pop-culture or famous painters. Adam Lister is known for reinterpreting well-known artworks and images from popular culture using simple geometric shapes and blocks of color. Here we can compare Edvard Munch’s The Scream with Lister’s version. Look closely at the two artworks. What did Lister keep from the original so that we can still recognize it? What did he simplify, remove, or change? Close with–Lister leaves out a lot of the original detail, but he keeps important features like the central figure, the pose, the bridge, and the strong bands of color in the background. This is another example of abstraction—focusing on the features that matter most and representing them in a simpler way.

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Give student a few seconds to look independently, then invite 2–3 observations. Other artwork by Adam Lister https://adamstudioart.com/pages/watercolor-paintings

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Now you and a partner are going to create your own geometric artwork.

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Teacher-facing activity divider. Pair students and prepare construction paper, decorative paper, cardstock, scissors, glue, Inspiration Artwork, and one Co-Create handout per pair.

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First, choose one artwork that you and your partner want to work with.Then give your new piece a title and briefly record why you chose the original artwork. Before you start gluing, study the image together and identify the features you think are most important. As you build, record the first five steps of your process. Those steps become part of your algorithm.

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Distribute the Co-Create Art with Shapes handout. Emphasize that partners complete one handout together. If students are stuck, you can share the Geometric Portrait Art How To Slide guide

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Here are some of your possible inspiration choices featuring individual figures or portrait-style compositions. As you look, don’t choose only based on which image seems easiest. Choose something that interests you and that gives you features you would like to experiment with simplifying.

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Allow pairs to review the portrait-format inspiration collection. Collection can be shared digitally as a slide show or paper copies per table group.

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You can also choose from these wider, landscape-format artworks. Some contain people, some contain buildings or environments, and some are already more abstract. Again, think about the basic question: What are the most important shapes, colors, and relationships that you would want to keep?

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Point out that these options include artists who lived or worked in North Carolina.

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You can begin creating. Remember: work from the big shapes toward smaller details. Keep checking the original, but don’t feel like you have to copy everything. Talk with your partner about the choices you’re making. What should stay? What can go? What shape could represent that part? And remember to record the first five steps of your process as you work.

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Decide whether you will play the tutorial video partway of class to help students who are stuck and or share the link. Hint: Tutorial Link While students work, circulate and ask: What is the most important feature of your artwork? What have you chosen to leave out? What shape could represent that part? What did you decide to create first? Would your steps make sense to another artist? Have you changed anything after testing how the pieces looked together? Encourage students to arrange pieces before gluing when useful. For students needing additional spatial support, use the provided hints/examples or allow students to identify shapes directly over a protected copy of the reference artwork. Give a 5-minute warning.

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For students having a hard time getting started you may choose to play this video with or without audio and or share the link to smaller groups. additional Learner variability options might include” One student could cut the paper while the other arranges the pieces. one student could fill out the worksheet as the other pastes the shapes onto the cardstock. Students can work independently to complete the task. Finally, review the additional Learner variability options for students that may need alternative ways to meet the learning goals.

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Before we stop for today, think about the abstraction you just practiced. Would you rather start with a realistic image and simplify it yourself, or start with an image that is already abstract and build from there?Show your choice, then turn to someone near you and explain why. Close with: Today you practiced turning a complicated image into simpler shapes. Next time, you’ll finish your artwork and explain the thinking and process behind it.

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Use the choice as a quick formative discussion. Have pairs store their artwork, remaining pieces, and Co-Create handout together for Day 2.

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Today we’ll finish the geometric artworks you started, think about the choices and computational thinking that helped you create them, and then share your work with other artists.

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Teacher-facing divider slide. Day 2 is designed around Warm Up (5 min), Whole Group Instruction (10 min), Artist Statement/Finishing/Curation (25 min), and Closing (5 min).

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Look at where you left off yesterday. What is one part of your artwork that you think is working well? What is one thing you still need to finish, change, or figure out? Choose one object or figure on the screen and mentally break it into shapes. What would you keep if you could only use five or six shapes? Remember, abstraction asks us to decide what information is most useful for our purpose. Image https://pixabay.com/users/bobyhart-5845589/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2484057 https://beardenfoundation.org/watercolors/

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Today you’ll finish your artwork, complete the reflection on your handout, and prepare to share your piece with other artists.

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Artists often provide a short statement to help viewers understand more about their work. An artist statement explains some combination of what the artist made, how they made it, why they made certain choices, and what they want viewers to understand. It gives us information that we may not be able to get just by looking at the artwork. A useful way to organize an artist statement is around three questions: What did we make? How did we make it? Why did we make these choices? You don’t need to write a long essay. A few clear details can tell viewers a lot about your thinking. Let’s look an example from an artist we looked at yesterday Adam Lister.

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What are we learning about the artists and the artwork they created?

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Invite a student to read this interview about his favorite piece and or use the text to answer one of the questions: What did he make? How did he make it? Why did we make these choices?

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Once you have finished your art with shapes, you will draft your artist's statement. This statement will also include one way you used computational thinking. Maybe you used abstraction when you simplified part of the original artwork. Maybe you used pattern recognition when you noticed and repeated certain shapes or colors. Or maybe you used debugging when you tested an arrangement, decided it wasn’t working, and changed it. Use the sentence starters on your handout if they help you explain your computational thinking.

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To help you use the language of computational thinking see our sentence starters. If you have been filling out this page while you work then your artist statement has already been started!

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Point students to the sentence stems on the Co-Create handout: We used abstraction by simplifying… The most important part is…because… We noticed a pattern of… We improved our artwork by testing and changing…

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Continue working with your partner. Finish your artwork first, then complete the remaining parts of your handout. As you write, be specific about the choices you actually made rather than trying to find a “correct” answer.

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Circulate and support students with both artwork and reflection. Prompt with: What did you simplify? What did you decide was essential? Did your process change from your original algorithm? Where did you notice a pattern? What did you test or change? What would you want someone viewing your piece to notice? Each student should also be prepared to share something they learned, discovered, or felt while making the piece, as requested on the handout.

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As you finish, make sure someone looking at your work can understand three things: which artwork inspired you, what choices you made when you simplified it, and one computational thinking skill that helped you create it. You and your partner should both be prepared to talk about the artwork.

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Now we’re going to share our work as artists. When another pair shares, your job is to look closely and listen for the choices behind the artwork, not just decide whether you like it. As you share your own piece, tell your group which artwork inspired you and one important decision or computational thinking skill you used.

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Choose a sharing structure based on available time and student readiness. If students are finishing at different rates, Pair-share squared allows for the most flexibility. See slide 30 Pair Share: Match each pair with another pair. Each group shares the artwork and two ideas from its artist statement. Art Curation: Bring 3–4 pairs together. Ask them to organize their artworks based on a shared feature such as color, subject, type of abstraction, repeated shape, or composition. Have groups explain why they arranged the works that way. Both options are identified in the lesson plan.

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Across this expedition, we learned that artmaking and programming have more in common than they might seem. Artists and programmers both use abstraction to focus on important information. They both work through sequences of steps. They recognize patterns, test ideas, and make changes when something doesn’t work as intended. Today you brought those ideas together by turning an existing artwork into a new representation using your own materials, choices, and process.

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We’ll finish the expedition with a short Pit Stop.Remember, a Pit Stop isn’t graded. It’s a quick opportunity to reflect on what you understand and help us see which ideas we may need to revisit.

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Distribute or provide access to the Expedition 2 Pit Stop. Have students complete it independently.