Fantasy Landscapes: A Giant Just Stepped into My World draft: 2/5/08

Performance Task and Assessment – Grade 5

Task description:

Students will explore imaginary imagery and its various interpretations through discussion, collaborative analysis, and writing about famous works of art as well as their own artwork. Students will create a mixed media landscape using fantasy images and symbols to depict personal expression.

Enduring understanding:

  1. Throughout history,artists have used fantasy imageryto create expressive landscapes.
  2. Throughout time, artists have used a variety of media, design elements and principles, and personal symbolismin their landscapes.

Essential questions:

  1. Why do artists create imaginary landscapes?
  2. How do artists use media, design elements and principles and their personal style to incorporate personal symbolism in their landscapes?

Content Standards:

Connecticut Visual Art Content Standard #1: Students will understand, select and apply media, techniques and processes.

Connecticut Visual Art Content Standard #2: Students will understand and apply elements and organizational principles of art.

Connecticut Visual Art Content Standard #3: Students will consider, select, and apply a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas.

Connecticut Visual Art Content Standard #4: Students will understand the visual arts in relation to history and culture.

Connecticut Visual Art Content Standard #5: Students will reflect upon, describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate their own and others’ work.

Objectives:

Students will compare and contrast, reflect upon, and analyze works of art, identifying media, design elementsprinciples, cultural content, symbolic meaning, and expressive qualities.

Students will demonstrate application of the elements of color, line, shape, value, and use of space to develop original works of art.

Students will demonstrate application of the principles of balance (symmetry/asymmetry), atmospheric perspective, proportion, and emphasis in their work.

Students will incorporate personal, cultural, and historic symbols that enrich or support the communication of their ideas.

Students will write a paragraph explaining their choice of color for self-expression and use of symbolism in their own work.

Materials: 9”x12” white drawing paper, colored pencils, graphite pencils, erasers, mirrors

Resources: Compare and contrast Henri Rousseau’s Tiger in Topical Stormand Salvador Dali’s Persistence ofMemory

Handout on how to create space

Teacher handout for discussion purposes, to identify and explain types of color scheme, color symbolism, balance,
Planning sheet

Venn Diagram

Learning Plan:

Day 1 –

Teacher leads discussion about Henri RousseauTiger in Tropical Storm(describing, analyzing, interpreting, and judging); discussion will include artist’s use of emphasis, symbolism and/or fantasy imagery, and use of color scheme to support expressive quality. Artist’s use of proportion, balance and pattern; space, value, color scheme and line is discussed.

Day 2 –

Teacher presents the project: A Giant Just Stepped into My World and describes the taskcriteria: to create a fantasy environment that involves the use of expressive color schemes with the use of overlapping and atmospheric space(fore, middle and background),imaginary animals, and/ or buildings and people, and the shoe of the giant who is about to step into this environment. The teacher leads a brainstorming session to canvas ideas, creating a master list of students’ suggestions for possible environments, animals, buildings, people etc. A separate list is created for ideas of what the giant’s show might possibly look like.

The teacher demonstrates and discusses how the images would look in a composition either froman ant or bird’s perspective. Concepts of emphasis and color schemes are also discussed at this time.

Students use preliminary planning sheets to choose the environment, imagery, design the giant’s shoe, and pick an expressive color scheme. Students to practice developing 2 thumbnail sketches using both symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions along with the task criteria.

Day 3 –

The teacher demonstrates the media and allows a brief period of time for students to make color and media choices.

Students will complete preliminary planning sheet to indicate choices of color scheme, type of balance to be used, Point of view, and a rationale for each item listed.

Students will choose one of their sketches (day 2) to enlarge for their final landscape.

Days 4-7–

Students will participate in a formative critique of preliminary sketches. Teacher leads discussion of use emphasis, correct proportions, use of balance, use of space, and color schemes. Students may make adjustments to their sketches based on feedback from critique.

Students should choose sketch that shows task criteria, and adheres to their choices made on planning sheet (balance, color, etc.)

Students will enlarge their sketch and transfer to vellum drawing paper 12”x18”.

Students should be encouraged to activate the composition by using one element to create emphasis (e.g., the giant’s shoe and/or animal etc.)to include imagery in the foreground, middle and background in order to create a sense of space, and implement an expressive an color scheme by using mixed media. All negative space/background areas should be completed in color (either with marker, watercolor or crayon).

Day 8–

Students will reflect on and write a paragraph that describes their choices made for color schemes, and balance etc; students identify successful areas of their work, areas that need improvement and how they were influenced by the selected master art works.