Performance Task on Personal Still Life Painting

  1. We will look at a slide show on still-life paintings done in the Cubistic style (Picasso, Braque). Observe carefully how the surfaces of three-dimensional objects have been broken up and now consist of flat surfaces. Pay attention to the application of design principles and colors. After that, I will do a demonstration of a sketching and painting of a still life in the Cubistic style. Finally, I will explain and post the rubric on this project.
  2. A large table will be placed in the front and the back of the class where you can set up a still-life with objects from home and from teacher’s collection. This set-up may stay for the duration of the painting.
  1. Draw two different sketches of the still-life set-up in your sketchbook, being careful of the design, paying attention to the positive and negative shapes.
  1. Once the sketches are done, show to the teacher to get a feedback, and to decide which one to use for the painting after making necessary modifications to the sketch.
  1. Transfer the final sketch to a large sheet of 22” x 28”.
  1. Decide on a color scheme. Remember that you can use two primary colors, and their mixtures, plus their tints and shades. As you decide on the color scheme, think about how you feel toward the chosen objects as this will guide you to a specific color scheme. Ask yourself: do you want warm or cool colors for your objects?
  1. Mix colors and paint. As you paint, ask yourself how the colors would help achieve balance, variety, emphasis, and harmony to the overall design.
  1. Once the painting is done, write a one-page summary on why certain objects were chosen, and why a specific color scheme was chosen and how you incorporated the design principles. You will be giving an oral presentation to the class with the painting. Refer the Rubric.

Description and Analysis of Personal Still-life Painting

My students are in a high school in the Bay Area, coming from a diverse background, both socioeconomically and ethnically. While some have had an introduction to art through a painting class or two either in the junior high or outside of the school, many have not yet taken any painting class. This is an introductory art class, Art 1. The concept of art elements and the principles of design are new concepts that they have learned this year. In this unit on colors, the students thus far have been exposed to how colors are omnipresent and affect our every day life from viewing slide shows, books, and cultural objects. They have constructed a color wheel and learned to mix colors to create new colors. In this project, the students will incorporate all these knowledge and skills to paint a still life using objects that were personally chosen and arranged by them, using a color-scheme chosen by them. Here they will express their feelings about their personal objects through colors chosen and mixed by them. After learning about the relationship among colors, the students are ready to apply their knowledge and paint. Because they will be painting in the Cubistic style, the colors in each area will be applied homogeneously, that is flatly, without having to vary in value to show volume. This is a good way to concentrate on colors only without having to be concerned about color modulation to render the object realistic. In addition, they will gain an appreciation on the Cubistic style of painting, which played a major role in modern art history.

This task involves an authentic assessment of their performance, encouraging creativity, originality, sense of aesthetics, and critical thinking (p.241, Nitko). It requires critical thinking because they need to consider design principles and the effect of colors to make a cohesive painting. Abstract thinking is required as they think about how different colors impart different feelings, how juxtaposing different colors create different effect. They will learn as they paint. A quiz or a test could not possibly assess this learning process; it will only test the static knowledge they have gained. Even though the evaluation of this project is a summative assessment, in fact, there is much formative self-evaluation occurring as they progress through the project. The whole process is a learning experience, during which they integrate knowledge, while developing skills (p. 254, Nitko).

Because this is a new and challenging step for them, I plan to include many visual aids and modeling/demonstration as well as individual coaching/consultation during the class to scaffold the learning process. The slide show at the beginning will provide them visual images of what they will do. Then, I will give a demonstration from an actual still-life set-up on how to go about creating a sketch that incorporates good design principles, and apply paints. I will explain about the rubric so they understand what are the important aspects of this project. Throughout the project, I will be walking around to provide feedback and individual help. I will post examples of cubistic still life on the wall, as well as the rubric. When it comes time to write and present their work orally, I may do a demonstration on oral presentation if the students request it. For English learners, I will provide individual help for the writing and oral presentation. For the shy students, I will allow them to present their work privately with me.

This project is aligned with the California standards and objectives. Mainly, there are three areas of concern. Students incorporate good design principles and accurate color scheme with enough variety of colors to make a visually interesting painting. The students will apply the design principles both to the sketching and painting process. The students will think about how colors can be used to express their feelings as they choose a specific color scheme and mix specific colors to paint. Finally, students’ written work and oral presentation of their work will be assessed for inclusion and clear description of why certain objects were chosen and how the chosen colors reflect their feelings toward the objects, and how the design principles have been incorporated in the painting. The table of specification in Attachment 1 provides details on how the content standards, objectives are connected to the task components.

In a performance assessment on projects such as this, the only way to assess their work reliably is through a rubric. It is reliable because the expectations are clearly spelled out and thus students have a clear understanding of them regardless of what periods they take the class over the duration of the project of about six days. The evaluation includes not only the final product, itself composed of two parts, design and color, but also the writing and oral presentation where the students will explain their thinking process, thus evaluating their work. For each step, the rubric will list specific things that are expected. The rubric also provides a way of standardization because every student does the same activities within the same period of time. And the rubrics will specify what the important items that need to be included for the work for how much credit. The rubric helps provide validity to assessment by specifying how the tasks included are consistent with the standards and objectives. The final product represents students’ own genuine efforts over several days in which they apply their knowledge and skills. In addition, the summative evaluation includes more than one single performance. The students will provide a written and oral presentation in which they reveal their thought process in clear language. Because the scoring is based on specific criteria, the evaluation minimizes subjectivity and ensures validity (p.6, Bond). Finally, this evaluation is practical because all of the items in the assessment are a part of the students’ work/activities during class time. I can do the scoring of the oral presentation in situ. The scoring of the painting and the written work should not take an extraordinary amount of time, when guidelines set in the rubric are followed.

The Rubric for this assignment is in Attachment 2. Of the three categories, I assigned equal weight on the three categories of the evaluation. But, since the work has two categories, it has twice the weight of the presentation. This is appropriate since the painting is the core of the project and students will spend the major portion of time making the sketches and painting, incorporating the design principles and color scheme. The presentation, both written and oral, provides them a chance to express their thought process through words. This is an important exercise not only in art class but also transferable to other content areas. I intend to keep this throughout the course and the students have already done this exercise in previous projects in this class. The process requires reflection on their work and helps them think about elements of art, and in addition, provides practice on expressing themselves clearly. It thus deserves the equal weight to the other creative aspect of this work.

The performance response/result from this assignment will guide me in deciding on the next lesson. If the students did not show a good understanding of the colors, about mixing a chosen set of colors and placing them in such a way to show a variety, emphasis, and balance of hues, I will include another lesson on color painting, but this time in another style; I will introduce them to works of the Fauvist painters, such as Matisse. This will provide an interesting continuity of art history lesson. They can choose a photograph of the nature start with, and paint it in another color scheme.

If the majority of student shows a good understanding of color mixing and application of color concepts, as well as a design principles, I am going to ask them to paint another still life, but this time use the colors to show volume, so as to make a painting that is more realistic. This will require them to mix and apply colors that have more subtle shades, and they need to think about light and shade in addition to the design and colors. This is where the tints and shades of colors will play a bigger role. This will be the final project for the color unit.

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Attachment 1

Table of Specification[r1]

Standards

/

Objectives

/ Rubric Specifications
Design: the principles of design, balance, emphasis, and variety, and harmony are reflected in the work. / Color Handling: colors used have been mixed from the two primary colors chosen. A variety of colors have been used with good contrast in hue and value. / Presentation: students will write about the objects included in the painting and explain how the chosen colors reflect how they feel about the objects. They will explain how they incorporated design principles to their work.
1.4 Analyze and describe how the elements of art and the principles of design contributes to the expressive qualities of their own works of art. / SWBAT:
  • Apply principles of design to the sketches and painting.
/  / 
2.4 Develop skill in mixing paints and showing color relationship. / SWBAT:
  • Mix two primary colors plus black and white, to produce a variety of colors.
/ 
2.7 Create a series of works of art that express a personal statement demonstrating skill in applying the elements of art and the principles of design /
  • Create a work that express their feeling by choosing a color scheme and a design with sound design principles.
/  / 
4.1 Explain the intent of a personal work of art and draw possible parallels between it and the work of a recognized artist. /
  • Describe the personal nature of this work through the choice of objects and colors.
/ 

Principles of Design applicable to this project: balance, variety, emphasis, and harmony

Attachment 2

Rubricon Still-life Painting

Novice / Apprentice / Proficient / Distinguished
Design:
Does the painting show incorporation of design principles such as unity, balance, emphasis, and harmony? / Design does not show balance, variety, emphasis, and harmony.
(2 points) / Some design principles have been incorporated, but lack in more than one area.
(4 points) / Design reflects application of most of the principles, but could use more practice or refinement.
(6 points) / Design reflects clear and refined application of design principles.
(8 points)
Color Handling:
Colors used have been mixed from the two primary colors chosen. A variety of colors have been used with balance, emphasis, variety, and harmony. / Colors used do not show they have been made from two primary colors.
(2 points) / Colors have been mixed from the two primary colors chosen. But, a more variety of colors could be used.
(4 points) / Colors have been mixed from the two primary colors chosen. A variety of colors have been used, but the color arrangement needs more work to achieve emphasis, balance, and harmony.
(6 points) / Colors have been mixed from the two chosen primary colors, and show variety. Color arrangement achieves emphasis, balance, and harmony.
(8 points)
Presentation:Students will write about the objects included in the painting and explain how the chosen colors reflect how they feel about the objects. They will describe how the design principles have been incorporated in the work. / The writing and oral presentation include reasons for choosing either the objects or the color scheme, but not both. No mention of the design principles.
(2 points) / The writing and oral presentation include reasons for both why the objects and color scheme were chosen. No reference to the design principles.
(4 points) / The writing and oral presentation include clear reasons for choosing the objects, and colors. The design principles are mentioned but could use more clear descriptions.
(6 points) / The writing and oral presentation show clear and descriptive reasons for choosing the objects and the color scheme. The description of how design principles have been applied is clear.
(8 points)

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[r1]PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TOS IS NOT FORMATTED CORRECTLY USING THIS YEAR’S TOS TEMPLATE FOR PERFORMANCE TASKS