Middle School

Artwork by Araceli V., grade seven.

The Essential Question
How can traditional and nontraditional art be combined to create a new work of art?

Objective
Students will combine traditional and nontraditional artforms to create a self-portrait.

Materials
polystyrene foam, etching tools, printmaking plates, ink, brayers, 9 x 12" (23 x 30 cm) print paper, Chromebooks or laptops, free photo-editing software such as Pixlr

Procedures
1. Introduce students to the work of contemporary artist Bisa Butler. Discuss how she uses the traditional artform of quilt-making, to create large-scale portraits.
2. Students use printmaking materials to create a print of a simple or complex pattern. This print will be used as the background for their digital portrait.
3. Students gather free stock photos and take a selfie to incorporate into their digital portrait.
4. In Pixlr or similar photo-editing software, students first remove the background of their portrait, then create a new project as an 8 x 11" (20 x 28 cm) print. They will need three layers to complete their portrait. First, students take a picture of their print, then crop and insert it as the first layer into Pixlr. Next, they create a new layer and insert their stock photos. Students create the final layer and insert their selfie.
5. Students change the tonal value of their selfie using Posterize under the Adjustments tab. Students also change the color saturation using Hue/Saturation under the Adjustments tab. Once the layers are complete, students flatten their image and save it as a JPG.

Assessment
Students write a reflection of the process they used to complete their portraits.

Karen Colbert is an art teacher at D.A. Hulcy STEAM Middle School in Dallas, Texas.