On black background, made by a student of grade 5
You need:
- black or white drawing sheet A3 size
- colored construction paper, 5 colors for each student
- glue
- black tempera paint
- small brush
- liquid water color paint for background
Karel Appel (1921-2006) was a Dutch expressionistic painter and sculptor, famous as one of the founders of the CoBrA movement. CoBrA stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
CoBrA artists were inspired by children's drawings and the art of mentally disturbed.
Tell your students about abstract and figurative art. Show abstract and figurative artworks and ask which word belongs to them.
Then view some of Karel Appel's works: Little Boy, Some people together, Blue faced beast and Saarbrücken (Google pictures). Are these figurative or abstract? Put your hand on the eyes of the painting. Is the artwork still figurative? Students will discover the Appel's art is very close to abstract.
When we see Karel Appel, we discover:
- large surfaces
- bright colors
- a few colors
- thick black lines
Students tear (using two thumbs and two fingers, show well how they have to tear) organic shapes from the construction paper. It's absolutely not the intention to tear a human of animal. The shapes have to be 'just like that'. Some students will smuggle a little bit and stick an eye somewhere. Then squeeze an eye :) but do not accept clearly laid human figures.
When they have torn enough pieces, students make a composition of the shapes and paste them on the black or white sheet. The pieces may also be stuck over or on top of each other. Then the most exciting part of this lesson: what do I see in my collage? Ask a classmate to keep your work up. What do you see? Turn the work 90 degrees, and again and again. Do you see an animal or a human?
Use black paint and a thin brush to draw lines on your artwork so that your human of animal is also visible to others. Not too much lines, there must be some guesswork too!
On a painted backgrond, made by student of grade 5
