Alternative Self Portrait
Alternative �Self-Portrait
Lesson 7
Creating Meaning with Shape
In this lesson, you will discover how shape can convey meaning.
You will need:
Sketching Ideas
Using your drawing paper or your sketchbook, design several shapes that express who you are.
Think about your feelings, your ideas and your character traits.
Create at least five �shapes that express elements of your identity.
Shape Brainstorming
Use these questions as a guide to sketching your shapes:�If you were a shape, what shape would you be?�What kinds of shapes relate to your character traits?�How would you express different elements of your identity in shapes?�Would you consider yourself a hard-edge, angular, or smooth-edge shape?
You might be a different shape in different situations. Consider the following:�When I am at school, I feel like this.�When I am at the ocean, I feel like this.�When I am dancing, I feel like this.�When I am with my family, I feel like this.�When I am playing sports, I feel like this.�When I am happy, I feel like this.�When I am thinking, I feel like this.�When I’m doing what I love, I feel like this.
Shapes
Here are different types of shapes. What might each represent?
Geometric
Symmetrical, or the same on each side.
Organic, which is found in nature
Your Favorite Shape
Select your favorite shape and draw it larger on a new paper. Leave enough paper around the shape to create a negative shape.
With your scissors, �cut along the line you �drew, keeping both the positive and the negative shapes complete.
Follow the line.
Keep positive and negative shape.
Making More of Your Favorite Shape
Take the cut out shape (positive) and trace it several times on different pieces of paper.
Cut out the new shapes.
Be creative with your paper selection!
Trace your favorite shape at least five times.
Try different options.
Making A Collage
Use your knowledge about arranging shapes to create an interesting composition. Your shapes can touch each other, overlap, rotate, be flipped upside down, and be used as positive or negative shapes. Once you are satisfied with your composition, glue the shapes down.
Collage created with personality shapes
Reflection
How does your collage convey your personality?
How did you use repetition in your collage?
Does your arrangement have movement, or is it still? How did you create that feeling?
How would your composition change if you only used the negative shapes?
Would you rather be described in words or in shapes? Why?
Close Looking
Look closely at these two collages by Henri Matisse.
How would you describe �the shapes in each collage?
What do you notice �about how the shapes �are arranged?
What feelings do these different arrangements convey to you?
Henri Matisse, Lagoon (Le Lagon) from Jazz, �1947, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Henri Matisse, �The Cowboy �(Le Cow-boy), �from Jazz, 1947, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Remote Arts Learning Partnership
Module One �
Studio in a School NYC Team
Julie Applebaum, Senior Director
Remote Arts Learning Partnership Project DIrector
Writing Team Project Team
Anne-Marie McIntyre Josef Zutelgte Belinda Blum Nicola Giardina Paul Urevitch
Jamie Powell Andrea Burgay Katherine Huala
Graphic Design
Don Giordano
NYC Department of Education OASP Team
Karen Rosner, Director of Visual Arts
Amber Lodman, Arts Program Manager Kaitlin Trammell, Remote Arts Learning Partnership Project Coordinator
NYC Department of Education Visual Arts Teacher Team
Maria Bonilla Susan Bricker Amie Robinson Lara Tyson
These educational materials were created through a partnership with Studio in a School NYC and The New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Projects (OASP) and made possible by the generosity of The New York Community Trust.
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