Post on 15-Mar-2018
Rico Lebrun, born Italy, 1900; died United States, 1964. Seated Clown, 1941. Ink and wash. SBMA
Exploring the Elements of Art: Rico Lebrun Inspired Self-Portraits Portraying Attitude and Emotion through Posture, Expression, Color, and Line
Note to Viewers:
This presentation includes several terms from the lexicon of artists – words they use frequently when thinking or talking about art.
These words are color-coded in the presentation, and described in the glossary at the end of the lesson.
Grades: K-‐12
Subject: Visual Arts
Time required: Three sessions
Lesson Objec+ves:
• Students will learn about the ar?st Rico Lebrun by viewing the SBMA provided presenta?on (PDF).
• Students will explore expressing aOtude through the crea?on of a self-‐portrait.
• Students will learn how posture can reveal emo?ons, and how contour lines and color choices / shading can portray mood, movement, and message.
Materials for Ink and Chalk Project • SBMA provided Rico Lebrun Presentation (PDF) or SBMA provided jpeg image of Rico Lebrun painting
• Pencils
• Black marking pens (medium to fine)
• India ink and old or inexpensive paint brushes (or squirt bottles with tempera paint for very young students)
• Small disposable cups for ink
• Chalk pastels
• Digital camera
• Printer and copy paper
• Art paper that will accept ink and pastel (watercolor paper)
• Tape (masking or scotch)
• Optional: Pastel spray fixative and art eraser
• Black construction paper for mounting prints
Teacher Prepara+on
• Print or project SBMA provided reproduc?on of Rico Lebrun’s Seated Clown
• Gather materials
• Create your own prototype
Discussion Review SBMA provided presenta?on (PDF) with students, or share SBMA provided image of Seated Clown.
While viewing the work of art, ask:
• What’s going on in this portrait? Who is the subject? How is he feeling? What is his “aOtude?” Why do you say that? What specific descrip?ve words come to mind?
• What is it about his posture that conveys his aOtude? Be specific in describing his facial expressions, body posi?on, etc.
• What different kinds of lines do you see? How would you describe them? What do they convey to the viewer?
• What about colors? How many do you see? How many places in the pain?ng do these colors appear? Are they warm or cool tones?
• Where do you see Lights, Mediums and Darks? What colors do you see in the background? How would you describe the black background sec?ons? What effect is created by sec?oning the background? Where are the lightest lights? The medium tones? How are various shades and tones achieved by the ar?st?
Ac+vity Instruc+on
Note: This lesson sequence invites students to explore line, shape, value, and shading under the influence of Rico Lebrun.
As they discover the contour lines that define their own bodies, they will be crea?ng an outer “shell” that encases their personality and spirit. This ar_ul explora?on will help students express and project an aOtude to the viewer.
The accompanying presenta?on (PDF) of Rico Lebrun’s life includes several more pieces of art for students to view and think about as they create their original self-‐portraits.
Strike a pose for your students. Choose a posture and expression that conveys “aOtude.”
Consider these two photographs of Itoko Maeno, the SBMA teaching ar?st who developed this lesson.
How are they similar? Different? What emo?ons do they each portray?
No?ce how Itoko is standing.
What is she doing with her hand?
Compare and contrast Itoko’s photograph to Lebrun’s Seated Clown.
How are the images similar? How are they different?
Where is Itoko’s gaze directed? Is she looking at the viewer? Is she in profile? How much of her face is visible?
What does Itoko’s clenched fist tell us? What does her posture reveal?
Take digital photographs of your students. As they strike their poses, talk to them about the power of their expressions, stances, and body posi?ons. Encourage the
students to imagine they are sculptures, frozen in space and ?me, and yet conveying emo?on and personality.
What emo?ons are portrayed in these student photographs? Do they have ATTITUDE? This completes Session One.
Teacher Prepara?on for Session Two:
Download the images and print the student photographs onto lightweight copy paper.
Session Two (Instruc?on): Distribute printed photographs and black markers to the students. Demonstrate how to follow and define the contour lines (edges) of the
shapes within the face and body. This is not simple tracing. Students are discovering, crea?ng, and highligh?ng shapes.
Some lines are thick, and some are thin.
Folds in clothing and skin creases are selected and defined by lines.
No?ce how Itoko blocks together sec?ons of her hair in the bangs across her forehead, and finds dark shapes within her ears.
Aeer students have drawn lines around and within the contours of their faces and bodies, turn the photographs over.
The lines created by the black markers will be clearly visible on the reverse side of their photo pages. The distrac?on of any exis?ng background in the photograph has disappeared.
The shading in the photograph is gone, and now students will decide for themselves where to ar_ully add shadows and highlights.
But first, demonstrate to students how they can transfer their self-portraits to watercolor paper.
The thicker paper will accept the India ink without wrinkling, and add texture to the chalk shading the students will add later in this instructional sequence.
Tape the top edges of the copy paper and watercolor paper together. The blank watercolor paper should cover the copy paper with the outline drawing.
Hold the papers up to a light source (a bright window works well).
Lightly trace over the lines with a pencil.
If the watercolor paper is larger than the copy paper, show students how to extend the traced lines to the edges of the watercolor paper (so the lines go “off the page”). Remove the tape from the top of the the two papers.
Collect materials and papers. This is the end of the second session of this project.
Session Three: Begin by distributing blank scrap paper, inexpensive brushes, and small containers of India ink.
Explain to the students that soon they will brush over the traced lines on the watercolor paper with the ink.
But first, they will practice brushstrokes.
Demonstrate to the students how they can control the thickness of the brushed lines by applying more or less pressure as they touch the
paintbrush to the watercolor paper.
“Loading” the brush with more ink will produce a fluid line.
A dry brush stroke (less ink) will create a more textured line with a distinctive edge.
Give the students time to experiment with making a variety of thick and thin lines. Also encourage them try the dry brush technique.
Dry brush strokes
Have students notice how Rico Lebrun used a variety of thick and thin
lines in his art work.
Some lines are “sketchy” and suggest motion,
even though the clown is seated.
Now the students are ready to begin brushing on the India ink over the lines of their self-portraits. Distribute the watercolor papers (with the pencil sketches)
completed in the last session.
Demonstrate how to follow a continuous contour line.
Note how Itoko defined shapes within her face, hair, and clothing.
Blocked shape
Clothing folds
Simplified ear and nose shapes
How will the artist add the finger lines
to her clenched fist?
Itoko clenched her fist again, and noted the
lines between her fingers.
Then she painted in realistic finger lines within the outer
edges of her hands.
By looking at Rico Lebrun’s Seated Clown one more time, students will discover what they need to add next:
• selected background and interior color
• shading throughout the piece
Notice the colors Lebrun chose for the Seated Clown.
He used three warm tones: terra cotta, peach, and warm gray.
Have the students select a few warm or cool colors from a set of chalk pastels to use in their self-‐portraits.
Demonstrate how to use the edge of the pastel to lightly add color within the contours of the body. Some of the white background should show through the pastel shading. But first, consider the
LIGHT SOURCE. In this image, the light is shining on the subject from the left, so the shading is to the right.
Students can use more than one color as they add shadows.
In her self-‐portrait, Itoko shaded in two or three warm tones (reds and
browns).
She used her finger to blend the warm colors in
certain areas.
No?ce how she painted in the black background.
It is irregular, and does not go straight across
the pain?ng.
The contrast between the black background (toward
the bofom of the piece) and the light background (the top
por?on) is striking.
Itoko added depth and dimension to her self-‐portrait by shading in sec?ons of the white
background.
If students find they have over-shaded areas of the self-portrait, they can add highlights later. If the teacher and/or students choose to add this step, spray the nearly completed portraits with a pastel fixative. Let them dry. (Spray outdoors
or in a well-ventilated room when the students are not present.)
Students can use an eraser to lightly remove some of the chalk. The spray fixative will prevent smearing, but the students can remove some of the chalk to add lighter or white highlights. It is important that there are light, medium, and
dark tones within the body shading.
Note where this artist has used all three values in her self-portrait.
Lighter highlight
Lighter highlight
Here are two completed self-portraits. How are they similar and different? Look at color choices, the black areas in the backgrounds, and the differences in the use of white space. Both portraits reveal the artist’s attitude. The amount of added color and shading affects the mood of the piece. The student artists
can decide for themselves when their portraits are complete.
Samples of Student Artwork from the SBMA Homework Art
Program
Paintings Inspired by Rico
Lebrun’s Seated Clown
A message to teachers from Itoko Maeno, SBMA Teaching Ar?st
I believe this is a good art project for students because it gives them a space to let their emoBons out, and they learn that it is really OK to project “aGtude” – they do not always have a chance to do that in school. They can be quiet, thoughLul, outrageous, bold, confident – it is totally up to them!
This sequence is a process of discovery for the students. They make many arBsBc choices as they create their self-‐portraits.
In terms of art technique, this whole lesson is about tools and materials. The students learn how to make choices: they discover what effect shading will produce, what will happen when some white paper shows through the chalk pastel, and the different effects of thick and thin lines when they paint it onto the paper using ink. Contour lines can show movement, even though they are frozen in Bme and space on the paper.
Art is an inner dialogue. Each students will hear his/her own voice and it will come through in the self-‐portrait. This is what inspires me, and I hope it will inspire you and your students.
Options
•Using the same initial photograph, students can create several different self-portraits by altering color choices, backgrounds, and line weights.
•Each student may create his or her own series, or the class may create a group series.
• Students can “try out” the attitudes of their classmates by assuming the stances and postures they observe in the completed self-portraits.
Glossary of Terms
AOtude: 1. a mental state involving beliefs, feelings, and/or values and disposi?ons to act in certain ways. She had the aGtude that creaBng art is a joy. 2. posi?on or arrangement of the body. He assumed an aGtude of confidence. 3. A theatrical pose created for effect. The actress struck just the right aGtude for portraying the Queen.
Background: the part of a picture or pafern that appears to be in the distance or behind the most important part.
Contour Lines: the outer or exterior edges of objects.
Depth and Dimension: the richness and strength of a color, and/or the ar?s?c quality of appearing to be convincing and lifelike.
Dry Brush: a pain?ng technique in which a paint brush that is rela?vely dry, but s?ll holds paint, is used.
Highlights: a very light area in a pain?ng or photograph that provides contrast, illumina?on, or the appearance of illumina?on.
Light Source: the direc?on the is coming from in a picture or pain?ng.
Line Weights: different thicknesses of lines.
Loading the Brush: Filling the brush with water or liquid pigment so the brushstroke will flow easily and evenly across the paper.
Glossary of Terms (con+nued)
Posture: 1. the way in which somebody holds his or her body, especially when standing 2. a body posi?on that a person can assume, e.g. standing, siOng, kneeling, or lying down 3. a physical pose that demonstrates a mental or emo?onal aOtude.
Self-‐Portrait: a pain?ng, drawing, photograph, sculpture or other representa?on created by an ar?st of him/herself, especially of his/her face.
Shading: darkened areas in a picture.
Stance: an aOtude toward something, or the way a person or animal stands.
Value: the lightness or darkness of a color. Values oeen include light, medium, and dark tones.
Collec?on Connec?ons from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
These portraits and self-portraits from the museum’s collection may inspire you as you experiment with the art techniques
demonstrated in this lesson.
What attitude is portrayed in each painting? How have the artists captured emotion?
What attitude does the subject’s posture project to the viewer? What single word comes to mind as you view each painting?
What do you see that makes you say that?
Amable Louis Claude Pagnest, Portrait of Madame Forster
Henri Ma?sse, Head of a Woman (Lydia Delectorskaya), Number II, ca. 1937
Henri Ma?sse, Head of a Woman (Lydia Delectorskaya), Number I, 1937
Edgar Degas, Ballet Dancer ResBng, ca. 1900-‐1905
Henri Matisse, Madame de Pompadour, 1951
Percy Wyndham Lewis, Portrait of Olivia Shakespear, 1920
Marc Chagall, Young Girl in Pursuit, c. 1927-‐28
Hung Liu, A Third World, 1993
Ernest Ange Duez, Woman in Grey on Board Ship, Gazing at the Sea, 1873
Jules Bas?en-‐Lepage, The Ripened Wheat (Les Bles Murs), 1884
John Singleton Copley, Lieutenant Joshua Winslow, 1755
William Merrif Chase, Lydia Field Emmet, 1900
David Alfaro Siqueiros, detail from Portrait of Present Day Mexico, 1932
Bo Bartlef, Heartland
James Strombotne, Morning Coffee
David Alfaro Siqueiros, El Esteta en El Drama (The Aesthete in Drama), 1944
Helen Lundeberg, Portrait