In November 2021, I instructed a portraiture unit for a group of 23 fifth graders at Nelson Mandela Grundschule in Berlin. The unit started with grids and basic facial proportions, continued with charcoal self portraits using a mirror as a guide, went into exploring contemporary artist Julian Opie’s work with abstraction, and concluded with an exploration of their own cartoon abstraction style.
Julian Opie Lesson Workflow
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Students use Sharpie/Edding markers to trace their facial features in Opie's style. The marker bleeds through the thin printer paper and the linework appears on the backside. Then, the drawing is photocopied onto thicker watercolor paper and painted before applying finishing linework.
Finished 5th Grade Work
In Progress and Student Reflections
Student's first attempt & final drawing
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Experimenting with color
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Line quality improvement
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Student's visual journal assignment page
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Informal reflection from a student's visual journal
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Iterations
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Reflections:
This particular day was unique and expanded my learning about how flexible teachers have to be. The lesson was on a teacher strike day so only a quarter of the teachers attended school and only 10 of my 23 students attended school that day. So, I changed my lesson plan format completely and instead of working frontally with a document camera and a projector, I moved all the students around one big table and taught the lesson that way.
I realised how in my lesson plans, students don’t always need to insert their own creative touch into their work, especially under the age of 16. In fact, they oftentimes don't even want to themselves. During this lesson, we drew exactly like Julian Opie did and the students were so excited to try it. Generally speaking, students first need a groundwork of craftsmanship before they are able to work in their own style. Especially with these 11 year old students, they are more concerned with if their art looks “good” and well crafted than if their art looks unique.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important for students to also exercise their creativity; it is the cornerstone of arts education. In the next lesson, they will explore making their own abstracted character.
By the end of the lesson, I told a student that their art is done incorrectly which is a total taboo in the university setting/contemporary art world. In art school, telling someone their art is done incorrectly seems to be the unforgivable sin. But, given the student’s age and goal of the project (learning to draw like Julian Opie) there is room for telling students that their work can be improved. In fact, we had great success even with group critique. One of the main jobs of an art teacher is to teach a skill and assess the learning. Not every student can be given an A+ for craft, some need to learn the hard way and work on improving.
I learned how obvious it is when a lesson has gone on too long, especially if the children are younger. They will stir around in their seats, stop making eye contact, and start fiddling with other things. During this lesson, I quickly ended my demonstration, pointed out some last minute important information, then told them if they had any more questions, they can ask me individually. The class size was so small that day (10 kids) that individual questions were no problem.
If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Students needed multiple class days and at least 4 photocopies of their faces to understand exactly Opie's style of linework. Iteration is key in this project. If I were to do it again, I would arrange their photos 4 to a page and give each student 2 copies. Then, they have 8 portraits to iterate with and paper waste would be cut down considerably.
And, I've overall learned the importance of giving the students a crown to grow into. If a high expectation, or a crown, is set above a student's head, they will rise to the occasion and grow into it. But, if a student isn't challenged, they can never grow. Telling students they had to re-do their work and pointing out their shortcomings wasn't pleasant, but they were so happy about their results. They all walked out of the art room having accomplished a project they were proud of. I'd say that's a job well done.
I realised how in my lesson plans, students don’t always need to insert their own creative touch into their work, especially under the age of 16. In fact, they oftentimes don't even want to themselves. During this lesson, we drew exactly like Julian Opie did and the students were so excited to try it. Generally speaking, students first need a groundwork of craftsmanship before they are able to work in their own style. Especially with these 11 year old students, they are more concerned with if their art looks “good” and well crafted than if their art looks unique.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important for students to also exercise their creativity; it is the cornerstone of arts education. In the next lesson, they will explore making their own abstracted character.
By the end of the lesson, I told a student that their art is done incorrectly which is a total taboo in the university setting/contemporary art world. In art school, telling someone their art is done incorrectly seems to be the unforgivable sin. But, given the student’s age and goal of the project (learning to draw like Julian Opie) there is room for telling students that their work can be improved. In fact, we had great success even with group critique. One of the main jobs of an art teacher is to teach a skill and assess the learning. Not every student can be given an A+ for craft, some need to learn the hard way and work on improving.
I learned how obvious it is when a lesson has gone on too long, especially if the children are younger. They will stir around in their seats, stop making eye contact, and start fiddling with other things. During this lesson, I quickly ended my demonstration, pointed out some last minute important information, then told them if they had any more questions, they can ask me individually. The class size was so small that day (10 kids) that individual questions were no problem.
If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Students needed multiple class days and at least 4 photocopies of their faces to understand exactly Opie's style of linework. Iteration is key in this project. If I were to do it again, I would arrange their photos 4 to a page and give each student 2 copies. Then, they have 8 portraits to iterate with and paper waste would be cut down considerably.
And, I've overall learned the importance of giving the students a crown to grow into. If a high expectation, or a crown, is set above a student's head, they will rise to the occasion and grow into it. But, if a student isn't challenged, they can never grow. Telling students they had to re-do their work and pointing out their shortcomings wasn't pleasant, but they were so happy about their results. They all walked out of the art room having accomplished a project they were proud of. I'd say that's a job well done.
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Julian Opie Introductory Lesson Video
Small group of 10 fifth graders sitting together at one big table during my student teaching semester.
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Timestamps:
0:00-3:30: Discussion of Visual Journal Assignment
3:30-22:30: Examination of Julian Opie's abstraction style 23:00-24:00: Introduction to the project 24:00-29:00: Demonstration of the project 29:00-33:00: Good/bad example discussion 33:00-38:00: Encouragement/refocusing/answering questions during art making 38:00-42:00: Thinking on the fly/guiding students on how to learn from their mistakes 42:00-1:25:00: Guiding artmaking when needed 1:25:00-1:30:00: Packing/wrapping up |