Social issue Silhouette

Kara Walker is an amazing artist, unfortunately, not very appropriate for Middle School students.  My colleague and I have wanted to try a K. Walker project for some time but were always too scarred. We decided to show some examples of Bansky and one 2 PG rated Kara Walker projects. Students had to express a point of view relating to a social issue (They chose from a PG list of social issues, some of the heavy ones were edited out). They were only allowed to use silhouette. We also discussed classical composition strategies leading up to this project. Students had to generate their own imagery although the last painting is done from the child's head. These were painted on watercolor paper with flat tempera paint.  

Environmental destruction

Video game violence 

homelessness 

Racism 

Black white grid portraits

These gorgeous portraits dreamed by Ms. Power are simple and effective. Students manipulated their photo in the PS Touch app for iPad by adjusting the threshhold which reduces it to the black and white image. Students then printed out the picture and using a grid, enlarged the portrait to a 16x22. Students then used black acrylic paint to paint the black values. 

Supplies:

16x22 watercolor paper

Black acrylic paint and brushes

Pencil

Ruler ( we cut poster board strips in 1 inch and 2 inch stripes)

Print out of manipulated picture