Identity Through Name Design

Identity- How Do The Colors Represent Me?

Jose:
The colors I chose for my Name Design artwork are purple and green.  Green shows that I am natural.  I know this because I don't drink or smoke or do drugs. Plus, my Grandmother had a chart explaining what each color meant.  Purple shows that I am extreme.  I believe this is true because one day I jumped from a roof into a trampoline and I was wearing purple which was ironic.

This is a lesson that's been around awhile but I have tweaked it by adding what I call The Identity Card which I feel adds so much more meaning to the work.  That's what you read above.  I love to see them think about "why" they chose a certain color.  It helps them understand themselves better as artists, gives meaning to their work, and helps them see it in a completely new light.  

Process:

• Discuss positive and negative space in artwork. 
• Section your paper into about 14 sections or so and in each section write a letter of your name or a number of the year you were born.  I have them do this lightly so the lines will not show.
• Color in the negative space in chosen color.
• Color in the positive space in another color.  
• (I actually let them vary the colors of positive or negative space so long as I know they understand the concept.)  I also tell them they can choose 1-3 colors.

Mask/Armour- If You Can Dream It, You Can Make It!

These masks/armour pieces were done by my 5th grade boys. I started off by telling them they were going to design some type of armour  (of course this instantly got their attention!) but they could not copy anything from a game, movie, etc.     There design could be for the past, present or future and it had to show all or most of the parts of a suit or armour.  To help them with this I gave them a few handouts that I found  here,  here, and here.  After their designs were complete I told them they were now going to make the head piece  they had drawn. If you look at the pictures, you can see  the ideas came straight from a drawing because most of them are missing  a back panel.   I showed them how to do a basic head band mask and they had to go from there.  Yes, there were many doubts as to their ability to make this happen!  I could only assure them that it was possible and encouraged them to try and fail, try and fail, try something else, and one of those times...it would work!  Voila!

This Week in Art...

Untitled from Gabriela Elizalde on Vimeo.