I saw a project on Pinterest that was for an art club chalk project, where the students had an entire day to create large scale drawings in chalk of famous artworks. I decided that I wanted to challenge my 7th graders and give them a little bit of art history by having them do something similar.
To begin the assignment I decided to select various Artists that had bright colors, bold designs, and would be challenging yet do-able for students in chalk. I created a project where each of the students had to research one of the Artists that I decided on, they included Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Romero Britto, James Rizzi, and Peter Max.
I gave each student a worksheet that had the Artist’s name and one of the Artist’s artwork, that I selected and printed out in color for them. The worksheet had several questions to answer about the Artist and the Artwork. Once they completed the worksheet, they had to do a practice drawing in full color before they moved out doors for the assignment. I had them practice in full color so that if anything were to happen while they were working on their final design outside I could still give them a grade for their work!
We went over the grid technique and how to enlarge drawings using that technique. Once they understood that process they were sent outdoors. They created their grids on the sidewalk with white chalk so they could go over them with the other colors better.
I had them working on the project over several days so students would have to hope the weather held out and that no one trampled their work. They worked hard on their outside pieces and it added a great element to the school. Many people saw them in process and loved how they added color and design around the building! I loved the final pieces and so did the students!
Here is a post to my Artsonia gallery of this project: http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=975627
