Character Collage: Deconstruction

   

***UPDATE: I just added my worksheet for this lesson to my Teachers pay Teachers store! I made it slightly more generic to fit the needs of the teachers who were requesting it - hope you like it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists

This project was based on the series by Thom Pastrano called "The Streets," (see it here http://symbolsociety.bigcartel.com/artist/thom-pastrano) which I discovered over at Shine Brite Zamorano ( http://zamoranoarts.blogspot.com/2012/05/visit-to-street.html) last year - I have been anxiously awaiting the time when I could work it in to my 4th grade curriculum, and here it is! I am proud to say that most of my kids knew who the Sesame Street characters were - I wouldn't be the person I am today without PBS! (change of subject - anybody know why Blogger won't let me select phrases anymore to make a link? I'm having to insert the whole thing!)
Let me begin by saying... this one was much harder than I expected! We started out by defining the terms "realistic, abstract, and nonobjective" and looking at some examples of abstract art that used deconstruction, or taking the pieces apart and putting them back together in a new way - a challenge that many artists find very refreshing and meaningful. We even had a mini-LA lesson as we deconstructed the word "deconstruction" and found the root word and talked about the prefixes de- and re-. Confused yet? :)

An example of deconstruction and reorganization by Swiss artist Ursus Wehrli 

Here comes the fun part - students selected their favorite animated characters and researched them using technology. We made a planning page with thumbnails of these characters in deconstructed and reconstructed forms, and then selected the best one for our collages.

 

 

The collage step sent a few of us over the edge, as stated in their critiques - although some students really enjoyed the challenge, I appreciate it when they tell me they were disappointed they didn't get to draw or make a realistic character. And hey, abstract art isn't for everybody, but we should all understand the intention. I thought collage was the perfect medium for a hard-edge type design, but it was very time consuming and a bit frustrating for those of us not-so-fantastic cutters-and-gluers.  Next year we will definitely do this lesson again, but we may have a drawn alternative. But the good news is... we were showing off some super higher level thinking and even critiqued ourselves and our classmates at the end. One thing I keep remembering and reminding the kids - we have to take chances to get better!!!  Enjoy our deconstructed characters... I think they're great!