Description

Inspired by Keith Haring's line, these middle school students from Texas created very colorful art filled with all different kinds of line.

Objective

Students will learn how to identify, discuss, and create various kinds of lines.

Students will have the opportunity to view reproductions of art and discuss them within the classroom setting.

Students will focus on filling the entire paper in an effort to complete a full composition.

Resources

Slides from museums of well-known paintings
HaringKids.com
Keith Haring's books

Keith Haring Documentary
341A | Drawing the Line: A Portrait of Keith Haring | VHS Tape | $20.00
-Call Pop Shop, 212.219.2784-

Materials

12" x 18" White paper (preferably for painting)
8" x 10" White paper (drawing)
Tempera cake paints
Watercolor paints
Colored markers
Colored pencils
Brushes of various sizes
Painting supplies

Procedure

CLASS 1
Show the video documentary of Keith Haring- "Drawing the Line". Then show slides and reproductions of art from books. Discuss the video and the reproductions- identify line, color, composition, content of work...

CLASS 2
Have children draw a figure or group of figures on smaller paper. Have students create lines inside and outside of the figure(s) that go in different directions and don't touch each other or the figure(s). Remind them of their line possibilities- angled, curved, straight, squiggly, nervous, energized, thick, think...

CLASS 3
Now that students have had the opportunity to understand and depict various kinds of lines they may go on to their final part of the project. Have each child choose an animal/a group of animals and/or figure/a group of figures. Challenge them to make one large and one small or to create a group of them in a pattern. Hand out larger paper for them to draw on. Remind them to make the animals and/or figures as large as they can so that they fill the entire paper.

CLASS 4-5
Set up paint and have students spend some time mixing their own colors on palettes. Remind them about primary and secondary colors and how to control the density and dispersion of paint on a brush with water or lack thereof. Discuss different size and shape brushes and how they are to be used. Once students feel secure with this knowledge, hand out their large-scale drawings and allow them to fill all of the empty spaces of their drawing with colored lines using paint. Once the paint dries, they can add outlines, dots, dashes and stripes with additional paint or colored pencils and/or colored markers.

CLASS 6
Have a partner hold up the work and stand back from the artist so that they may see their work from a distance. Many times, when working with the detail of line, images can appear to be very different from far away. Discuss this issue and ask students if they see any areas they would like to work on a little more. Provide them with this opportunity.

Questions

Hang up the work in a secluded hallway or empty room. Ask the children to walk through the art gallery and choose their favorite. In composition books, they can write an "Art Assessment" page, writing about what they see, feel, and know about the art. We should hear about how Keith Haring's work inspired the piece, the creativity involved in making it, and the aspects of line that are present. (a good way to avoid excluding any artwork which doesn't get chosen is to assign students to a piece of work or discuss each one of the works separately as a class).

UPDATED NOTE FROM THE AUTHER:
"These works were created by 6th graders here at Spring Branch Middle School. They used only primary colors with white or black, so, all the colors you see were made by the 'artists'. They first created a 'template' of any shape or object, arranged it on the paper, painted a 'color field' as a base and finally, added the 'Keith Haring lines'."

Extensions

Spring Branch Middle School