Title of Lesson: Rule of Thirds, Contemporary Artists, and Portraits

Teacher: Alethea & Jess

School: Centennial High School

Grade Level[s]: 9-12th

Date to be Taught: Thursday, October 19th 2017

Big Idea that drives Lesson/Unit:

This class is moving towards a big portrait project. In the past their final works tend to have the point of
focus in the center, and a flat application of paint. By looking at contemporary portrait artists, we hope to
train their eyes to seek out better compositions and more creative ways to apply paint to canvas.
Composition can change the way an entire artwork is viewed. Composition controls how the eye moves
through a piece, what the eye looks at first, and what is emphasized.

Fine Arts Goals Met by the Objectives: (ISBE standards)

VA:Cr3.1.II: Engage in constructive critique with peers, then reflect on, reengage, revisit, and
refine works of art and design in response to personal artistic vision.
VA:Cn10.1.II: Utilize inquiry methods of observation, research, and experimentation to explore
unfamiliar subjects through art making.
VA:Re9.2.II: Determine the relevance of criteria used by others to evaluate a work of art or
collection of works.
VA:Cr2.1.II: Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of
skills and knowledge in a chosen art form.

Vocabulary Acquisition:
Composition: an arrangement of visual elements in a painting or other artwork
Rule of thirds: the guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine
equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that
important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections;
proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension,
energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject (Wikipedia)
Emphasis: used to make certain parts of an artwork stand out; it creates the center of interest or
focal point; it is the place in which an artist draws your eye to first
Balance: a distribution of visual weight on either side of the vertical axis
Symmetrical balance uses the same characteristics
Asymmetrical balance uses different but equally weighted features
Radial symmetry is a balance in which the parts of an object or picture are regularly
arranged and radiate from a central point
Key Artistic Concepts:
Rule of Thirds grid
Reimagine an artwork with its composition in the middle using the rule of thirds technique
Sketch of new composition

Artmaking Materials Needed:

25 pencils
25 papers
5 different artworks with poor composition

Contemporary/Historical/Multicultural/Literature exemplars:
Kehinde Wiley: New York based portrait painter who creates bright, detailed, and patterned
backgrounds with realistic foreground figures.
Cristina Troufa: Portuguese artist working with oil pastels, paint, and ink who creates self
reflective portraits using detailed color in areas of emphasis.
Shaun Ferguson: Oil and Acrylic portrait painter from the United Kingdom focusing on the
relationship between subject matter and painterly considerations.
Emma Amos: Postmodernist African American painter and printmaker. She combines african
textiles and other mixed media along with her paintings.
Andrew Salgado: Canadian artist working in London through large-scale works of portraiture that
incorporate elements of abstraction and symbolic meaning.

Procedures: (50 minutes)

DISCUSSION: ( 15 minutes)
Schedule [Agenda]
Composition handout: elements, forms, and examples
Google Slide Presentation about Contemporary Artists and Composition
Link to slide presentation:
{https://docs.google.com/a/illinois.edu/presentation/d/1Mo5QP7RVN6uPvlU2y6nFbVB0
JoE28JhqMJTrk3IGdrY/edit?usp=sharing}
DEMONSTRATIONS: ( 5 minutes)
Teacher Demonstration
Teacher will take paper, measure out a rule of thirds grid with ruler and pencil at
the front of the classroom. Students will stay in their seats because there are too
many students to gather around the front table.
Teacher will choose one of the printed artworks where the subject is positioned in
the center of the canvas, which demonstrates a poor composition.
Teacher will draw with pencil the main focus of the artwork at one of the grids
intersection points on their own paper.
Teacher will briefly add a background to the composition
Show teacher made exemplars
DESIGN/WORK SESSION: ( 20 minutes)
Students will make the rule of thirds grid on their papers
 Teachers will be walking around to help any students who do not understand how to

create the grid
Students will choose an artwork reference with simple composition that they want to
transform
Students will sketch the new composition with pencil only
CLEAN UP: ( 5 minutes)
Put papers away safely to be worked on next Tuesday.
Put away pencils
Clean up area
CLOSURE: ( 5 minute)
How has this lesson made you think differently about composition?
Do you find the rule of thirds helpful? Will you use it in future projects?
 Title of Lesson: Painting with Palette Knives

Teacher: Alethea & Jess

School: Centennial High School

Grade Level[s]: 9-12th

Date to be Taught: Tuesday, October 24th 2017

Big Idea that drives Lesson/Unit:

Many students are nervous about applying too much paint to their canvas and want their application to be
uniform, smooth, and flat. Looking through contemporary artists and how they apply paint to canvas in
many different creative ways will hopefully inspire new ways of application. Students will experiment
with a new way of adding paint to a canvas without any brushes. These students have never used palette
knives before.

Fine Arts Goals Met by the Objectives:

VA:Cn10.1.II: Utilize inquiry methods of observation, research, and experimentation to explore
unfamiliar subjects through art making.
VA:Cr2.1.II: Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of
skills and knowledge in a chosen art form.
VA:Cr1:2:II: Choose from a range of materials and methods of traditional and contemporary
artistic practices to plan works of art and design.

Vocabulary Acquisition:
Composition: an arrangement of visual elements in a painting or other artwork
Rule of thirds: the guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal
parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that
important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections;
proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension,
energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject (Wikipedia)
Palette knife: a thin steel blade with a handle for mixing colors or applying or removing paint
Impasto: the process or technique of laying on paint or pigment thickly so that it stands out from a
surface

Key Artistic Concepts:

Acrylic palette knife techniques
New composition painting

Artmaking Materials Needed:

Acrylic Paint
25 palette knives
 25 palettes (they already have)
Paper Towels

Contemporary/Historical/Multicultural/Literature exemplars:
Kehinde Wiley: New York based portrait painter who creates bright, detailed, and patterned
backgrounds with realistic foreground figures.
Cristina Troufa: Portuguese artist working with oil pastels, paint, and ink who creates self
reflective portraits using detailed color in areas of emphasis.
Shaun Ferguson: Oil and Acrylic portrait painter from the United Kingdom focusing on the
relationship between subject matter and painterly considerations.
Emma Amos: Postmodernist African American painter and printmaker. She combines african
textiles and other mixed media along with her paintings.
Andrew Salgado: Canadian artist working in London through large-scale works of portraiture that
incorporate elements of abstraction and symbolic meaning.

Procedures: (50 minutes)

DISCUSSION: ( 5 minutes)
Agenda for the day
Google slides, same presentation as before but talk about how the artists apply paint
instead of how they address their composition.
Talk about how the artists possibly utilized a palette knife in applying paint in each of
their paintings
DEMONSTRATIONS: ( 5 minutes)
Teacher Demonstration
Teacher will show how to mix colors using palette knife
Teacher will show how to apply paint to canvas using palette knife
Layering paint, and mixing colors directly on the canvas will also be
demonstrated.
Show teacher made exemplars
DESIGN/WORK SESSION: (30 minutes)
Students will be working on top of their new composition sketches from last class
They will be turning these sketches into paintings by applying paint with their palette
knifes using the techniques taught in teacher demonstration
This will be a good chance to play with the materials and see what is possible
Since this is a side project from their normal class they will be encouraged to focus on
technique and not rush to finish
CLEAN UP: ( 5 minutes)
Clean up paint, palettes, water cups.
Put papers on drying rack.
Wash down area if necessary.
Put all belongings away in classroom art locker.
CLOSURE: ( 5 minute)
How did it feel to work with a palette knife?
 What are some other ways you could apply paint to a canvas that you have not thought of
before?
Do you prefer this method of paint application to that watercolors you were previously
working with? Why?