Silhouette Lesson Plan

Teacher: Rob Smith

Grade Level: Middle School

Title: Shaping Meaning Silhouette

Brief History and Background:

A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. The term was initially applied in the 18th century to portraits or other pictorial representations cut from thin black card.

The term has been extended to describe the sight or image of a person, object or scene that is backlit, and appears dark against a lighter background. Because a silhouette emphasises the outline, the word has also been used in the fields of fashion and fitness to describe the shape of a person's body or the shape created by wearing clothing of a particular style or period.

Silhouette images may be created in any artistic media, but the tradition of cutting portraits from black card has continued into the 21st century.

The word silhouette is an eponym of Etienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister who in 1759 was forced by France's severe credit crisis during the Seven Years War to impose severe economic demands upon the French people, particularly the wealthy.[1] Because de Silhouette enjoyed making cut paper portraits, his name became synonymous with these portraits and with anything done or made cheaply. Prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance.

Kara Walker's silhouette images work to bridge unfinished folklore in the South, raising identity and gender issues for African American women in particular. However, because of her confrontational approach to the topic, Walker's artwork is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's during the 1960s. Warhol had a strong influence on Walker's work. Her nightmarish yet fantastical images incorporate a cinematic feel. Walker uses images from historical textbooks to show how African American slaves were depicted during Antebellum South.

Standards:

9.1.8.A – Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities. Visual Arts: Color Form Shape Line Space Texture Value

9.1.8.F – Explain works of others within each art form through performance or exhibition.

9.3.8.B – Compare and contrast informed individual opinions about the meaning of works in the arts to others.

Goal: To create a silhouette.

Objectives:

• Students will understand the meaning and uses of silhouettes in past and present art.
• Students will demonstrate ability to create a silhouette through collage.
• Students will affectively display their knowledge of critique and vocabulary through assessment.

Resource Materials/Visual Aides: Silhouette images. Look for images from Karl Johnson, Lena Karpinksy, and especially Kara Walker for her use of silhouette imagery to illustrate black history. Walker is known to be the youngest winner of the Macarthur Genius Grant for her controversial cutout silhouettes.

Kara Walker:

http://tang.skidmore.edu/documents/images/h-n/kara_walker_002_lg.jpg

Karl Johnson:

http://www.cutarts.com/catalog.php?item=47&catid=3&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D3

Lena Karpinsky:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/lena%20karpinsky%20silhouettes/decorative-artworks/lena-karpinsky/207/20761_1.jpg

Supplies/Materials: Photographs (Students’ or Teachers’), Magazines, Sharpie Markers/Black Paint, Scissors, Glue.

Teacher Preparation: Have an exemplar made of a silhouette on a landscape. Have students bring in photographs if they like.

Teaching

Introduction: Ask students if they know what silhouette means. Can they name things in modern society that use silhouettes? Who has made a silhouette? Can anyone name any famous silhouettes? Show Mickey Mouse.

Directions:

1. Find images to use as your silhouette and background in photographs and magazines. Remember that the subjects will be blacked out, and stand out more when the background is bright.
2. Use scissors to cut out the subjects.
3. Trace these images on white paper to create a visual maquette.
4. Plan your final image.
5. Use the sharpie or paint to completely black out the subject cutouts.
6. Paste the subjects on your background to create the silhouette.

Critique/Evaluation/Assessment:

Put up the students work. Have them comment on themes and ideas that they see. What do they like and why? What could be improved upon?

Time Budget: 45 Min Classes

Class 1: Introduction - 12 Minutes

Distribution - 3 Minutes

Working Time - 20 Minutes

Cleanup - 10 Minutes

Class 2: Maqette examples - 5 Minutes

Distribution - 3 Minutes

Working Time - 30 Minutes

Cleanup - 8 Minutes

Class 3: Assessment

Vocabulary:

Silhouette - the outline of a body viewed as circumscribing a mass.

Collage - an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface.

Positive Space – The part of the picture plane that occupies the subject.

Negative Space - The part of the picture plane that does not occupy the subject.

Civil Rights - Rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and certain Congressional acts, esp. as applied to an individual or a minority group.

Prejudice - Unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

Discrimination - Treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.

Safety Concerns: Scissors are sharp.

Bibliography/References:

“Homage to Edward Gorey, the Dark and Light Side of Silhouettes”. The Well Educated

Pony. http://educatedpony.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/homage-to-edward-gorey-the-dark-and-light-side-of-silhouettes/

"Art By Lena." Ed. Lena's Fine Art. Web.

http://www.artbylena.com/original-painting/20458/rain-silhouettes.html

"Cut Arts." Ed. Julie Tomlin. Web.

http://www.cutarts.com/

“Timeline results for silhouette images”.

http://www.google.com/#q=silhouette+images+history&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&tbo=p&tbs=tl:1,tll:1759,tlh:1759&ei=w7DcSp_zN82llAfmz7ihAQ&oi=toolbelt_timeline_result&resnum=1&ct=timeline-date&ved=0CCIQzQEwAA&fp=a69ab4f64e682ea3